By: Conner Williams Editor in Chief
After more than two decades without a professional football team in the country’s second-largest market, Los Angeles is about to get NFL crazy.
Recently, NFL owners approved the Rams’ request – which cost owner Stan Kroenke a small fee of $500 million – to move back home to L.A. in a vote of 30-2. The organization will build a $3 billion stadium in Inglewood, California.
Several other teams have shown interest in moving to the Southern California metropolitan area, including the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers. The two teams submitted a bid to build a stadium in Carson, California that they would both use as their home stadium.
However, the Chargers have been given a one-year option to decide if they want to relocate and join the Rams in Inglewood. The Chargers have until the end of the owners meetings that take place between March 20-23 to decide if they will remain in San Diego or move to L.A. for the 2016 season.
Perhaps the biggest factor affecting that decision is a vote to request public funding to replace Qualcomm Stadium – a request that would cost the taxpayers $350 million.
As of Jan. 13, the Raiders decided to withdraw their application to move, and instead wish to work with the league to find a new stadium. If the Chargers don’t move to L.A. with the Rams, then the Raiders can take the same deal the Chargers were offered.
Last week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that the league would provide $100 million to both the Chargers and Raiders if they remain in their home markets.
So what does this all mean?
It means that the NFL really could not care less about its fans. Once again, the owners hold the taxpayers hostage and demand public money for new facilities, and if that request isn’t fulfilled, they pack up and move.
The massive empty market in L.A. doesn’t hurt either, but the league doesn’t actually need to sell tickets in order to make money. According to a Jan. 19 article from the Washington Post, the NFL’s television deals bring in nearly $5 billion in revenue annually, far outpacing all other professional sports.
But the upheavals to L.A. mean tons of new marketing techniques like TV spots, merchandise, and local advertisements – and that’s big money. The Washington Post also reports that Forbes expects the value of the Rams’ organization to double to nearly $3 billion, joining some of professional sports’ most valuable franchises, including the Dallas Cowboys (worth $4 billion), Real Madrid (worth $3.26 billion), and the New England Patriots and New York Yankees (both worth $3.2 billion).
This shows a blatant lack of loyalty from a team to its hometown; if the money isn’t there, they just up and move somewhere else. I get that the NFL is a business and operates for profit, but maybe show some class and work to become a more successful franchise rather than leave for somewhere else.
