If They Come, I Will Build It

There are rumors in Los Angeles that a sparkling new $800M stadium may be rising and there are several NFL team willing to relocate to the nation's second-largest sports market.

Billionaire developer Edward P. Roski, partial owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Kings, wants to build a 75,000-seat NFL stadium 20 miles east of Los Angeles in the City of Industry. Construction on the stadium could begin as early as this fall and be ready by the 2011 season. Roski first unveiled his plans for a stadium in April 2008 and in August 2008 had talked of potentially bringing in a team as early as the 2009 NFL season, but this was not the case as the City of Industry City Council just recently approved the stadium's environmental report in January.

But does it make sense to bring a team back to Los Angeles? Will Angelinos support an NFL franchise?

The second largest media market in the US has been without an NFL team since Al Davis slithered back to Oakland with his Raiders in 1995. The Rams left that same year for St. Louis. Three years later in 1998, the Los Angeles Times commissioned a poll gauging local attitudes toward pro football. It found that 59% of Southern Californians did not consider having a pro football team in Los Angeles important. Only 9% of the respondents called themselves a "strong fan" of the Raiders. Some 69% said they were "not a fan." The Rams' numbers were worse. Only 6% called themselves a "strong fan" and 77% said they were "not a fan."

More than ten years has passed since the poll was taken and the longer the NFL is out of Los Angeles, those numbers have dramatically declined. Fans have moved on and thanks to Pete Carroll, USC practically operates as the defacto 33rd NFL team already, besides an NFL team in Los Angeles could mess with USC's salary cap.

Despite the potential lack of interest by disgruntled LA fans, Roski has already started shopping for a team -- probing a small group that includes the Minnesota Vikings.

By know everyone has heard the Vikings' ownership say that they're committed to staying in Minnesota for the love of the fans, blah blah blah. However, be certain they are keeping one eye on what is happening in LA. Minnesota owner Zygi Wylf has made it clear that he would move the team when the Vikings' lease at the Metrodome ends in 2011 if a new stadium is not built.

Other NFL teams that are speculated to be interested in relocating to Los Angeles are the Chargers, Bills and Jaguars. My best guess is that the Bills wouldn't move to Los Angeles because the NFL would rather see them move to Toronto if they're going to move at all, but the Jaguars and Chargers -- probably in that order of likelihood -- could move. One way or another, the NFL wants to put a team back in L.A. If there were a good stadium deal in place, we might even see Al Davis make a bid to return the Raiders to "El Lay".

In any case, given the miserable history of NFL teams relocating to Los Angeles, it will take an entire generation to build the trust and solid fan base to support an NFL franchise.