For any L.A. NFL journalist or former journalist....

hence my point, my friend.

 

I think people here are now numb to this issue. There have been so many times when we've been teased, then nothing happens. It's the same thing each time:
This billlionaire wants to build a stadium in (fill in blank). Then a different billionaire says he wants to do it. These two guys can't partner up because of their egos. Then the politicians who run the Coliseum step in. Then they're going to remodel the Coliseum. Then the historians pop up and don't want the Coliseum changed.
The NFL and Houston showed everybody how it has to be done: Here's a billion dollars, this is where we're building the stadium, here is your team.

 

USC heading to the Arroyo Seco is pretty telling. I'm thinking the ratings for the NFL in LA aren't much different than when they had a team. The NFL isn't exactly hurting for cash. I think the powers that be in LA felt the league needed them more than the other way around. I don't think another owner is stupid enough to believe LA officials promising a new stadium or improvements to the Coliseum. If they're dicking around USC, what does that say?

 

I seem to remember a few years ago one of the LA City Councilmen was outside the Coliseum, lobbying for support of the NFL to return. A woman who was passing by stopped and shouted something to the effect that she didn't need an NFL team, she needed a safe place to send her kids to school.
That would sum up the sentiment most in LA have for the NFL.

 

The thing about ratings is not true. The NFL can take the hit, but a hit there is. Public funding for stadiums is a thing of the past except in places eager to be known as Hootervilles. There is, however, more than enough private money in LA to get it done, and real estate prices will never be lower than now.
Hell, if I had a team in LA, I'd play in more than one stadium. One I built, the Coliseum, and the Rose Bowl. I bet I'd more money that way, too.

 

When LA was being pitted against Houston, the NFL asked LA for $100 million in taxpayer money "to show a public commitment" after the area lost two teams.

The point was made then that LA had enough private money to get it done and then some, but Houston got the team.

 

The NFL doesn't pick cities, it picks owners. Wayne Weaver is the Jaguars to them, not Jacksonville. Bob McNair, they loved. The LA prospective owners, and the city never really had just one, not so much. That is an easily solvable problem. Many rich people in LA are perfectly presentable. OK, there must be one.

 

The league does need LA more than the other way around. No one's quality of life is suffering in LA without the NFL. No one is asking why the mayor or city council haven't gotten the NFL back ... in fact, people have warned the mayor or city council not to even think about spending public money on the NFL.

The owners have gotten the message. They know any new NFL stadium will be privately financed. No LA officials are promising a new stadium or improvements to the Coliseum, at least not with public funding.

 

This billlionaire wants to build a stadium in (fill in blank). Then a different billionaire says he wants to do it.

Unfortunately, neither billionaire really wants to spend any of his own money to do it. They'd both prefer to get the taxpayers to do that.

A SOTA stadium like the NFL will want in L.A. will cost close to a cool billion. There are aproximately 10 million people in the greater LA area. Therefore a stadium will cost the average LA area resident -- every last one, including the 98-year-old grandmas and the 2-year-old toddlers eating ramen noodles -- just about exactly 100 cool dollars.

BTW, of the 10,000,000 people in the LA area, approximately 9,700,000 of them will never -- ever in their lives -- set foot in the new NFL stadium. Shit, unless they have NFL Network, they'll probably hardly ever get to see it on TV.

 

1. The NFL is two hours away in San Diego if there's a big enough fan in LA.

2. How many spots are at Chavez Ravine? Enough to take out a gigantic chunk and still have 25,000 left over for a football game?

 

2. You would build a parking structure.

 

LA has enough football and we get the best games on tv because we don't have a team and LA has teased us to a point that we don't care anymore and like someone said San Diego is 2 hours away if we want NFL football.