The future of LA football

[Honolulu Blue]

Hi guys. Thanks for replying to my other polls. We had some very interesting discussions.

I saw a video that sparked my interest. I'm sure the vast majority of you know about the discussion swirling around various teams moving to Los Angeles in the next few years. I suspect I'll have to truncate the poll question you actually see, but please interpret it as the following:

At the beginning of the 2018 NFL regular season, how many NFL teams will have their home stadiums within 50 miles of Los Angeles, California?

I'm sorry it sounds so awkward, but I need it to be to cover most of the contingencies.

Also, if you have time and interest please mention whether you think the LA team(s) will be expansion or current teams that are moving (and from where you think they will move).

Thank you for reading and replying.

[lungs]

Rams

[Kodos]

One. New Orleans. Oh, wait. You don't mean Louisiana.

[Kodos]

One, and the Rams do seem like a likely option.

[albionmoonlight]

I'll say Rams and another surprise team.

[britrock88]

Either Raiders or Chargers. I don't expect both will happen with them in the same division.

[BillJasper]

Rams and Chargers. Raiders will end up in either San Antonio or St. Louis.

[korme]

I don't see why the league doesn't just add 2 or 4 more teams. The quality would suffer, but the average fan would just think GUHHHHHHH MORE FOOTBALL

[QuikSand]

Zero has a pretty strong track record of winning this one.

[Butter]

I don't see why the league doesn't just add 2 or 4 more teams. The quality would suffer, but the average fan would just think GUHHHHHHH MORE FOOTBALL

How about 8? Add one more team to each division, add 2 more games to the season schedule, add another round to the playoffs. It's a win-win-win for the NFL from a money standpoint.

I guess they would lose their leverage in stadium negotiations, though, because you need a lot of potential cities that could support a team in order to ransom existing cities for public funding and ridiculous monetary concessions.

[NobodyHere]

I don't see why the league doesn't just add 2 or 4 more teams. The quality would suffer, but the average fan would just think GUHHHHHHH MORE FOOTBALL

I wonder how that would affect TV revenue sharing. Would the 2 to 4 teams bring in enough TV viewers to make it worthwhile? Or would it dilute the revenues so that each team will get less money.

Also I'm sure the NFL likes to have plenty of boogeyman cities they can threaten to move to whenever an owner wants a new stadium.

[albionmoonlight]

I wonder how that would affect TV revenue sharing. Would the 2 to 4 teams bring in enough TV viewers to make it worthwhile? Or would it dilute the revenues so that each team will get less money.

Any new team would have to pay a huge fee to get in, so that would be a nice one-time cash influx for the owners. But, if the league adds, say, two teams, then it would need to increase revenues by ~6% just to break even on revenue sharing (feel free to correct my math, but the point is, you have to grow the pie a pretty significant amount to cut out 34 pieces that are all the same size as the current 32 pieces).

[Logan]

I'm guessing that true expansion would only come from outside the US. That's how you expand the pie big enough virtually overnight.

[ISiddiqui]

Any new team would have to pay a huge fee to get in, so that would be a nice one-time cash influx for the owners. But, if the league adds, say, two teams, then it would need to increase revenues by ~6% just to break even on revenue sharing (feel free to correct my math, but the point is, you have to grow the pie a pretty significant amount to cut out 34 pieces that are all the same size as the current 32 pieces).

I do think that, at the least, a team in LA would add the 6% easily (and may even make up for the 2nd expansion team in a smaller metro). Of course, then other teams couldn't threaten to move there as mentioned...

[tarcone]

With all the crap Kroenke is pulling , I don't think the Rams will move. We have thrown up a stadium proposal in 6 months. The land is available and will be purchased. The corporations are backing it. The state wants it. The city wants it. Utilities have to be moved and the companies are on board to move it.
If the Rams do move, the Raiders will probably be here. Or Kroneke will sell the Rams and buy the Raiders or the Chargers and move them.

[BillJasper]

With all the crap Kroenke is pulling , I don't think the Rams will move. We have thrown up a stadium proposal in 6 months. The land is available and will be purchased. The corporations are backing it. The state wants it. The city wants it. Utilities have to be moved and the companies are on board to move it.
If the Rams do move, the Raiders will probably be here. Or Kroneke will sell the Rams and buy the Raiders or the Chargers and move them.

I thought I saw a story yesterday that the legislature wasn't on board?

[ISiddiqui]

You're correct:

Lawmaker opposition casts doubt on new Rams stadium in St. Louis | FOX Sports (http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/st-louis-rams-new-stadium-issue-missouri-lawmakers-cast-doubt-082615)

Makes it a bit more likely to see the Rams move.

[bob]

Let them move then... Maybe St. Louis can use those funds for better purposes.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want any of the teams here in Atlanta to go, but the stadium boom here is nuts:
- new baseball stadium under construction (Turner Field was opened in 1996 for the Olympics)
- new football stadium under construction (Georgia Dome was opened in 1992)
- new basketball owner now wants a new stadium or at least major renovations of Philips Arena, which opened in 1999.

Plus a $30 million soccer facility for the new team in Dekalb.

The Atlanta area could use those funds for so many better things.

[Chief Rum]

I'm rolling with Rams and Chargers. The NFL will allow Kroenke to play his game with the Inglewood stadium and move, so long as Kroenke allows the Chargers to play there, too.

As an aside, if the Rams do return to LA, I'll become a Rams fan again (diehard as a kid, swore off of them when they left).

This scenario has been suggested with this additional possibility: that the Raiders would then move to San Diego, into a stadium heavily financed by the NFL, and that that stadium would become a destination point and regularly in the Super Bowl rotation.

[tarcone]

So short sighted. The tax dollars created by keeping the Rams far outweighs what it will cost.
And the last I heard was they were going to extend the bond payments of the current stadium to build the new one.

Also, the Rams were named the philanthropic organization of the year last year.

Stupid.

[ISiddiqui]

So short sighted. The tax dollars created by keeping the Rams far outweighs what it will cost.

It never, ever does. Lots of economics work has been done on this issue. Public funding for stadiums is a loser for economic growth.

[britrock88]

It never, ever does. Lots of economics work has been done on this issue. Public funding for stadiums is a loser for economic growth.

I think he meant the reverse of the way you (and I) read this.

[BillJasper]

It never, ever does. Lots of economics work has been done on this issue. Public funding for stadiums is a loser for economic growth.

We learned that the hard way here.

[MizzouRah]

I really hope it's not the Rams. :(

Guess I'll have to burn my Rams stuff and buy some Chiefs or Arizona Cardinals stuff.

[ISiddiqui]

To be fair, you stole them before LA would have stole them back ;).

[tarcone]

I just got more info today. It was state legislators writing a letter. It is just noise. The bond will be extended is all. Private money will be used and when the current bond for the current stadium is Spain off in 2021, it will be extended it pay off new stadium.

[BillJasper]

I just got more info today. It was state legislators writing a letter. It is just noise. The bond will be extended is all. Private money will be used and when the current bond for the current stadium is Spain off in 2021, it will be extended it pay off new stadium.

Not sure about the local politics of the area. But I have a feeling the Rams are already gone. Kroenke has enough money to fight the NFL in court for years if they try to block him.

Besides, they have a guy willing to pay for his own stadium. The NFL will look really bad in the eyes of the public if they try to block it.