Out in Studio City, which is in the "valley" part of Los Angeles, there's a place called the Sportsmen's Lodge. It's a hotel and it's a coffee shop and a bar but its main function is as a venue to hold banquets, meetings, weddings, receptions, parties, etc. It's very large and has many rooms of all sizes for such events, and it's known for quaint and lovely surroundings, mediocre service and the worst, most overpriced banquet food you ever tasted.
The place has endured for many years, partly because it's something of an institution and partly because if you need to hold a meeting or a luncheon, there aren't that many other options around. But it also sits on a huge swath of very valuable real estate so there have been constant rumors that someone was going to plow it all under and build a mall or something more lucrative. Thus, people were not surprised to read a series of recent news stories announcing its closure. Here's the lede of one typical one…
Venerable Sportsmen's Lodge closing down
ASSOCIATED PRESS – July 16, 2008
LOS ANGELES — The end is near for the venerable Sportsmen's Lodge, a San Fernando Valley oasis where generations of celebrities and politicians dined and drank among gardens and trout ponds. The 63-year-old Studio City restaurant, bar and banquet hall has lost its lease and will shut down New Year's Eve. Lodge owner and president Patrick Holleran says a nearly yearlong attempt to extend the lease failed.
Pretty straightforward, right? The place is closing…and we have this from an unimpeachable source, the owner of the Sportsmen's Lodge. End of story? Not quite…because here's a story from the same press service and it's dated the same day…
Sportsmen's Lodge to get facelift, new tenant
ASSOCIATED PRESS – July 16, 2008
LOS ANGELES — Extensive renovations are planned for the venerable Sportsmen's Lodge, a San Fernando Valley oasis where generations of celebrities and politicians dined and drank among gardens and trout ponds. Steve Afriat, a spokesman for the property's owner, says the 63-year-old restaurant, bar and banquet hall will undergo renovations after January, when the current tenant's lease expires. The 200-room Sportsmen's Lodge Hotel and Patio Cafe next door is already being renovated.
I dunno what happened here and I'm not sure I care — obviously some dispute between the guy who owns the land and the guy who owns the business and I assume they'll thrash it out. In the meantime, did you ever see a professional news service contradict itself so totally on the same day? And in stories that appear to have been written by the same person?