NFL in Los Angeles

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The lack of a National Football League (NFL) team in Los Angeles, the second-largest media market in the United States, is a large issue the league has been working on to resolve since both the Raiders and the Rams left the area after the 1994 season.

Contents 1 The Early Years 2 1946-94: The NFL in L.A. 2.1 The Rams 2.2 The Raiders 3 1960: The AFL in L.A. 3.1 The Chargers 4 1995: Raiders and Rams move out 5 Since 1995: Major developments 6 Repercussions 7 Proposed stadiums 8 Pro football activity in L.A. since 1995 9 Future 10 Reference

[edit] The Early Years

The first NFL team to call themselves Los Angeles was the Los Angeles Buccaneers in 1926. However this team never played in Los Angeles; they were a road team made up of Californians, primarily University of California and University of Southern California alumni. The NFL did play their first league All-Star Games in L.A.'s Wrigley Field and Gilmore Stadium after the 1938-1940 NFL seasons.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1946-94: The NFL in L.A.

[edit] The Rams

Los Angeles first received live NFL action in 1946, when Cleveland Rams owner Dan Reeves, against the wishes of every other NFL owner [1], moved west, playing home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That same season, the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference also began play at the Coliseum. However, the Dons were a failure both competitively and financially; they did not survive the 1949 AAFC-NFL merger.

Five years later, the Rams became the first West Coast major-league pro sports team to win a championship, with a 24-17 win over the Cleveland Browns for the NFL championship.

In the 1950s, the Rams became highly popular. In the 1970s, the Rams won six division titles, reached the NFC Championship Game four times, and played in Super Bowl XIV in January 1980.

After 34 seasons, the Rams moved to Anaheim, California in nearby Orange County in 1980 after owner Carroll Rosenbloom and the city of Anaheim reached an agreement to expand Anaheim Stadium to accommodate an NFL team. The Rams maintained the "Los Angeles" title, although they now played about 45 miles outside of downtown L.A. Anaheim Stadium already had a football press box built into the upper deck when it opened in 1966.[2] Further renovations included enclosing the facility by extending the stadium's three decks and building luxury suites in the mezzanine "club" level. Three teams had played home games there prior to the Rams' expansion: the Southern California Sun of the World Football League and the football programs at Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State.

Rosenbloom drowned in 1979, before the Rams played a single game in Anaheim Stadium. The majority stake of the Rams franchise was inherited by his wife, Georgia Frontiere.

[edit] The Raiders

The Coliseum next received an NFL team in 1982, when the Oakland Raiders moved to Los Angeles; owner Al Davis moved there even without the approval of his fellow owners. Officials with the Rams have expressed that, had the Rams elected to stay in Los Angeles, the Raiders would have likely been the franchise to move to Anaheim.^{[citation needed]}

The Raiders continued their success they had in Oakland after the move south, winning Super Bowl XVIII in January 1984 and reaching the AFC Championship Game after the 1990 season. The team also made history in 1989, hiring Art Shell as head coach; Shell was the first African-American coach in the NFL since Fritz Pollard in the 1920s. But the team gained a controversial reputation off the field, as the colors silver and black became associated with L.A.'s notorious street gangs. More importantly, the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission never gave Davis a lucrative package of amenities he had been promised, including scores of luxury boxes. Davis entertained an offer from Irwindale, California in 1987, but did not move there.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1960: The AFL in L.A.

[edit] The Chargers

In 1960, the American Football League was formed. What is now the San Diego Chargers played their first season in Los Angeles, but moved to San Diego in 1961.

[edit] 1995: Raiders and Rams move out

At the same time Davis expressed his disapproval with the commission, Frontiere began to shop around for a new home for the Rams, who were falling behind other NFL teams in luxury-box and other nonshared revenue. By the end of the 1994 season, talks had begun with St. Louis and Baltimore; meanwhile, she was hoping that Anaheim would also give her an attractive offer. Anaheim simply would not agree on a tax package to pay for the improvements that Frontiere insisted on, so that city dropped out. Eventually, St. Louis gave Frontiere the offer she wanted, a new $280 million domed stadium that was then-called the TransWorld Dome (now called the Edward Jones Dome) with a long-term lease and over 100 luxury boxes. The move was announced in February 1995 and approved by NFL owners that April.

As for the Raiders, Al Davis traded away the chance to have the gigantic market to himself for a new stadium renovation offer from Oakland, due in no small part to the decision by the Los Angeles Sports Commission to halt planned renovations to Memorial Coliseum due to repair costs generated by the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The renovation expanded what was then called Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (now known as McAfee Coliseum) to 63,000 seats and added 86 luxury boxes and thousands of club seats. The deal was announced on June 23, 1995 and approved by league owners on August 9. The team played in a smaller stadium in the 1995 season until the renovations were ready in 1996. (As a sidelight, the other major-league team at the Coliseum, the Oakland Athletics, played its first home series of 1996 at Cashman Field in Las Vegas, Nevada, due to construction delays.)

