My Bleacher Report colleague, John Fennelly, recently wrote an article about the NFL being conspicuously absent from Los Angeles.
Since the Rams and Raiders left town the city has made no progress in replacing either of them. There are a number of reasons why:
1) You Can't Fight City Hall
The main obstacle in bringing professional football back to Los Angeles has been the Coliseum Commission. Since the L.A. Coliseum is owned by the city, it will always be the only option local government will get behind. There is just too much money involved for city hall to either give up or get behind another bid.
The problem is that the Coliseum is a dump. It is not one of those old buildings with charm, like Wrigley Field.
Art Modell, the late owner of the Baltimore Ravens, once said about the L.A. Coliseum, "Trying to put a new dress on an old hooker is not the way I want to go dancing."
Philip Anshutz, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Kings and Staples Center, tried unsuccessfully to build a stadium in Downtown L.A. to help lure an expansion team. When he saw what obstacles city hall was planning on putting in his way, he quickly backed down.
Until either an ownership group is willing to foot the bill for the construction of a stadium on top of the billion dollar expansion fee without counting on tax-payer money, the thought of professional football returning to Los Angeles is a long-shot.
2) The NFL Has 32 Teams
This is a bigger deal than most people realize. When the Cleveland Browns returned to the NFL, the league had 31 teams. Having an odd number of teams meant that one team did not play the first week of the season and another team did not play the last week of the season.
Opening day in the NFL is a national holiday. Giving one team the day off excludes their fans from participating.
That is not nearly as important to the NFL as giving a team the week off in Week 17. What if that team is a wild-card team? Is it fair to the division winner they would play on Wild Card Weekend that their opponent had a bye the week before?
During the 2001 season the league gave the opening week bye to the Cardinals and the week 17 bye to San Diego. The Cardinals were coming off of a 3-13 season the year before while the Chargers were 1-15. I do not think it is a coincidence that those were the two teams.
There is more parity in the NFL these days so there is a greater risk involved in giving a bad team from the previous year that last week bye. It is no longer uncommon to see a team go from 3-13 one year to 11-5 the next.
The NFL is probably more interested in having Los Angeles enter the league with another team to prevent this from happening. The problem is that there are not any obvious nominees for the league's 34th franchise.
7 comments Last one added 8 months ago — Leave a Comment
John Fennelly about 1 year ago
Did you write this because of me?
Edit Comment Cancel
Jack de Lowe about 1 year ago
It is clear that the very successful program at USC which averages 92,000 per home game is one of the causes of there being no NFL team in LA. But one must remember that LA is the only city in the U.S. that sports 2 major sports programs. Although not as successful, UCLA is still drawing substantial crowds and this too would have to inhibit any potential investors in a LA pro football franchise.
Edit Comment Cancel
Anonymous about 1 year ago
Carpet baggers have no shame,Al Davis will return to L.A. Then die.
Edit Comment Cancel
Andrew Ungvari about 1 year ago
It's funny you say that. The city of Pasadena passed an ordinance to explore trying to lure an NFL team to the Rose Bowl. There was one stipulation--any team EXCEPT the Raiders.
Edit Comment Cancel
Anonymous about 1 year ago
"L.A. and Athens are the only cities to ever host two Olympiads."
Uh, no...London hosted them in 1908 and 1948 and will again in 2012. Paris hosted them in 1900 and 1924.
The Coliseum was the first stadium to be used for two Olympics. The 1896 Athens stadium was refurbished for the 2004 games but was only used for the archery competition and the finish of the men's and women's marathons.
Edit Comment Cancel
Andrew Ungvari about 1 year ago
I regret the error.
Edit Comment Cancel
matt msmmsmskd 8 months ago
Well done. Makes sense to me now!
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.