10 Reasons Los Angeles Needs an NFL Team

The possible return of the NFL to Los Angeles has been something of a hot topic in the football world since, well, 1994.

That was the year that the Raiders moved back to Oakland and the Rams shipped east to St. Louis.

As fractious and infrequent as talks have typically been to bring a team to the Southland, the perfect storm for getting pro football back on track in LA has picked up a head of steam in recent months.

Between contentious labor negotiations among players and owners, a swath of interested billionaires and struggling franchises, like the San Diego Chargers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, looking to move, it would seem as though the time is nigh for a team to take the plunge back into the Hollywood scene.

That being said, does LA really need a pro football team?

Plenty of Old Rams and Raiders Fans Yearning For a Return

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

13 Nov 1994: Running back Harvey Williams of the Los Angeles Raiders moves the ball during a game against the Los Angeles Rams at the Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim, California. The Raiders won the game, 20-17. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport

As far as the fans are concerned, there is definitely a desire, if not a need, for an NFL team in Los Angeles.

Any trip downtown to a USC game will remind the average spectator of just how many Raiders fans, and some Rams fans, are still around. Though many have channeled their football fanaticism into the Trojans, they are still clearly pained by the departures of their beloved teams some 17 years ago.

As such, bringing an NFL team back to LA would simultaneously soothe these hearts and minds while energizing them to even greater levels of hooliganism.

NFL Can't Afford to Lose Another Generation of Fans

Speaking of fans, a whole generation of football fans in LA has grown up without a local team to root for, which frankly is a travesty.

How is it that the city is going to deprive its young fans of a hometown club to root for?

Should the NFL's absence in LA continue for much longer, the league will have lost out on yet another generation that could have been a lucrative base for the NFL but instead has invested itself in the Lakers and the Dodgers.

Having the NFL Back Would Be a Huge Economic Boost For the City

As for the people at large in Los Angeles, having an NFL team move in would be a boon to the regional economy.

For one, it would provide temporary employment for people to take part in the process of shipping and moving a team and its equipment to the proper location.

Secondly, hundreds more would be put to work in the construction of a new stadium or the refurbishment of an old one, like the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum.

Additionally, an NFL team would bring with it plenty of interested investors—sponsors, advertisers and the like—who would infuse the region, which has struggled in these tough economic times, with more capital and potentially more jobs.

So Many Possible Sites Currently Lay Dormant

Speaking of stadiums, the greater Los Angeles area has so many sites just yearning to be inhabited by an NFL team.

The Rose Bowl and the Coliseum would be perfect sites for teams to return to, if only temporarily due to the inability of each stadium's commission to make the types of improvements and upgrades (i.e. luxury boxes, lots and lots of luxury boxes) that the NFL demands of its teams' sites.

There are also plenty of locations in south LA, in cities like Carson and Industry, that would be perfect for an NFL stadium and have been pushing for construction for years now.

Perhaps most intriguing is the proposed possibility of turning a large portion of the Los Angeles Convention Center into a stadium with massive amounts of underground parking, thereby turning the part of the city center known as LA Live into the city's undisputed hub of entertainment and sports.

USC, UCLA Not Doing So Hot These Days

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PASADENA, CA - DECEMBER 04: Malcolm Smith #6 of the USC Trojans tackles Nelson Rosario #83 of the UCLA Bruins during the first half at the Rose Bowl on December 4, 2010 in Pasadena, California. USC defeated UCLA 28-14. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Additionally, the teams that currently inhabit the major stadiums in the LA area aren't doing much to fill the seats.

As vibrant and full of people as the Rose Bowl may be on New Year's Day every year, the stadium is patently empty the rest of the time, when UCLA's football team travels an hour from the Westwood campus on Saturdays to play poorly in front of a crowd that has suffered through loss after embarrassing loss in recent years, especially since Rick Neuheisel took over.

The situation at the Coliseum had been different until the last couple of years, when USC's squad began its current nosedive. Now that Pete Carroll is gone and the program is on probation under Lane Kiffin, enthusiasm among Trojans fans has waned just enough to get people wondering if now isn't the perfect time to get the NFL back in LA.

Swath of Loaded Investors Ready to Drop Dollars For the NFL

The NFL should certainly strike while LA's iron is hot, which it is at the present time thanks in large part to the efforts of a powerful group of local business moguls.

Some, like Philip Anschutz, who pretty much owns downtown, Tim Leiweke and former Lakers great Magic Johnson have made it clear that a new stadium in the heart of the city would be the perfect place for an NFL team.

Others, like real estate mogul Ed Roski, favor proposals in less densely populated areas.

Either way, there are plenty of incredibly wealthy individuals already pining for the NFL and more still who will likely join the fray once it inches closer to reality.

A Huge Market, But No NFL?

Why, pray tell, would so many billionaires take an interest in bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles?

Well, it just so happens that LA is the nation's second biggest media market, suggesting that the city could be an absolute gold mine for the league and whichever franchise is fortunate enough to make the move.

And in the bigger picture, it is simply unjust that such an enormous city, with so many enthusiastic sports fans would be without a team in the country's most popular professional sports league.

A Great Sports Town With a Rich Football History

Aside from LA being monstrous economically, the city is also a giant in the sports world, particularly when it comes to football.

As base, the entire region of southern California is among the most talent-rich when it comes to high school football talent, with loads of young athletes going off to major college football programs year after year.

Many of those players go on to USC, the school that made LA a football town before the NFL was even popular.

The popularity of the Trojans football team essentially laid the foundation for the staging of Super Bowl I in Los Angeles at the Coliseum, after which six more followed—one more downtown and five at the Rose Bowl.

As such, LA needs the NFL back in its good graces to remind the city's sports fans that they do indeed deserve a franchise to call their own once again. 

A Team to Accompany the League's LA Operations

And if that's not enough justification for the NFL, how about the fact that the league bases much of its media operations in Los Angeles.

That's right, folks. The NFL Network is headquartered in Culver City, one of the many smaller regions of West LA. 

As such, the city needs a pro team for itself just so it doesn't look like its being hosed by the NFL.

Local Pro Teams Due For Decline

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OAKLAND, CA - JANUARY 12: Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers in action during their game against the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena on January 12, 2011 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by dow

Finally, in a purely sports-related sense, the city of Los Angeles needs an NFL team so the fans will have something new and different to root for.

One could argue that Angelenos should be content with their basketball lot. However, the Clippers will likely lose Blake Griffin once he can opt for free agency and go to a real franchise, and the Lakers are due for a retooling, with Kobe Bryant entering the twilight of his illustrious career and Pau Gasol soon to follow suit.

In terms of baseball, the debacle known as the McCourt divorce has set the Dodgers back immeasurably, and the Angels, well, they're more like Orange County's team.

The only up-and-comers that may be here to stay for a while are the Kings of the NHL, though Los Angeles is not a city that would be content with its sports appetite being whet only by hockey.

Thus, LA needs an NFL franchise to freshen up the city's sports landscape and keep fans interested.