Los Angeles Extends Deal to Snag NFL Team

[Auggie]

AP -- The City Council on Tuesday gave developer AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) another six months to lure a professional football team to the nation's second-largest city, which has lacked one for two decades.

Without discussion, the council extended AEG's 2012 agreement to build a downtown stadium and convince an NFL team to move there. The original deal was set to expire on Saturday but the new deadline to obtain a team commitment is April.

AEG would then have until October of next year to finalize the deal.

AEG has had no luck getting a team to come but its chief legal and development officer, Ted Fikre, told a council committee last week that there has been "renewed dialogue" with the league.

MORE: http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/los-angeles-extends-deal-snag-nfl-team-26195784



A proposed design, which is just awesome and so "L.A."

[hughee99]

1. Finally the people of LA will once again

Have a team of their own to not support.

[JonLP24]

2. The Rams were in LA for 50 years

I think they can, especially if it is a former team like the Rams or Raiders and the state of the NFL is different.

She left because of the greater financial opportunity their city offered as LA Coliseum lacked those revenue generating amenities, pus it was too big and caught in the blackout trap.

I think blackouts are counterproductive, how do you get fans to go to the stadium if the product isn't being showcased, even if they do good it is still hard to sell tickets for the next game because who saw it? Road games aren't great because of the natural advantage and as a Cardinals fan it was brutal watching them fly out to Veterans Stadium & Meadowlands. I was a still a big fan, my grandma made an offer in 1997 from the water jug filled completely to the top with pennies and change. A trip to Hawaii or Cardinals season tickets? I choose tickets and they went 5-11 that year. If that isn't fan support, I don't know what is.

I don't know what it is about college stadiums in the southwest but they have trouble selling out pro football games. Cardinals sold out every game at University of Phoenix Stadium, setting aside fans weren't out on a metal bench on a September (it is still here hot even to October) it is actually in a poor location. Out by 99th Avenue. You figure I-17(the highway that goes to Flagstaff) runs up the middle of Phoenix--if you've seen a map of it, which is by 19th Avenue. While Glendale has a large population which is concentrated between 51st and 83rd and Northern Ave to south in Maryvale, it is away from the bulk of metro population in Scottsdale, Central-Northwest Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa. After the Cards stadium and 101 freeway are large farming fields(location of Cards stadium were huge unused dirt fields, there is a long stretch on Camelback rd before you come into a residential community and a Frys(up north in that area are senior communities Sun City & El MIrage. but pretty much the city ends where the Cards stadium is.

I think the fact the game 1 game a week and primarily on Sundays helps out a lot. A reason that I think the Coyotes struggle with fan attendance is because they play in the same location and on weeknights, working people can't make that trip consistently. Suns arena is the ideal spot but it wasn't designed with hockey in-mind but it was good for attendance, especially in the beginning which leads me to my theory that most of the Coyote fans are in the East valley. I try to avoid categorizing but the sport & team is popular with the Native American community which is mostly in the East Valley (due to Salt River River Reservation and Reservations on the East side of the state), my point is the trip is almost unpractical for those especially in Scottsdale, Mesa, and Tempe. Even to see a Cardinals game for me would mean taking the light rail (fortunately I love close to a stop which isn't true for the rest of the city which only features 2) to 19th avenue & Bethany Home. After that is a who-knows-which-bus-to-take which would take forever from 19th to 99th or a cab ride from 19th ave. (which I estimate to be about $40, varying on the traffic which isn't an affordable expense but I say as a former driver it barely helps put enough of a dent in the lease that maybe the driver will see a decent profit at the end of a shift).

I think with the current levels of overall fan support (much higher than early 90s) and a well designed stadium kept at 65,000-70,000 capacity in a good location but I don't know what are in LA. I do know noise concerns (especially since it was heavily reported by local news media killed any chance of it building in south of the US 60 in Tempe. The location was very narrowly defeated here(for similar reasons because it is near to a residential neighborhood) in a 50/50 vote in Mesa and Glendale was basically the last hope of the Cards staying in the valley but considered what was used in that area wasn't much better economically since they put a glorified shopping center in-place. The Wal-mart & Peter Piper closed up shop (as well as surrounding businesses--basically killed Alma School & University businesses) and moved to the new location and raised overall prices. It also features a sports bar which considering the inelastic nature made it a factual critique to the claim of the type of businesses are created by supporting subsidies.

