The former CEO of Ticketmaster, who said he could live with being called “an asshole” during his run, has now taken up the case to stop a subway line through his upscale Los Angeles neighborhood.
Fred Rosen, 80, ran the ticketing giant from 1982 to 1998 and became a villain to artists and fans alike. He noted that “you can’t build a business without pissing someone off.” ‘They don’t understand who they are dealing with. OK?’
Since 2015, he has become active in his Bel Air neighborhood, where he previously tried to stop the construction of mega-mansions by developers including Mohamed Hadid.
Now he has turned his ire on a project known as the Sepulveda Transit Corridora subway line scheduled to open within the next twenty years that would connect the San Fernando Valley below the wealthiest part of the city to a line starting in Santa Monica.
Fred Rosen (pictured center), 80, ran the ticket giant from 1982 to 1998 and became a villain to artists and fans alike. He noted that ‘you can’t build a business without pissing someone off’
Now he has turned his ire on a project known as the Sepulveda Transit Corridor, a subway line scheduled to open within the next twenty years that would connect the San Fernando Valley below the wealthiest part of the city with a line starting in Santa Monica.
Metro, Los Angeles County’s transportation authority, would run the system, which irritates Rosen, who calls Metro “dying, brain dead, incompetent.”
“When I first came to this city forty years ago, you told people you lived in Los Angeles and it was cool, right?” he says. “It was the Lakers, it was Randy Newman, it was ‘I Love LA’ And now? Metro fits into this whole dynamic.’
While some of the plans would allow for the construction of a monorail along the 405 Freeway — which Rosen and his group Keep Bel-Air Beautiful support as “the lesser of two evils” — he claims the Metro supports the subway system and wants to start building it in the next few years.
Rosen and his allies are telling it The Hollywood Reporter the project would cause noise pollution, traffic delays during construction and subsurface vibrations when put into use.
Metro officials claim that none of these problems would be a result of the project, but that hasn’t stopped Rosen and his group from threatening a lawsuit against the project.
He says he has raised seven figures from more than 100 donors for the lawsuit through Keep Bel-Air Beautiful and has experience as a lawyer to keep the case moving.
He doesn’t like Metro’s public outreach process — which he says is biased in favor of those who want the subway — and the costs, which Rosen estimates at more than $30 billion.
He also thinks that even at that price, they will likely build inefficiently and not meet their budget.
While some of the plans would allow for the construction of a monorail along the 405 Freeway — which Rosen and his group Keep Bel-Air Beautiful support as “the lesser of two evils” — he claims the Metro supports the subway system and wants to start building it in the next few years
Since 2015, Rosen has become active in his Bel Air neighborhood, where he previously tried to stop developers from building mega-mansions
He says he has raised seven figures for the lawsuit through Keep Bel-Air Beautiful through more than 100 donors and has experience as an attorney to keep the case moving.
“Metro is incompetent,” he says. ‘Everyone knows. If it can’t handle the transportation it already does, why let it build more?”
Many of Rosen’s allies are behind him as he continues his fight.
“He has the support of the community, which he cares about passionately. It’s good to have Fred on our side,” said Seth Rodsky, financier and founder of Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine.
Ultimately, Rosen—whom at least one backer calls “Fearless Fred”—is perfectly seen as the villain.
“You have to face the fact that not everyone is going to like you,” he says.
Metro CEO Sharon Gookin declined to comment on the potential lawsuit, but said, “We are guided by alleviating the needs of the community. Those are the most important considerations.’
Gookin also responded to claims of bias against a metro by pointing to an outreach committee member’s work on the Kuala Lumpur monorail, noting that they have no preference between the two.
Nithya Raman, a city council member who once led Time’s Up Entertainment, supports the subway because it would facilitate one of the highest volumes of travel in America.
Ultimately, Rosen—whom at least one backer calls “Fearless Fred”—is perfectly seen as the villain. “You have to face the fact that not everyone is going to like you,” he says
The Bel-Air area is one of the fanciest in the country
‘If we focus on getting this right, on the speed and reliability of the service and the convenience of the (station) connections – and not on what meets the needs of people who do not use the project – we can bring a lot . of people on this new route,” she said.
Rosen is strongly against the subway system, even saying that “this won’t happen.”
He says his attempts to meet with Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins did not go well and has since started sending her “long, hostile messages” with local titans in the CCs.
Some of his allies include ex-MGM CEO Harry Sloan, former Disney Media Networks co-chairman Anne Sweeney, Mandalay Entertainment head Peter Guber and Sex and the City creator Darren Star.
Standing against him are the likes of Raman, Metro itself, and public transit advocacy groups like the Livable Communities Initiative and Streets For All.
“For someone who claims he cares about being (financially) realistic, Fred is just going to drive up the cost of the project and make it take longer – but he and his cronies aren’t going to stop it,” says Michael Schneider, Streets For the founder of Allen.
“He knows, deep down.”
Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman represents Bel-Air and the Sepulveda Pass and could be the person who decides the fate of this fight.
Some of his allies include ex-MGM CEO Harry Sloan, former Disney Media Networks co-chairman Anne Sweeney (pictured left), Mandalay Entertainment head Peter Guber and Sex and the City creator Darren Star (pictured right)
Democrat Congressman Brad Sherman represents Bel-Air and the Sepulveda Pass and could be the person who decides the fate of this fight
He will have to advocate for federal funds to make the project a reality, whichever is selected.
Currently, Sherman has not publicly committed to a plan until the environmental review is completed, which is scheduled for later in 2024 or 2025.
However, he believes Metro is confident they will win a lawsuit against Rosen and calls Rosen and his supporters short-sighted.
“Bel-Air’s position is, ‘We don’t want to talk about mitigation,’ and says they should instead focus on how to keep the subway tunnels safe and non-disruptive.
County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath is concerned about the cost of both the project and legal bills because she has gone to court with Rosen since Metro is in the red.
“If we’re afraid of lawsuits, we won’t build anything at all,” she says, however.
“Fiscal responsibility, technical feasibility and equitable access to transit must be the measures we take action on.”
While he acknowledges that the monorail would be up to 12 minutes slower, less environmentally friendly and would require transfers, Rosen has made it clear he won’t go quietly.
“Unwaveringly, our desire and course of action is to do what is necessary to protect the citizens of our community,” he wrote in a letter.
He believes he has a better legal team and a better case to defend, and he also has enemies who refuse to believe he can get it done.
‘As long as they underestimate me, I’m happy. Underdogs win. This isn’t just about protecting Bel-Air from Metro anymore. It’s about protecting all of LA.”