Frank McCourt's Gondola Project at Dodger Stadium Hits Legal Hurdle

In October 2024, a group calling itself the LA Parks Alliance filed a brief with the California Courts of Appeal, raising a number of concerns with the proposed construction of a gondola route from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.

The project proposed by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, who ran the team into bankruptcy in 2011 and sold the team to Guggenheim Baseball Management the following year, was approved by Los Angeles' Metropolitan Transportation Authority with conditions in 2024.

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The LA Parks Alliance asked the state appellate court to reject Metro's approval of the project. Thursday, the request was granted.

According to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times, the court decision requires Metro to “set aside its certification of the EIR” and “set aside its approval of the project” until a revised environmental impact report can be completed.

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McCourt shares ownership of the Dodger Stadium parking lots with Guggenheim. LA Parks, in its brief, raised concerns that McCourt's company "publicly described its stadium land holdings as a 'current real estate project' after presenting the gondola proposal to Metro," but that the approved Environmental Impact Report "denies foreseeability" of real estate development.

Mostly, however, the formal objections to the gondola project have focused on development in and around LA State Historic Park. Located directly across the 110 Freeway from Dodger Stadium, the park would be the site of an intermediate station, one of three where passengers could board the gondola.

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John Given, an attorney for Los Angeles Parks Alliance, told the appellate panel in February that parkland cannot be used for this purpose.

By contrast, McCourt's company has argued the gondola project will benefit the environment. According to the project's website, the gondola would take 3,000 cars off local roads on Dodger game days and operate year-round, free of fares to riders.

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"Frank founded the gondola company with his son Drew McCourt because he thinks the gondolas are a really great opportunity for urban transportation,” a McCourt spokesperson said in a 2020 interview.

In the same interview, the spokesperson disclosed that McCourt reimbursed Metro for the cost of its environmental impact review.

The original timeline called for the gondola project to be completed by 2028. Now, with the EIR needing to be redrafted, reapproved, and submitted to three additional government entities besides Metro, three years seems wildly unfeasible — if the gondola gets off the ground at all.

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