INGLEWOOD – Gerard McCallum II might be the busiest man in Inglewood.

McCallum, an employee at Wilson Meany, a real estate investment and development firm, is the project manager for the $4-billion, 298-acre Hollywood Park redevelopment project.

For the past two weeks, however, McCallum’s primary job has been trying to sell Inglewood voters on placing on the ballot and ultimately passing an initiative that would fold a $2 billion stadium financed by a group that includes St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke into plans approved in 2009 for a 238-acre retail, office and housing development on the site of Hollywood Park.

“Let’s see, I have two of these (public meetings) on Friday, three on Saturday and two on Sunday,” said McCallum after a town hall-style meeting at the Inglewood Police Community Center on Wednesday night.

Since the Hollywood Land Company, a joint venture between the Stockbridge Capital Group and The Kroenke Group, announced its plans last week to a build an 80,000-seat NFL-ready stadium, McCallum has been busy selling the idea in churches, community centers and even living rooms.

“I don’t have a voice anymore,” McCallum said.

Not that an often-heated debate over the prospect of the stadium in this city of 111,542 isn’t already loud enough. Supporters of the stadium and the Hollywood Park redevelopment hail the project as a lifeline to a city that has a 10 percent unemployment rate, nearly twice the state average.

Opponents charge that voter approval of a ballot measure allows Kroenke and the HPLC to avoid environmental reviews and other governmental studies that the HPLC and city officials said could cost the project millions of dollars and years in delays.

Critics of the stadium also complain about what they describe as a lack of transparency by the HPLC and city officials, in particular Mayor James Butts and his staff, and that Inglewood is simply being used as leverage by Kroenke to get a better stadium deal in St. Louis.

“I feel like this is a very extravagant dog-and-pony show in order to get St. Louis to build a stadium,” said Randall D. Fleming, editor of the Morningside Park Chronicle.

NFL senior vice president Eric Grubman met Thursday in St. Louis with former Anheuser Busch president Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz, the co-chairmen of a St. Louis stadium task force created by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a St. Louis official said.

The task force last week revealed plans for a nearly $1-billion, public and privately financed 64,000-seat stadium that would be ready for the 2020 NFL season. Kroenke can opt out of the Rams’ Edward Jones Dome lease because of a “first tier” clause in the lease requires the dome be among the top 25 percent of NFL stadiums, a standard the venue has failed to meet.

While HPLC and Inglewood city officials said both the stadium and the larger Hollywood Park project will be privately funded, the developer will recoup millions in infrastructure costs once certain tax thresholds are met.

The HPLC began circulating petitions last week to get the stadium measure placed on the ballot. The developer has 180 days to secure signatures from at least 15 percent (8,330) of Inglewood’s 55,539 registered voters. The ballot measure could go to the voters as early as June, McCallum and city officials said.

“I think we will get the numbers we need,” said McCallum, who acknowledged even some of the project’s supporters remain cautious

“It’s like it’s too good to be true,” McCallum said. “The notion that a private developer will pay for everything is a really odd notion.”

The project supporters and critics were both vocal during Wednesday’s standing-room-only meeting.

“I’m sick of hearing about what we don’t have, don’t have, don’t have,” said Curtis Mitchell, an Inglewood resident during Wednesday night’s meeting. “Let me tell you the city is ready for this.”

Mitchell said opponents of the project “are not for our city.”

But LeRoy Fisher, a resident of Inglewood for 55 years, said he is standing up for his fellow citizens in opposing the stadium.

“I do oppose it,” Fisher said. “I have many concerns with it. (City officials and the HPLC) are putting one over on the city of Inglewood. … This football stadium would be nothing but a headache for the people who live here.”

Workers have circulated petitions at churches, local restaurants and grocery stores this week. “I was just at Vons and a worker getting signatures said they get $5 for every signature they get,” Fleming said Thursday.

“As is typical, a signature gathering firm is assisting with the effort,” McCallum said in an email Thursday. “Expenditures related to the effort will be disclosed through the normal campaign expense reporting process.”

HPLC workers have also been getting plenty of support from city employees.

“Interested in hearing all about the City of Champions Revitalization Initiative? This Initiative includes plans to build a world-class, energy efficient, NFL-ready stadium alongside the long-planned residential, commercial and entertainment district being developed at Hollywood Park. Among other things, it will create thousands of construction and permanent jobs,” Patricia Patrick, liaison for the police community center wrote in an email to residents of Inglewood’s District 1 encouraging them to attend Wednesday’s meeting.

Upon arriving for the meeting, residents were encouraged by HPLC and city employees to sign the ballot measure petition.

“I’m not signing that thing,” Fisher said, continuing to walk by the petition table. “We don’t want that stuff in Inglewood.”

Contact the writer: sreid@ocregister.com