It looks like an NFL team in Los Angeles is a fait accompli. It could possibly happen next year, but more likely the move will happen in 2017. Whether that’s the St. Louis Rams, the Oakland Raiders or the San Diego Chargers remains to be seen, but it appears there’s a lot more to this narrative than just franchises holding their home towns hostage in order to obtain new stadium sweetheart deals.
L.A. is the go-to target for NFL teams seeking bargaining leverage against their home market, but soon there will actually be fire; not just smoke.
There may even be two teams moving to L.A. come 2017.
Earlier this week, the NFL on CBS ‘ lead announce team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms hosted a national media conference call. A reporter asked each of the announcers to rate, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, what are the chances we have a NFL in L.A. in 2016 or 2017.
Nantz, who lives in the Bay Area of Northern California said he would “love” to see it happen as he’s a “West coast guy.” Here’s the rest of his answer.
Jim Nantz: (transcript Via CBS Sports)
“There’s just way too much chatter, there’s so many different stories, not just coming out of San Diego, Oakland and St. Louis, but stories coming out of Los Angeles. Things that are being discussed about the Coliseum that you hear on the street out West, that it’s a possible site for one or two NFL teams for maybe a year or two as a place holder until a stadium is built. I really think the race is truly on right now, there’s enough of an aggressive pattern here with those three franchises that something’s happening. And I for one am very excited about it. We’ve gone a long time without a team, much less two teams, in the second largest market in the country. I can’t tell you which ones I ultimately think will end up there but I do think we’re finally honing in on it.”
“I have to say, I thought 10 years ago, not at this level, but I thought that the league would have this all resolved by this Super Bowl. I had in my head in 2005, or 06, the for the Super Bowl in 2016, it would be coming back to L.A. for Super Bowl 50, right where it all started. But we’re going to miss out on that by a few years of having football back in that market but it’s on the way.”
Nantz seems pretty confident it’s going to happen, but Simms seem almost certain. Here’s his response:
Phil Simms:
“Putting numbers on it, I’m going to say a seven for next year just because I think that once it heats up, it’s going to go so fast and they’re going to be so aggressive in what they’re going to do. And then in 2017 it’s a 10. I’ll be shocked if there’s not a team – at least one, probably two in there – by 2017 and I think it’s going to be unbelievable, I really do. I think the city of Los Angeles and that area is going to go crazy over whoever decides to relocate there. The stadium’s going to be awesome and it’s just going to be a terrific thing to be a part of. It’s going to be great for the NFL. People say ‘oh, it didn’t work here last time,’ but that was a long time ago. They’re ready for it now and the NFL has changed dramatically since the last time a team was in L.A.”
Nantz followed up by offering “a conspiracy theory”
Jim Nantz:
“Obviously we don’t set the (NFL) schedule, but we look at it with great scrutiny. If Phil is right, and there’s a better than two-thirds chance that there’s going to be football in Los Angeles, that means something is breaking, realistically, I think by Thanksgiving (…) So we’re talking about a story that’s going to evolve in the next 90 days if it is a better than 50 percent chance.
But isn’t it interesting, that St. Louis’ last home game of the season, is a Thursday night game national telecast on NFL Network, And isn’t it interesting, that Oakland’s last home game of the year, is a Thursday night game, on the NFL Network, on Dec. 24?
Maybe it’s just pure coincidence, but would it be both of those teams? Would it be one of those teams involved? The odds are that one of those two would be involved in it, so that means that if it does break here in 90 days, we’re going to be broadcasting the last appearance by that team in that town, maybe even on two occasions.
Both the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders plan a shared stadium near L.A. in case their hometown venue deals don’t end up working out.
If they can’t get their new stadiums, then the Chargers and Raiders will move forward on this plan to build a privately financed, $1.7-billion stadium in Carson, California, near Los Angeles.
Here’s a video showing the artist renderings of the proposed shared stadium in Carson.
This was all precipitated by the St. Louis Rams owner’s plan. And it puts the discussion back in the foreground. It’s time to re-examine the arguments and debate as to why Los Angeles is such a “poor* sports* town*”, and it isn’t related to weather and beaches (and all the other similar cliches, also applied to Miami every time very poor attendance at a major sporting event in South Beach becomes headline news).
We spoke with a high profile Angelino and NFL pundit, NFL Network’s Curtis Conway, about this idea. Conway grew up in L.A., played his college ball at USC (in the same venue where the Raiders played). You can hear his insights in the podcast here at this link.
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Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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