NFL Media Opens New HQ In 300-Acre District Next To The Most Expensive Stadium Ever Built
On a warm Wednesday afternoon, the NFL celebrated the official opening of its new West Coast base at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, directly next to SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.
The offices will be the headquarters for NFL Media, which is relocating from Culver City, but they are also referred to as the West Coast headquarters of the league.
NFL Media began in 2003 in Culver City and grew from occupying one floor to over 170K SF. At Hollywood Park, the NFL has just over 214K SF of office space and almost 75K SF of studio space and production support space next door to the most expensive NFL stadium ever built — at the center of a 300-acre residential, retail, hospitality and office district.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the opening of the new NFL Media offices, NFL Chief Media and Business Officer Brian Rolapp recalled how, in a league meeting years ago, Rams owner Stan Kroenke laid out an ambitious plan to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles after 20 years without a team.
"At the center of it, always, or at least a big part of it, was this building and the NFL Media operation," Rolapp said.
At the Gensler-designed building, the NFL's new space includes more than 20 conference rooms, five studios, a podcast studio and a Studio-MLA-landscaped terrace overlooking the stadium and what will eventually be the rest of the Hollywood Park development.
The NFL began moving into the offices last week, and about 95% of its LA workforce is in the office in Inglewood now.
Though the new office is the new HQ for NFL Media, it is also the NFL's unofficial West Coast base. A significant portion of the NFL's overall full-time workforce is based in the LA office. In addition to the media arm, there are about 20 nonmedia NFL departments working out of the LA office now, NFL Media Senior Vice President and NFL Los Angeles General Manager David Jurenka told Bisnow. Of the roughly 1,200 full-time employees across all the NFL's offices, about 450 are working out of the LA location.
Despite the growing prominence of the LA office, the nondescript Culver City facility didn't have the appeal or flash of the new location.
"The thought was this could help facilitate all kinds of league business," Jurenka said. "When we're situated 50 yards away from SoFi Stadium, there's a lot of interest in this entertainment district and us being connected to it."
"More and more people want to come work here, they want to think about how they can do business when we're right here," NFL Planning and Culture Vice President Alissa Lieppman told Bisnow. "It's a different draw."
Media has been a big business for the NFL. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that the league had made a number of long-term media deals valued at approximately $100B that would make games available on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime and NBC's Peacock, as well as locking in deals with TV stations.
The NFL occupies most but not all of the 380K SF available in the new seven-story building. Hollywood Park and SoFi Stadium Managing Director Jason Gannon said that Hollywood Park officials are in active negotiations with a number of prospective tenants for the remaining space. Hollywood Park is also planning to add 500K SF of office space, which is in the design phase now.
The rest of the Hollywood Park development is still largely under construction, but opening dates are on the horizon. The first phase of the project's retail is projected to open in the fall of 2022.
Retail tenants will eventually include an upscale Cinépolis movie theater and a brewpub from Three Weavers Brewing Co.'s Lynne Weaver. The retail portion is 35% leased, according to Hollywood Park.
The project's first residential units, 314 apartments, are scheduled to open in the first half of 2022. The planned 300-room hotel isn't yet under construction, nor does it have an opening date.
CORRECTION, SEPT. 14, 12 P.M. PT: A previous version of this story misstated when the retail portion of Hollywood Park will open. It is slated to open in the fall of 2022, not the spring. The story has been updated.
