LA fans supported the teams just fine. They left because they were given free stadiums elsewhere.
Pro sports team don’t care about the difference between LA fans and St. Louis fans; there’s lots of places with fans, and St. Louis and Oakland are not any better than LA would have been; they’re two of the worst cities in the NFL for attendance. But the Rams and Raiders don’t care. Where the big money is is in taxpayer subsidies, and both teams will cheerily go back to LA, or go to Salt Lake City or Hartford or Toronto or anywhere else if that place will give them a fortune in subsidies and free real estate.
The Denver Broncos fit this. Year after year they have a team good enough to reach the Super Bowl but they’ve only won two and lost five. Whether the quarterback is Elway or Manning, they always seem to fall apart in the big one or they get blown out in the playoffs. And this is frustrating because they are consistently one of the stronger teams in the AFC. Peyton has been amazing since his comeback from surgery, but they were blown out in the Super Bowl by Seattle and the year before by Baltimore in the playoffs. I’m sure the Denver fans would love to see him win one with the Broncos before he retires.
"“The same 30,000 to 40,000 fans showed up every Sunday, and beyond that it depended on how much the team was winning and who the opponent was,” Truax said. “When they left, that small group was disappointed. Some were devastated. But that’s a small fraction of the Los Angeles area. There wasn’t a lot of hue and cry.”
“Life in Los Angeles for the Raiders was much like Phase II in Oakland. They packed the Coliseum with 92,000-plus fans for some playoff games and were a hot ticket when winning. They struggled to draw 40,000 when mediocre.”
“And if an NFL team were to return to L.A., then how easy would it be to sell out the games and eliminate blackouts? The region’s track record suggests that would be difficult.”
How’s this different from St. Louis or Oakland? Attendance has slumped in both; I’m really not seeing what the difference is. They couldn’t really do worse in LA.
Present people with a terrible product, and with rare exceptions, they will not buy the product. There’s no getting around that. I’m not super impressed with a story that amounts to a guy saying “I’m not sure if we’d support a team.” Who’s this guy and why does he know that? Howie Long says everyone in LA’s from somewhere else… well, that’s just absurd. Of course that’s not true. There are more people in LA who were born there than there are people of any birthplace in most NFL cities.
You put a team in LA with a real stadium and the fans will go. The question is, though, who will build the stadium?
This. I became so disgusted by the Detroit Lions franchise, that I, after 39 years of life, (and very vocally in front of my family-- Detroit Lions fans every one) switched my fandom from Detroit to Chicago this year.
I’d pick the Bills fans but I’m a Bills fan so that’s not going to work.
I can’t pick the Browns fans because they went all-in on Manziel-fever, so it’s their own fault. I can’t pick the Bears fans, even though this season is basically a telenovela, because they’re (the fans) such whiny little children. Jets fans have it pretty rough, but I’m incapable of pity for people from Jersey. I’d *almost *pick Patriots fans for being insufferable, but in the end
I went with the Washington Native American Ethnic Slurs, because Dan Snyder.
Saints and 49ers have no business being on this list.
Right, because up to that point things had been going so well. Look, I’m a Browns fan and I cannot wrap my head around how they didn’t get in this poll. Yes, they’ve exceeded expectations this year, but sure enough the wheels have fallen off the cart. This year it happened in December instead of October.
I voted for Jacksonville, even though I’m not sure they *have *a fan base. But the other teams on the list have enjoyed some sort of success in my lifetime.
Dude, we’re kindred spirits! (Yeah, I was pissed that you stole our DC, but Jim Schwartz is working out ok.) I guess I was just disappointed in you (collectively) for going nuts over Manziel. You’re better than that! Although I’m sure you’re just like us and keep telling yourselves that “This year will be different!” and get excited about anything that might make a difference.
I don’t know that Jacksonville has fans, but even if they did, the team has been to the playoffs twice this century! Neither of us can say that!
I think it’s between the Jets, Bears and R******s. These are teams that were fairly good and seemed to be on a positive track in the recent past, and then it all just went to hell. IMO, this leads to a higher level of despondency than having sucked forever or currently having one bad season after a run of sustained success, which describes the other teams on the list. Arbitrarily, I will vote for the Jest.
I went with Jacksonville based on having the least amount of “dislike”, for lack of a better word, for them of the teams on the list. And as a lifelong share holder and fan of the Packers I hope Jay Cutler stays in Chicago forever.
It looks like right now, with 70 votes in, that Cleveland is leading the poll with 13 votes. That’s just from reading the comments so the actual number might be higher from other voters who haven’t explained their “Someone Else” vote.
Well they were there at the start of the Super Bowl era. Cleveland fans had to live with “the Move.” There was a compromise that treated the Ravens as a new team leaving the historical records with the inactive Cleveland Browns. There was a gap and then poof there’s Cleveland Browns again. That’s certainly more history of futility for fans than completely new expansion teams.
Go Lions! Win a playoff game… just one… pretty please.
