Ravenwood - 05/20/03 02:45 PM
So, Los Angeles thinks they may finally get NFL football to come back to town. Over the past eight years, "political heavyweights, business visionaries, entertainers such as Tom Cruise and Garth Brooks" have been fighting for the return of Major League Football. While the L.A. Times is upbeat about their chances, our staff writers remain skeptical. Here is why it won't happen any time soon.
1. Lack of public stadium funding.
2. Lack of fan base.
3. NFL blackout rule.
First, Los Angeles is notoriously fickle when it comes to spending public money on a stadium. They simply will not tolerate it, and both L.A. stadiums are too old and too outdated for the NFL. While they could possibly be modified, it would take a lot of private cash to bring football back to the City of Angels.
Second, Los Angeles seems notoriously apathetic when it comes to football. If you stick a mediocre team in there that is going to flounder for a few years, don't count on selling out too many games. Even with a good team, L.A. fans don't seem very supportive. This isn't Chicago or Green Bay.
Third, the NFL's archaic blackout rule makes profitability in L.A. even less likely. During home games, the NFL has specific rules for what can be shown on television in the home market. If the fans don't show up to the home games, that means no TV revenue for L.A. Los Angeles being the #2 TV market in the country means that the entire NFL would suffer, not just an L.A. team. The NFL would have to be willing to relax the blackout rule in L.A. to mitigate the risk.
What it comes down to, is that the NFL needs L.A. more than L.A. needs football. Right now, showing three games a weekend in L.A. is more profitable than showing two and having one blacked out. Or depending on the weekend, only showing one game. Will L.A. ever get football back? Perhaps. But not anytime soon.
"Los Angeles is notoriously fickle when it comes to spending public money on a stadium"
everybody should be so... then, MAYBE the extortion of cities by pro sports franchises would end. Remember (I guess it would be waayyyy back in the day, now...) when Joe Robbie wanted a stadium? He built it with his own money and investments and "seat license" revenue (which was the start of that wonderful fad...). I hate the Dolphins, but I respected that move VERY much.
Kraft actually did the same thing recently, after a lengthy battle with taxachussets to get them to update the "infrastructure"... you know, the roads and highway exits around the stadium, which IS in fact the state's responsibility. He finally got them to commit to what they SHOULD have done a long time ago (you should have seen the roads around that place...), then he paid to build a brandie-new stadium.
He never really wanted them to pay for the stadium, just the roadwork and "infrastructure repar" which is their responsibility in the first place. THAT is how things would be if I were king!
Posted by: Jim S at May 20, 2003 4:16 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
