<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">ESPN, the cable television sports giant, expects to dramatically bolster its Southern California presence by building a television and radio production center and an ESPN Zone sports bar and restaurant in the downtown entertainment district that AEG has proposed for a parking lot next to Staples Center. ESPN announced plans for the $100-million, five-story building Thursday, minutes before Los Angeles officials joined AEG executives in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the LA Live sports and entertainment district. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined other speakers in praising AEG's vision for the sports and entertainment complex. Villaraigosa said the development, which will include a 1,000-room hotel, restaurants, retail shops, a 7,100-seat live theater and a 15-screen movie complex, was proof of Los Angeles' being the "creative capital of the country and the entertainment capital of the world." The ESPN facility, when completed in 2009, will produce live and taped programming for the network's growing family of sports channels. The 70,000-square-foot television production facility will include two state-of-the-art, high-definition television studios. ESPN eventually will add West Coast on-air talent and beam broadcasts live from downtown Los Angeles to the rest of the world. "This is a big day for our company," said George Bodenheimer, president of both ESPN Sports and ABC Sports and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks. "An expanded base in Los Angeles will help fuel our overall long-term growth." ESPN has a relatively small presence in Los Angeles, where it operates a regional sales office and a news bureau. ESPN also manages the X Games competitions from an office in Los Angeles and operates an ESPN Zone restaurant in Anaheim. </div> Source
OFF TOPIC** If you are even in the Anaheim area, go to the ESPN zone. For a sports bar, that place is VERY good.
