Posted on 02/08/2011 8:07:14 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
In an image provided by AEG, a proposed NFL football stadium, to be named Farmers Field, was depicted next to Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke called the 30-year naming-rights deal with Farmers Insurance Exchange for the planned $1 billion stadium "the most significant step forward in the last 15 years in our efforts as a community, as leaders, to return the NFL to Los Angeles."
Sid Hartman: Vikings-to-L.A. threat is real one
With Los Angeles looking for two NFL teams to move to its new stadium, don't be surprised if the Wilfs look for one of the spots.
The Twin Cities lost the Lakers in 1960 and the North Stars in 1993 because of the lack of decent facilities being provided and because the political climate wasn't right for building those decent facilities. And we almost lost the Timberwolves in 1994, and the Twins were up for elimination in 2001.
The Lakers moved to Los Angeles, where they remain one of the NBA's showcase franchises. The North Stars won a Stanley Cup as the Dallas Stars in 1999. The Wolves remained at Target Center only because NBA Commissioner David Stern wouldn't allow the team to move to New Orleans, and a Hennepin County judge's injunction helped ensure the Twins would play the 2002 season.
Now it's pretty evident that with the Anschutz Entertainment Group having secured a $700 million naming deal from Farmers Insurance for the Los Angeles football stadium that AEG plans to build, there is greater danger than ever of losing the Vikings if a new stadium bill isn't passed by the current Legislature.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
The NFL - it’s all about greed.
I think it is hilarious that L.A. keeps asking the NFL and teams “how much will you pay us to let you set up here?” while the NFL and teams blink and posture.
The last go-round was with the (now) Texans and it only cost Houston $2 billion.
We don’t do a lot right in L.A., but we have this one down pat.
L.A. “fans” are the most devastating in all of sports. If our teams don’t win - WE DON’T CARE! Even The Lakers. In the years between the Magic era and the Shaq years, the GW Forum WAS EMPTY. WE DON’T CARE!
Only a child thinks the opposite of love is hate. “Hate” means YOU CARE! The opposite of love is INDIFFERENCE!
And the rest of the league play you chumps (anyone from Cleveland reading?) with the constant voodoo threat “we are moving to L.A. if you don’t.. (long list of demands that cost the taxpayers billions of tax dollars).
If the cold-weather climes in the USA would get (or rent) a life, they wouldn’t be such patsies.
In the meantime, the annual “LAWSY! DEY MOVIN’ TO L.A.” stage show provides fun through the entire off-season.
They had that 20 years ago, and didn't support either enough to keep them there.
LA's big for sure, but I don't think they really have the pro football fan base or civic ethic that says "this is our team will be with them win or lose." Too many other things to do there in the fall and too much of an attitude of either win or get lost. Long term loyalty is not really part of the mix.
In the immortal words of Al Davis, the owner of the former Los Angeles Raiders..
Just Win, Baby!!
What happen to Irwindale as a location, the rock quarry? Did the ecoNuts win on blocking that site?
Stop making sense. If a stadium deal ever gets done in L.A., of course the stadium will be in or near downtown.
Gotta have all the mayor's pretty little toys all bunched together so he can show them off to his mayor buddies via helicopter tour.
That's what happened in Denver when they decided to build Rockie's Stadium, the Pepsi Center, and the new football stadium all near downtown. No concerns for traffic, just concerns for packing all the people in near their precious "LoDo" lofts.
After the stadium goes in, though, it might finally make sense to start taking the subway. The freeways will be at a standstill.
Didn’t Sid report once that the Twins were moving to Mexico City?
It's a beautiful thing that allows the league to be competitive.
Without that, we wouldn't be celebrating the Packers 4th Super Bowl victory. (Actually as a Steeler fan, I'm not really celebrating, but hats off to those Cheese Heads -- younz guys deserved it.)
That’s not quite the way it’s being “sold” to the average taxpayer, but then again, knowing what I know about LA County voters, it may not matter.
The, ahem, “Mayor”, is up to his eyeballs in shenanigans. Withholding vital information in his “breathless” announcements about the stadium being financed by “private enterprise”.
It turns out that the city will be on the hook for quite a hefty sum if it goes south.
There are so many things to do in So Cal on a Sunday in the winter.
Go to the Beach
Go Skiing.
Go Boating
Go Fishing.
Go to the OC swap Meet.
Go wine tasting.
Go hiking.
Ride your bike or Motorcycle.
The list goes on and on.
This isn't back east where all the outdoor Fun stops in October.
BTW the traffic on the 405-5-10-101 freeways is WORSE on the weekend than it is during the week.
Places where you can win or lose, and still be loved either way.
In a sport that you can't buy your way to championships, there needs to be a culture that supports you through the tough times.
LA ain't that culture.
Los Angeles doesn’t need the NFL. We’ve already got two superb football teams—the Occidental College Tigers and the USC Trojans.
Also not sure if L.A. captives (citizens) want another day
of impossile traffic in downtown l.a...but the city does
need a “center” cultures...so if Staples, the convention
center, and new football field, and the museums can get it
together, then downtown could become a day trip destination.
I.e. go to museum, or music venue, or go shopping, then catch
the late Lakers, or clippers game, or the Kings, or go to a
football game at USC (right downthe street), or UCLA about
10-15 miles away, or a pro football game., then catch a late
night dinner..then go home...
If Anaheim was smart,they would upgrade their stadium to
fully acommodate a team (san Diego?)...there would be disneyland, orange
county shopping, the Ducks...and no masssive traffic jams...
they would need to build dedicated roads to get to the stadium,
but that would solve the problem.....
LA has two MLS teams and no NFL teams, says it all.
Can I be honest?
I could care less if they build a new stadium in LA or anywhere in CA...Most people here could care less about that trivial BS.
All the schick about watching lumberheads slam into each other is really over rated. I say build it in Texas or North Dakota.
The University of Southern California and UCLA aren't going anywhere, and USC wins a lot. That takes a lot of the edge off of wanting a pro team. You also nailed it that in LA if you're winning, the fans are there, but if you're not winning, they're nowhere in sight.
This could be the first big test of whether the next meltdown will be in pro sports. The NBA has been moving quite a few teams. As you mentioned the NFL has always been good at keeping a slight shortage of teams. Since the last expansion, though, the threat of moving doesn't carry as much clout. The Bills are playing games in Canada. Jacksonville has never had a big following, and the NFL wants to be in LA a lot more than LA wants the NFL. With the roof of the metrodome caving in, the Vikings will need a new stadium one way or the other. If not LA, what city is there that wants a team that could support one? Possibly San Antonio, but I wouldn't bet on it. They have the Alamo Dome.
The thing is, though, the tax bucks ain't there right now, so the Vikings will either play in an existing facility or? Seriously, if they don't work something out in Minnesota or LA, where is there in the US that is big enough for a pro team that doesn't already have one?
Dodger Staduim is wonderful by itself, except it takes an hour to drive home -- and that's just from the parking lot to the freeway onramp! (I am not exaggerating.)
But the inner city councilmen will fight any plans to build it outside of Downtown.
They have decks of fresh race cards ready for play.
The fans don’t want football in downtown.
The Vikings guy knows all of this.
He is just trying to get money out of Mpls.
How much less could you care?
Yeah. Drugs, plastic surgery, and celebrity gossip are just so much more important than football. You wonder why so many of us have contempt for SoCal?
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