Within a matter of months, the L.A. market went from having two teams to having none.

[edit] Since 1995: Major developments

Within months of the moves of the Raiders and Rams, several NFL teams were rumored to be replacements. They included the Browns, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, the Browns moved to become the Baltimore Ravens in 1996 and a new Browns team occupied a new stadium in 1999. The Bengals and Buccaneers, meanwhile, built new stadiums and took themselves out of the running. In 1996, Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley offered land near Dodger Stadium for a new football stadium.^{[citation needed]} However, O'Malley was persuaded to drop the proposal in 1997 in favor of supporting the Coliseum plan. In March 1996, Seattle Seahawks owner Ken Behring quietly moved office equipment and some athletic gear to the elementary school in Anaheim that once held Rams practices, hoping to get approval for a permanent move to southern California.^{[citation needed]} Due to an owners' revolt, Behring halted the process and moved the equipment back to Seattle. Eventually, Paul Allen bought the team and kept it in Seattle by building Seahawks Stadium, now known as Qwest Field.

Perhaps the closest Los Angeles has come to regaining the NFL was in 1999, when the NFL approved a new franchise, the league's 32nd, for Los Angeles, on the condition that the city and NFL agree on a stadium site and stadium financing.^{[citation needed]} Those agreements were never reached, and in October 1999, the franchise was awarded to a Houston ownership group instead, who formed the Houston Texans. In 2001, a proposal was floated for a new stadium near Staples Center. The stadium and team would have been owned by billionaire Phillip Anschutz and Hollywood scion Casey Wasserman, and the stadium would have been built with private funding. That died down quickly when it failed to get the support of the city council. In particular, Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the Coliseum, never supported it. In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported^{[citation needed]} that Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay had his private plane land at Van Nuys Airport in the nearby San Fernando Valley, presumably for meetings with local officials on moving to L.A. Irsay never commented on those reports, and indeed the Colts are getting a new stadium in Indianapolis: Lucas Oil Stadium, which will open in 2008.

On November 7, 2006, voters in Pasadena, California, overwhelmingly rejected a financing package that would have allocated money for a renovation of the Rose Bowl that would have accommodated a possible NFL team. The vote was 72 percent against, versus 28 percent in support.[3] Two days later, the San Francisco 49ers broke off talks with the city of San Francisco on a new stadium at Candlestick Point and began negotiations with suburban Santa Clara, where they hope to build a new stadium to open by 2012. However, many details remained unresolved, and at least one person quoted in an article in the Los Angeles Times said that L.A. could still be a possibility for the 49ers.[4]. But the following day, the 49ers reopened talks with San Francisco under pressure from United States Senator Dianne Feinstein and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

[edit] Repercussions

• There has been at least one side benefit of the ongoing void. Because neither the Raiders nor Rams sold out many games while playing in the L.A. area, those games were blacked out in according to the NFL's "72-hour rule." Since the teams have left, there have been no such blackouts and the quality of games seen on local television have generally been better. On the other hand, Joe McDonnell, a long-time voice on local radio, laments often that local children cannot see a "home team" play, nor can they use the players as role models and unofficial community leaders.^{[citation needed]}
• In a September 1995 article in the Los Angeles Times, a parking-lot attendant claimed to have lost thousands of dollars per weekend because the Raiders no longer played in the Coliseum. Such businesses in the area would not recover until Staples Center was built in 1999.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Proposed stadiums

