What is so difficult for people to understand...

[j-6]

...about why Tagliabue would rather put a displaced team in Los Angeles than San Antonio? You can mouth off all you want about how LA already lost two teams, but Georgia Frontiere and Al Davis are two of the only owners in the NFL that can make Tom Benson look good.

Any of this crap about how LA won't support the NFL when they have two basketball teams, two baseball teams, two hockey teams, and two soccer teams is just asinine. They've gone ten years now without a team because it's the biggest threat out there. Look how many markets have are building new stadiums for their NFL teams because of the underlying threat of Los Angeles. Arizona. Minnesota. Indianapolis. Even San Diego is scared that that the Chargers may return to their old AFL birthplace and is trying to build a football-only stadium. And Petco Park still has the tags hanging off of it!

Metro Los Angeles has ten times the people that San Antonio has. Sure, include the Valley, or Austin, or the displaced Katrina people that chose to relocate in the region. That doesn't add up to 17+ million now matter how much algebra you slept through in high school. There's more people living in metro Los Angeles than in the entire state of Florida, and they have three NFL teams.

I can appreciate people that admire the San Antonio mayor for grabbing everything he can no matter how distasteful it looks, since he's just watching out for his town and knows the long odds against him, despite what him and Benson do behind closed doors. But there's a need to be realistic.

If the Saints leave New Orleans, the PR hit will be intense. But when there's a chance of returning the NFL to Los Angeles in the mix, and Tagliabue has publically stated he wants a team there by 2008, the league will take it. After all, 17 million happy people in the City of Angels will drown out the roars of the 4 million Gulf Coast followers of the Saints. In appreciation for being a foster home, San Antonio will get an annual preseason game between the Saints and the Cowboys or something along those lines.

[Marcus Bryant]

Best complete statement for the 'I'd love to see SA get a NFL team but I'm a realist (or not stupid)' position in this forum.

[samikeyp]

I agree with you J-6 and I have been echoing your take about a team going to L.A. I think that what people point to is that teams left L.A. because attendance was not that good in the existing stadiums and the owners pushed for new ones and did not get them. I still think that if the Saints go anywhere permanently, its L.A.

[samikeyp]

Best complete statement for the 'I'd love to see SA get a NFL team but I'm a realist (or not stupid)' position in this forum.

agreed.

[MannyIsGod]

Exactly. But, I still hope we get them now. Haha.

[samikeyp]

Hell hath no fury like Manny scorned! :lol

[Marcus Bryant]

Also, no matter what, if the Saints leave then Benson is going to bear the brunt of the criticism. Tags is lucky in that he can get what he wants with Benson taking the heat for the entire league. My understanding of the situation is that if Benson is stubborn enough, he can end up where he wants to go. How would the league manage to maintain the position that NOLA is a more attractive place than SA for the Saints, but the Saints can go to LA anytime?

It still seems as though the major problem is for SA to come up with a real plan for the Alamodome or a new facility.

[Marcus Bryant]

I think the way the NFL can influence matters is to hold out the promise of assistance to Benson if he relocates to LA versus none for SA. If Benson is facing the prospect of minimal support in SA then that could be rather important. Then either Benson goes to LA or he goes back to NO and gets a big fat state subsidy.

SA has to make it worth his while. That does mean making the Alamodome more amenable to corporate clientele. State assistance is a joke, I'd wish people would stop holding out hope for that. SA has to be able to stand on its own to make this work. SA is also lucky in that it can land a NFL team with only a $100 mil price tag (instead of $400 mil+).

[ShoogarBear]

I think that what people point to is that teams left L.A. because attendance was not that good in the existing stadiums and the owners pushed for new ones and did not get them.

Exactly. The L.A. Coliseum is a shithole and impossible to make big money in in today's NFL.

If L.A. ever commits to a new stadium, or to throughly revamping the Coliseum, game over. Hell, Al Davis will probably try to move back.

[j-6]

If L.A. ever commits to a new stadium, or to throughly revamping the Coliseum, game over. Hell, Al Davis will probably try to move back.

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/5085619/detail.html?subid=10101581

LA Council Approves Plan To Lure NFL Team To Coliseum

POSTED: 12:49 pm PDT October 11, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a redevelopment project near the Coliseum in the hopes that it would help lure a National Football League team back to Los Angeles.

The motion, submitted by Councilman Bernard Parks, would allow for up to $25 million in local tax revenues generated by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum's renovation to pay for redevelopment projects around the stadium.

"Today's action gives the clear direction to the NFL that we as a city have put processes in place that, if they come here, we're going to be able to redevelop areas around the Coliseum for housing, retail and entertainment," Parks said at a news conference following today's vote.

Parks--whose Eighth Council District includes the Coliseum--said he hopes that private capital can step in to refurbish and expand the Coliseum. He said he hopes to have an NFL team playing in the Coliseum by the end of the decade.

As a result of Tuesday's 13-0 vote, city representatives will attend the NFL owners' meeting Oct. 25-27 in Kansas City to make a pitch for bringing a professional football team back to Los Angeles.

There have been several proposals to bring an NFL team back to Los Angeles involving various venues including the Rose Bowl, Coliseum, near Dodger Stadium, downtown and Carson, but none have gained much traction.

In addition to the redevelopment project, Parks' plan to get an NFL team calls for building a $500 million modern stadium inside the facade of the historic Coliseum, home of the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics, the Los Angeles Raiders from 1982-94 and the Los Angeles Rams from 1946-79.

Other council members have expressed an interest in Parks' plan, but only if no public funding is used.

The California Infrastructure Bank unanimously endorsed the redevelopment project on Sept. 27, but only if Los Angeles brought an expansion franchise or an out-of-state team to the Coliseum.

USC's football team plays its home games at the Coliseum, but an NFL team hasn't played there since the Raiders returned to Oakland following the 1994 season.

[Murphy]

LA is the second biggest media market and second largest city in the U.S, and they lost two teams. Enough said.

[Vashner]

Benson does not like LA.. enough said..

We all know LA sucks the dick. I used to live in that cesspool they call California..

It sucks.. period.