(after lagging issues I copy & pasted to notebook and rebooted but accidentally started a new thread in post a reply to explain the self-delete)

[hughee99]

3. You make some good points, but I have to believe that if they can sell out in Green Bay

with their very small market and poor weather, a market the size of LA should be able to sell out 8 games a year.

I agree with you on the blackouts, too. How can you generate fan support when the fans who live close enough to attend the game, can't at least see it on TV?

[JonLP24]

4. I understand

and I agree that they should. The reason why I referenced either the Rams or Raiders because of existing support, Raiders are actually the primary team in NFL coverage for the LA area. A new team (I don't see any serious movers except maybe St. Louis) would have to attract new fans, any new team in a new a stadium would have a "new car smell" but would wear off if they below-average, average. I think what helped Oklahoma City is a great team appeared when the "new car smell" disappeared.

Green Bay was helped by 6 titles by Lombardi and Bart Starr (who is overlooked among the greatest QBs) which was the era the sellout streak started for a franchise that has been around since 1920. Also the gameday atmosphere is unique, I imagine many NFL fans would like to attend a game at Lambeau. Even watching televised Denver games at the old Mile High had an excellent atmosphere LA Coliseum and Sun Devil Stadium (sell outs were different especially when they stormed the field in '98 after the game winning FG to send them to the playoffs--when has the happened in the NFL?) were--and I'm guessing for the Coliseum--were terrible for gameday atmosphere.

I understood the population difference was the reason for the Green Bay mention, the point I was making with mine is with Oklahoma City and existing teams is there isn't that generation of fans whose parents and their parents were fans. A new team (say Buffalo) would lack that and would require early success and avoid the long droughts where even the Yankees struggled with attendance (though it is less important in the 80+ game sports which relies on finding the right balance in ticket pricing. A team could sell out every game if they sold tickets low enough but they would make less money than they would if it was at the highest point before go into the making less money because too many fans don't attend because the tickets are too high. It varies with bundles and price raises when competitive or marketable (Yankees) team come to town).

Local economy is a big factor in attendance, LA is currently at 7.7 unemployment which is significant higher than national average but still way low of the national averages around 2008-2011. Phoenix area which was one of the hardest hit areas in real estate and foreclosures still saw the Cardinals selling out even before the Super Bowl appearance but they came very close not to the season after for the Texans game which was after a 1-2 start and a bye week.

Final point. Neither needs each other. LA doesn't for economic reasons and the NFL the same, revenues, ratings, and attendance never been higher so they don't need the market but it actually helps the NFL due to the implied relocation threat. That leads to the league to boost revenues by cities/counties/states covering over half the bill for revenue generating stadiums which leads to more profits higher salaries, etc. I actually got into an ironic argument with someone. A good friend who is a Chiefs fan complains about the amount of money pro athletes make because of the hard 40+ week workers argument but when I mentioned (I feel criticism of pro sports from a economic factor is misdirected badly) subsidies and the using an advantage over taxpayers he responded "That doesn't bother me as much" I tried to get into why but I felt like I wasn't being persuasive. I did mention the primary reason (which goes together w/ skill driven occupation with the skill required incredibly difficult to replace) is the revenues generated by new stadiums w/ taxpayers paying the bill means bigger paychecks with athletes.

What was clear to me was why he felt that way which is as an avid football & Chiefs fan the ability to watch the game or he saw that more as a function of why he supports the NFL despite the overpaid argument which to me explains the misconception that athletes are paid to play with a ball when actually they are paid because lots of people want to watch them. The high cost of injury to justify salaries misses the mark as other pro football players deal w/ the same (though not w/ overall faster & stronger athletes) but not paid nearly as much because of fewer people want to watch them play with a ball. College athletes could actually negotiate w/ close to or maybe on par w/ NFL w/ the revenues NCAA generate eventually driving up salaries for the industry.