Schwarzenegger hopes to get two NFL teams for L.A.

[rpannier]

I have a question about this. Did anyone ask people in LA? Even ask the football fans in LA? I have two friends who are huge football fans who live in LA and they say they don't want any team.
They say they get better games on TV. If there was a team in LA, every weekend they'd be stuck having to get the Los Angeles whoevers. So, if there was a great game on opposite their crappy LA team, they'd be stuck with the LA game.
Plus, as they point out, they can't afford the tickets, the parking or the concessions. The team really isn't about the city, it's just about some corporation making hundreds of millions of dollars by getting free advertising, luxury boxes and a free stadium built at tax payer expense. Then threatening to mve five years later if they don't get a new stadium or some other set of freebies.

[fooj]

1. Well said.

Peace.

[Broken_Hero]

2. I'm not sure n/t

[1932]

3. The one reason I can imagine an LA-eno not wanting an NFL team is

who would want to drive to a game? Perhaps they'll be able to find 70,000 people willing to fill the stadium every week, but millions of people probably would never even entertain the thought of spending twice as much time in traffic going to and returning from the game than they'd spend at the game. What kind of way is that to spend your Sunday?

[enid602]

23. Metro

With over two hundred rail stations in the five county area, getting even 700,000 to the weekly games would be no problem. While she's not been successful this far in attracting an NFL team, Los Angeles has at least made huge strides in developing its transportation infrastructure.

[politrix]

4. YES. Distract The STupid Masses With Stupid Pointless Sports

While you help the evil empire. It's been proven to work.

The Romans had the Colliseum.

Reality shows did the trick for a few years but, people are wising up. They NEVER see how stupid sports are...

[Supply Side Jesus]

14. doesn't LA have a coliseum also??

:silly:

[Bill McBlueState]

20. sigh

How about you tell me what you're interested in, and I'll tell you all about how stupid it is.

Of the eight largest cities in the US, LA is the only one without a franchise in the most successful professional sports league. There are interesting reasons why this is the case, and valid arguments on both sides as to whether this *should* be the case. But you think sports are "stupid," so I guess you won't have much to add to the discussion.

[Robbie Michaels]

5. The Chargers Will Call Los Angeles Home in 2008

That's why I stopped rooting for them when they hired Mark Fabiani as their spokesman. Until the end of the year, San Diego County has to come up with a stadium plan to keep them in the San Diego region. The city of San Diego cannot afford to build a stadium, let alone give their underpaid police force a pay raise.

After January 1st, expect Mayor Villagarosa to make a huge push to bring the Chargers back to LA. One economist who spoke to a local television reporter (off-camera) estimated that the value of the team would increase by as much as $300 million if they moved north.

Just what a GOP supporter like Chargers owner Alex Spanos likes to hear. :grr:

[regnaD kciN]

12. As far as I'm concerned, San Diego got screwed...

They used to have a very nice multi-purpose facility (the only one I know of that worked, BTW), Jack Murphy Stadium.

Then the Chargers decided the stadium wasn't good enough as a football-exclusive venue. They demanded, and received, a huge remodel to improve it for football...but ruin it for baseball.

Needless to say, at that point, the Padres demanded their own, baseball-only stadium, and got it.

So, now, the Chargers have decided that the remodeled-at-taxpayer-expense-and-ruined-for-baseball "Stadium formerly known as Jack Murphy" isn't good enough for them, either, and they need a brand new facility of their own, also at taxpayer expense, or they're history.

My only question, as a resident of Seattle (which, if you'll recall, once lost the Seahawks to Los Angeles...for about three weeks), is: were Alex Spanos and Howard Schultz* separated at birth?

:grr:


*Starbucks CEO and owner of the Sonics, who are also threatening to leave town unless the taxpayers fund their second complete rebuilding of Key Arena in ten years.

[shanti]

6. so arnold wants to be seen as the good guy

for bringing FOOTBALL to LA! :eyes: some of the troglodytes will vote for him for just this reason.

[Journeyman]

7. We have UCLA and USC -- what do we need with overpaid professionals? . . .

Whenever a team's been proposed in recent years, the citizens have refused to build a new stadium or remodel the existing stadiums the way the pros want it done. And then there's all the other reasons cited in the OP. I just can't imagine any professional team making headway here in South California.