• The New Coliseum would seat 65,000 for most major events, expanding to about 80,000 for Super Bowls and University of Southern California home games. The Coliseum would retain the peristyle section and columns that are part of the current stadium, in a design similar to Soldier Field in Chicago. This stadium is supported by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Los Angeles City Council approved a preliminary financing plan and environmental impact report in 2006. But the Exposition Park area still carries safety concerns among some fans. In October 2006, a new doubt was cast over the Coliseum's future as a possible venue, as reports surfaced that the Coliseum Commission was negotiating to hand over control of the stadium to USC, which could preclude any plans to renovate the stadium for the NFL.^[1]
• A stadium site in Anaheim has been proposed on and off over the last decade. The latest plan is for a 60,000-to-70,000-seat stadum located adjacent to the Rams' old home, Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Those stadia, as well as the Honda Center (former Arrowhead Pond), apartments, shops, and restaurants, would be part of a "Platinum Triangle" development.
• Schwarzenegger has championed a new football stadium in Anaheim in tandem with a new L.A. Coliseum. There are reports, however, that NFL owners will not approve a return to the L.A. area until two teams commit to play in a single new stadium (similar to the New York Giants and New York Jets in Giants Stadium).[5] Due to worldwide increases in the prices of steel, concrete, and fuel, some say the cost estimate of a new stadium has risen to $1 billion.[6] As a result, it will be a challenge for the league to privately finance one stadium, let alone two.[7] In response to rising cost estimates for a new stadium, new NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said that returning the NFL to Los Angeles will require the league to consider unspecified "alternative solutions."[8] Some observers, however, dispute the $1 billion figure. Pat Lynch, the Coliseum's general manager, claimed in a panel discussion in December 2006 that the true cost of a new Coliseum would be closer to $650 million.[9]
• A 70,000-seat stadium was proposed for Carson, on a site bordered by Interstates 110 and 405. The stadium and team would have been owned by Hollywood executive Michael Ovitz. But the site is full of toxins and other environmental problems, and eventually for that reason, as well as a failure of Carson to approve a financing plan, it was abandoned. The latest plans are to build a power center called the Carson Marketplace. Carson does have a sports complex, the Home Depot Center, on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills.
• The Dodger Stadium parking lot has been discussed by NFL owners, in private, as possibly being the best site in Southern California to build a new professional football stadium. Officials with the Dodgers and the NFL met in secret twice in 2005 to discuss the possibility of constructing a stadium and retail complex adjacent to Dodger Stadium. After the Boston Herald reported the details of the plan, political pressure forced both the NFL and McCourts to deny that either party was aggressively pursuing the idea.[10]

[edit] Pro football activity in L.A. since 1995

• The Los Angeles Avengers have been a member of the Arena Football League since 2000. It has had a steady run as one of the league's best teams, but has never won a playoff game. Wasserman is the team's owner.
• The Los Angeles Xtreme won the only championship in the brief history of the XFL, in 2001.
• Even the NFL has maintained a limited presence in the market. NFL Network, the in-house cable and satellite network founded in 2003, is headquartered in nearby Culver City and players often visit its studio, especially in the offseason. The NFL Players Association's "Rookie Premiere," in which first-year athletes pose for trading card pictures, is held annually at the Coliseum. The Coliseum also staged part of the league's opening-weekend celebrations in 2005.

[edit] Future

When Los Angeles will again have an NFL team is anyone's guess. Several unofficial deadlines have come and gone with no new team, stadium or even a firm plan to get either one.

As always, there are two possibilities:

• An existing team can come to L.A - A November 2006 article in the Los Angeles Times quoted a member of the Coliseum Commission as saying that the Jacksonville Jaguars could be a tempting target because the Jaguars currently do not sell out most of their home games, indicating lack of community support.[11] Other teams speculated have included the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers and, ironically, even the Oakland Raiders. All of them either have leases about to expire, have fallen behind other teams in stadium revenues, in financial deficits, or has lack of fan support. In addition, the 49ers may jump back into the picture if the various negotiations fall through. The Kansas City Chiefs are constantly brought up into possiblities of moving to Los Angeles, but the strong fanbase (one of the most devoted in the NFL) and TV market--which recently ranked just behind Indianapolis and Chicago in the ratings for Super Bowl XLI--will likely end the speculation. ^[2]

• One or perhaps even two expansion teams - The best shot may be with an expansion team, but who will own the team and how much the new owner will have to pay are also open questions. It is also probable the league would prefer to have 34 teams as opposed to 33 to be added to avoid having to schedule bye weeks for teams at undesirable times of the season. As mentioned above, placing two teams in Los Angeles has been considered, and adding both teams at the same time would preclude the possibility of one team being able to claim exclusive territorial rights over the area. If only one team were to be put in Los Angeles, then other markets the NFL might consider for a second expansion team include Toronto, Mexico City and San Antonio.

To add more intrigue, the Chargers have been allowed to take Los Angeles in as a secondary market for telecasts. In other words, all road games must be televised back to Los Angeles and home games not sold out in advance cannot be seen on local stations. However, the blacked-out home games are still available by way of DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket.

Meanwhile, the Raiders, divisional rivals to the Chargers, have a lawsuit pending against the NFL to reclaim the territory. The team is also selling game tickets at Raider Image souvenir stores in Universal City, Lakewood, and Ontario.

In addition several other markets have also expressed interest in receiving an NFL franchise, perhaps at the expense of L.A. In addition to Toronto, San Antonio, and Mexico City, they include Las Vegas, Nevada; Columbus, Ohio; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reference