The NFL's Return to Los Angeles Is a Terrible Idea

Zócalo Public Square ^ | October 30, 2014 | Joe Mathews

[kosciusko51]

It is LA City Hall. Seen on the LAPD badges (esp. Joe Friday's)

[CdMGuy]

It’s the Los Angeles city hall. If you are old enough, you might remember a TV show from the 1950s called Mr. District Attorney (not sure about the exact title). It always showed the LA city hall at the start of the program.

Back in the 1970s and 80s there was a morning talk radio show called Lohman and Barkley. Those two guys created a bunch of fictional characters and voices who referred to city hall as The Pointy Building.

[Rodamala]

That looks like the LA city hall from Dragnet... oh wait...

[TBP]

That was what they said about returning Major League Baseball to Washington, DC.

[TBP]

They’re.

[morphing libertarian]

It is. LA City Hall

[al baby]

Ask Lance Renztla

[RGT]

Los Angeles Galalians.

[MUDDOG]

He blazed the way for today’s NFL players.

[discostu]

I don’t remember DC being used as a threat to get stadiums built, at least not successfully. At least a dozen NFL stadiums have been built under the threat of “or we’ll move to LA”, including the one being build now in Minnesota.

[GeronL]

taxpayers funding stadiums is always a bad idea

[MUDDOG]

About 15 years ago, Kay Hagan's husband had a "soak the taxpayers" scheme to build a major-league baseball stadium in Kernersville (a small town between Greensboro and Winston-Salem) to be funded with an additional restaurant sales tax, to try to lure the Minnesota Twins to move to Kernersville.

Chip Hagan would've made a bundle on the construction.

Thankfully it didn't go through, but it was a near thing.

[stormer]

It needs the globe from the old P-I building in Seattle...

[Fiji Hill]

Why does LA need an NFL team when we have the Occidental College Tigers?

[SevenofNine]

hate to say this I think going be Chargers

Even my San Diego relatives goof on me

SO when you going take our Chargers LOL!

[married21]

Nooo! Harumph.

[TBP]

I don’t remember DC being used as a threat to get stadiums built, at least not successfully.

It was used many times. The implicit idea was "build me a ballpark or I'll move to Washington."

Two such cases were the White Sox and the Giants. The Giants were ever-so-close to coming. So were the Houston Astros, to the point that a DC radio station had agreed to pick up their games.

Washington was the "threat" city, and it hasn't quite been replaced in that capacity in a decade.

[BobL]

Streets near Houston city center are Third World because we spent all our money on building a train and building stadiums for rick folk. But then we also don’t complain (maybe because we can’t figure it out).

[Loud Mime]

The Rose Bowl is the worst stadium; it’s made to pack in fans and nothing more.

[Hyman Roth]

I remember this. Hagan has to go on Tuesday