Inglewood's rise from stadium town to media capital took another step this week.

From acquisition to address

ESPN is consolidating its Los Angeles operations at Hollywood Park, the 300-acre Inglewood development anchored by SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles Times reported. The move builds on ESPN's roughly $3 billion acquisition of NFL Network, NFL RedZone and NFL Fantasy from the league, a deal that closed in February and handed the NFL a stake in ESPN.

With that deal came the keys to the NFL's purpose-built Los Angeles broadcast complex at Hollywood Park — a seven-story campus that opened in September 2021, steps from the SoFi tunnel. NFL Media staff formally became Disney and ESPN employees on April 1, Front Office Sports reported.

A facility built for live TV

The building is among the most modern in sports television, with multiple production stages, control rooms and edit suites and a large main studio used for NFL Network's flagship programs. Shows including "Good Morning Football," "Total Access" and NFL RedZone have continued production there under ESPN, Front Office Sports reported — though the company has signaled that layoffs are likely this summer as overlapping East and West Coast roles are consolidated and some programming shifts toward ESPN's new streaming service.

Inglewood, remade

ESPN's arrival lands amid a broader concentration of media investment along the corridor. A short distance away, developer Stan Kroenke is building Hollywood Park Studios, a production campus set to serve as the International Broadcast Center for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics before converting to film and television use, NBC Los Angeles reported. Its first phase spans about 12 acres, with five soundstages and an office building.

The venues around it are already booked for the Games. SoFi Stadium is set to co-host the 2028 Opening Ceremony with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and to stage Olympic swimming, while the nearby Intuit Dome, the Clippers' arena, will host basketball.

A bet paying off

For a city that spent years fighting to land the NFL and betting a stadium would draw more, the returns keep arriving. Hollywood Park now holds a major network's LA operations, a future Olympic broadcast hub, entertainment venues and thousands of homes. ESPN's decision to base itself there — purpose-built infrastructure a parking lot away from marquee Olympic sites — gives that bet a further measure of permanence. Inglewood, once defined by the Forum and the Rams' return, is fast becoming the production heart of the 2028 Games.