After the royal screwing Al Davis and the Raiders gave so many people and cities, and the tawdry way Frontierre schlepped the Rams out of LA and then out of the state, it'll be a hard sell indeed to convince the citizens of LA to foot the bill to bring another corporation looking for a handout into this area -- and that's all professional sports teams are anymore, greedy corporations looking to be underwritten by saps and morons. Give me college ball anyday. It may not be much cleaner than pro ball, but at least the alumni take care of their own and don't expect the local citizens to underwrite their teams.

[Kiouni]

8. what happened

to the that XFL? bring that back that rocked.

[rucky]

13. I sneezed and missed the season. n/t

[CPMaz]

9. Why would L.A. want one, much less two?

We have a sort-of pro team here, called the Cardinals. Which means that when they are on the road, we get stuck watching the worst game of the week, and when they are home, we lose one of doubleheader games.

The Cards would be a great candidate for relocation to L.A., except that they just got a brand new, state of the art, taxpayer-funded (is there any other kind these days?), stadium in Glendale, AZ. Apparently the Cards were sick of being the only pro team in AZ and yet being the 2nd best team in their own home stadium (and third best in the state).

They played in Sun Devil Stadium, home of ASU, who on Saturdays against Cupcake U., would outdraw the Cards on Sunday, whoever they were playing.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I like football. I just think it is wayyyyy overrated.

BTW - Isn't L.A. doing OK without the NFL? and the NFL is OK without L.A.? Just curious....

[cboy4]

10. Actually, L.A. already has a team.

In Oakland.

[CPMaz]

11. When I saw the subject of your reply

I thought you were going to say "USC".

A team that has been better than the Raiders for the last few years (and LOTS better than the Cards.) :evilgrin:

[BiggJawn]

15. Well, that settles the Circuses, now for the Bread...

Bread and Circuses...

I used to live 20 blocks from the "RCA Dome" and Market Square Arena. I have seen exactly ONE Indianapolis Colts game and NO Indiana Pacers games in my life.

Average of $60 for a ticket? No, I had bills to pay...

[Neshanic]

16. Phx Cardinals will have a hard time keeping that thing filled.

Yes, it's nice, but the East Valley will not go to see a losing team with an imbecile owner in the far west valley, no matter how nice the venue. It's just a matter of time till the Crapinals put their little feelers over to LA after another pathetic season in a great building.

[Ganja Ninja]

17. Buffalo or Minnesota are said to be the most likely to relocate ...

to LA.

[Bill McBlueState]

21. I don't know about Minnesota,

but people in upstate New York want the Bills *way* more than people in Southern California, as far as I can tell.

[KharmaTrain]

18. Where They Gonna Play?

That's what drove the Rams and Raiders out of town. They don't want to play at the old Colliseum in a crappy neighborhood and neither the Dodgers or Angels will be willing to share their parks.

Al Davis tried various times to find a place to build a new stadium to keep the Raiders in LA and ran into lots of NIMBYs as well as an out-of-sight real estate market that would have cost him 5 times more to build in LA than it would have in any other city...and that was over a decade ago.

I can see how a pro team can have an economic impact on a place like Buffalo or Green Bay, but not in LA. I'm out that way quite often and rarely, if ever, do I hear people bitching that there's no pro football...most are happy watching UCLA or USC. The NFL isn't much more than a private betting club these days and a shill for corporates and this regime. Thank goodness it's baseball season.

[long_green]

19. Why two?

He said two because the NFL asked him to. Having no teams in L.A. helps the NFL blackmail smaller market cities into shoveling out the corporate welfare. It is inevitable that somebody is moving to LA in a few years; having Shwarzenegger say he wants another is the NFL's effort to keep the blackmail going. Never mind that L.A. gave only lukewarm support to the two teams when they had them.

[Scout1071]

22. What two cities are they going to royally piss off by stealing their teams

Small market teams getting screwed again.

[CPMaz]

24. Phoenix wouldn't miss the Cardinals

especially if the league compensated us for the taxpayer-funded portion of their new stadium.

That'd never happen though.

I've heard the Texans don't draw too well in Houston. What about them?