LA Starts the Year with Blockbuster News
POSTED JANUARY 18, 2017 / CALIFORNIA MEETINGS & EVENTS
We’re only a couple of weeks into 2017, and already there’s tons of good news to celebrate in Los Angeles. (Some of it, however, comes at the expense of other great California cities.) The Chargers announced that they would be relocating from San Diego to LA beginning with the 2017 NFL season. Just 12 months earlier, the Rams had returned to Los Angeles after 20 years in St. Louis. And, so, after more than 20 years without an NFL team, LA suddenly has two.
The City of Angels will also be the setting for Star Wars creator George Lucas’ $1-billion Museum of Narrative Art. LA had vied with both Chicago and San Francisco to host the museum, which will house the filmmaker’s sprawling collection of fine and popular art, including Star Wars and Hollywood memorabilia.
The futuristic 275,000-square-foot George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will join the Natural History Museum, The California African American Museum and the California Science Center—home to the Space Shuttle Endeavor—in LA’s Exposition Park. Groundbreaking is set to begin by the end of the year with a targeted opening date of 2021.
It will only increase LA’s already very strong appeal as a destination for leisure and business travelers. Last year, according to newly released figures from the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, the city welcomed 47.3 million visitors. That not only surpassed midyear forecasts, it broke visitation records for the sixth consecutive year.
"Tourism is booming in Los Angeles, and it's helping to drive our whole city's economy forward," says Mayor Eric Garcetti. "My goal is to welcome 50 million tourists to our city by 2020, and new attractions like the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will have even more people from around the world lining up to come to LA."