Support for LAist comes from
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Stay Connected
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen

Share This

News

The proposed Dodger stadium gondola is still alive, despite opposition. Here’s its 7-year history

A digital rendering depicts people in Dodgers attire walking away from a gondola cabin and toward Dodger Stadium in the background.
A concept rendering for the proposed aerial gondola station at Dodger Stadium.
(
Courtesy LA ART
)

With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today during our fall member drive. 

We were all going to soar above downtown L.A. in an aerial gondola of our dreams. Or so it was promised. But with strong community opposition, it’s now seven years later — with no sign of a completion date.

Here’s a short history of the ups and downs of the Dodger stadium gondola:

  • 2004: Boston developer Frank McCourt buys the Dodgers from News Corp.
  • 2012: McCourt's sale of Dodgers to Guggenheim Baseball Management is finalized. Deal includes provision giving McCourt part ownership of parking lots.
  • 2018: Buoyed by vision of reducing traffic at the stadium, McCourt partners with Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies to fund an environmental report and initial design.
  • 2018: The gondola proposal is revealed to the public at a cost of $125 million. It’s envisioned to take five minutes from Union Station to Dodger Stadium and have the capacity to carry 5,000 fans an hour in each direction.
  • 2018: Critics say it’s a vanity project that uses public land for private use and inevitably will use public money.
  • 2021: The Stop the Gondola coalition forms to limit the impact on Union Station, El Pueblo, Chinatown, and the Los Angeles State Historic Park, as well as residents nearby.
  • 2023: Gondola cost estimate balloons to $500 million.
  • 2023: McCourt Global gifts the project to a new entity, Zero Emission Technologies (ZET), which will be responsible for building, financing, and operating the gondola.
  • 2023: The environmental impact report highlights “significant and unavoidable” impacts such as major construction noise and vibration for two years.
  • 2024: The Metro Board approves the project and certifies its environmental impact report.
  • 2024: After a proposed amendment allows the gondola to be built over the 32 acre L.A. State Historic Park green space, residents push back at a public hearing.
  • May 2025: The California Court of Appeals throws out Metro’s approval of the environmental impact report, saying it didn’t address construction noise and failed to consult the state agency that has jurisdiction over the parks. A new environmental impact report now must be created.
  • August 2025:  L.A. City Council unanimously votes to rescind support for Senate Bill 71, unless a provision favoring the gondola’s developer is removed.
Corrected August 20, 2025 at 11:00 AM PDT
The story has been updated to show Stop the Gondola began in 2021.

At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.

But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.

We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.

Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist