Why L.A. Still Does Not Have an NFL Team

In 1998, the NFL announced that Cleveland would get the 31st NFL franchise. That left open one spot for either L.A., Houston or Toronto.

In March of 1992, NFL owners had voted 29-2 in favor of giving the 32nd franchise to L.A., if they could put together an acceptable ownership group and stadium proposal by September of that year.

Not one of the prospective ownership groups could satisfy the league and Houston was awarded the franchise by a 29-0 vote. The NFL gave them every opportunity and six months and they still could not figure it out. 

Fennelly wrote in his article that L.A. is no longer a destination for Super Bowls. The reason for that is that only cities with teams are permitted to host Super Bowls.

The city has lost billions in tax revenue that would have come from hotel bed taxes, transportation, airline flights and restaurants.

Since the NFL, for the most part, likes to stage its biggest game in warm-weather cities, Los Angeles would be all but guaranteed to host at least two Super Bowls per decade.

In the past, the NFL has given loans to teams that are used to either build new stadiums or make renovations to existing ones. So if the NFL were willing to promise L.A. three Super Bowls in a ten-year span, the city would have the money to pay back the NFL for the cost of a new stadium.

This is significant, because it would ease the burden on any prospective owner and relieve them of having to come up with both the expansion fee as well as the money to build a new state-of-the-art stadium.

The Raiders and Rams both left after the 1994 season. That means there are 13 year-old kids that have never seen a professional football game played in Los Angeles. Based on the current state of affairs, I do not envision any of them getting that opportunity before they are legally allowed to vote.

Perhaps with the right ownership group and increasing public support, it could happen by the time they are old enough to buy a beer at the stadium's concession stand. 

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