For sale: the L.A. Coliseum

If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will soon be for sale, and USC could be a candidate to buy the property, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Coliseum was one of a handful of properties that Schwarzenegger proposed selling in his newest budget, a plan that aims to raise between $600 million and $1 billion to provide relief for the state’s financial crisis.

The proposal is preliminary, as it is uncertain whether legislature to sell the various properties would pass. In light of the failure of all but one of the governor’s May 19 budget proposals, selling the Coliseum may become a more viable option.

USC would be a natural fit to buy the Coliseum if it were to go to sale. Before the school was able to resolve a standoff with the Coliseum Commission last year, it had offered $100 million in exchange for the power to run the Coliseum as it saw fit.

“If that were the only way to ensure the Coliseum would be improved and maintained for its current uses, for the right price the university would have to consider it,” said Kristina Raspe, USC’s associate senior vice president for real estate and asset management, according to The Times.

The proposal has also drawn criticism, however, from politicians who believe that estimates for the national historic landmark are being inflated.

“If anybody thinks that you’re going to get $250 million or $400 million for this property, guess again,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, president of the Coliseum Commission, told the Times. “I’ve got some beachfront property in Nebraska I’d like to interest you in.”