More NFL Talk: Duck and Cover
COMMENT by Mark Lacter
Uh-oh, it’s back
Deja-vu all over again
Just when you thought it was safe
Once more, there’s talk about L.A. getting a National Football League team housed in a brand-new ballpark. And once more, Angelenos are yawning and the NFL owners are huffing, “Who needs ’em?”
Seems that a group of nine- and ten-figure guys, led by Philip Anschutz, Ed Roski and Ron Burkle, are behind the new stadium, which the Los Angeles Times says would be built downtown. Since L.A. was outbid by Houston a couple of years back for the very last league expansion most of us will ever see, the new franchise would have to be relocated from some sorry burgh like Buffalo or Indianapolis.
The arguments for bringing back football to L.A. are getting a little tired: second largest media market, no NFL team since 1995, encouraging rhetoric from Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, etc.
I’ll refrain from declaring that it will never happen because, well, never is a long time. But NFL football in Los Angeles is at least five years off, more likely 10 or 20. Even the guys looking into the current stadium plan guys who are usually unafraid to take chances hint privately that this is a long-term proposition.
What’s lacking in this latest football foray are the details location, timing and, of course, financing. Perhaps they have a detailed road map all ready and just don’t want it to leak out, drib by drab. But whatever the plan, it’s likely to encounter the same hurdles that were faced with the earlier disastrous effort. To wit:
No NFL team will consider relocating here without a new stadium.
No stadium can be financed without at least some public participation (re: subsidy).
No public participation is likely to get passed by the city council, much less the voters. They can’t even muster enough support to help fund a downtown convention hotel, whose economic benefits are much more obvious than some football team’s.
Expect little help from Mayor James Hahn, aside from a few carefully chosen remarks about how he’s willing to work with whomever on whatever. With the move for Valley secession showing unexpected strength, this is not the time to crusade for another downtown development. And if secession should get through, bringing NFL football to L.A. will be the least of his worries.
Anschutz and his pals probably would be happy to write out a check for the whole darn thing, but the NFL chieftains do not take kindly to stadium deals that don’t involve some sort of public role. That would set bad precedent for the next time a franchise city is asked to cough up a few dollars to build a ballpark.
Meanwhile, we’re back to hearing the critiques by fat-cat NFL owners on why our fair city doesn’t deserve a pro football team. “There’s so much to do out there 12 months a year, it’s got to be a captivating element to capture people and sit them down for three or four hours. I haven’t seen it from people in L.A.,” Baltimore Ravens owner Art Modell snidely told the Times.
What he and the others are really saying, of course, is how dare Los Angeles not bow to their wishes. How dare Los Angeles not recognize the importance of their sport, America’s sport.
They are saying, in effect, screw L.A.
Isn’t it time we said the same thing back?
Mark Lacter is editor of the Business Journal.
