CARSON, Calif. – Los Angeles Football Club made headlines on Monday with they announced their intentions to build a new 22,000 seat stadium in Exposition Park, but the hoopla barely registered during the LA Galaxy’s training session a day later.
LAFC offered some heady talk about their place in the Los Angeles market, stoking the flames of a potential cross-town rivalry. While Galaxy will not meet LAFC on the field until 2018, but Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena believes that the two teams will be rivals.
“It will be a rivalry but I can’t tell you what kind of rivalry at this point,” Arena said. “I may be in [Hollywood Forever] Cemetery at that point. … It’s absolutely fabulous that we’ll have another team in L.A., the ownership looks great, and competition is good for everybody.”
Forward Alan Gordon offered a different thought.
"It's on them, we're here. We're champions. It's on them to create a rivalry," he said. “They’re going to have to take what we have.”
Rather than discuss the buzz that LAFC generated by their stadium announcement, native Angeleno Jose Villarreal offered a different take on the impact that a new soccer-specific venue will have in Exposition Park.
“It’ll lead to a lot of traffic,” Villarreal said. “That’s the biggest thing that will suck for the fans is the traffic. It’s a nice idea but Galaxy is my home. I’m not worried about it.”
