L.A. stadium approved, talks with teams to begin in February

[Tickle Fiend]

I would think Jacksonville would be the most likely to leave for L.A. It wouldn't seem right if one of the other teams left their city. Oakland and St. Louis have played in L.A., so that would be okay, too. I doubt we'll be seeing the L.A. 49ers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4585508

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he has signed a bill allowing the construction of a 75,000-seat stadium that developers hope will lure an NFL team back to the Los Angeles area.

Schwarzenegger said he signed the environmental exemption bill last week but saved the announcement for a news conference in Industry, where the stadium would be built about 15 miles east of Los Angeles.

Majestic has targeted seven teams it plans to approach after the Super Bowl in February about move to the Los Angeles area: the Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, St. Louis Rams, San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers.

 

[The Fallen Angel]

its gonna be the chargers, their contract with san diego ends this year and wont be renewed

 

[10 armed tkler]

I wish hope and pray it be the Jaguars.

 

[jaba]

I dont know, Southern Cali has been down this road before, some cities have actually put shovels to ground before everything got waived off in NFL cat fight negotiations. The city of Irwindale has a big hole in the ground and their city treasury is millions lighter over the raider Al Davis bait and switch deal. The citizens of Pasadena california told the NFL to go get lost, they have the UCLA Bruins in the Rose Bowl and are happy with the current situation. The L A Coliseum packs the stands with sold out USC Trojan games, and fans dont have to worry about idiot pro football television blackout restrictions, and other dumb media constraints.

But if the NFL finds a local city sucker enough to pay for and build a stadium for a bunch of NFL corporate millionaires, more power to them.

 

[MrMacphisto]

I would think Roski's prime targets would be the Raiders, the Chargers, or... the Vikings.

Yes, the Vikings, believe it or not, are the least profitable NFL franchise. I don't know if things have changed much in the last year with Favre now part of the team, but if their earnings are about the same as they were last year, there is quite an incentive for the Vikings to move.

It would be much like how the Lakers made the same move in the NBA a few decades ago.

 

[Adam]

If it must happen, let it be the Jaguars. Every single one of those other cities have a lot of NFL history behind them. Having said that, it sucks when an NFL team has to pack up and leave any city. Baltimore went through that years ago with the Colts.

 

[Goodieluver]

Heh how to solve cali's budget? Build a new stadium

 

[MrMacphisto]

I don't know what the profitability numbers have looked like for any of those teams lately, but I think it would be the sentimentally for Buffalo to lose the Bills. Vikings and 49ers are a distant second. I don't see too many people caring about the others.

But hey, if profitability is the main goal, why should it be any different for LA than with their last two teams? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm really curious what's different.

The Bills are more likely to relocate to Toronto. Currently, they play one game in the Rogers Centre every year.

The only difference with Roski's proposal is that this would be the first fully privately funded stadium in L.A. for the sake of bringing in a NFL team. Previous teams that have moved to L.A. were at least partially attracted with public funds.

Roski will likely strike up a deal with L.A. involving public funds if a team actually moves there, but as far as the stadium goes, it's purely privately-funded.