# Why Doesn't LA Have An NFL Team? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701 "2009-01-30T09:28:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/41 "2009-02-02T06:41:49Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > If LA got an NFL team, San Francisco would have to get one, too. HEY ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/42 "2009-02-02T11:03:16Z")
The Nets are supposed to get a new arena in Brooklyn but I don’t think that deal is final yet. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/43 "2009-02-02T13:34:31Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > Sorry guys, but while the Jets and the Giants are “New York” teams, they play in New Jersey. Most everybody around here is okay with that. You should be too. What exactly is your point? You understand that the phrase “in New York” has different specific meanings depending on context, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/44 "2009-02-02T16:35:21Z")
acsenray: > [@](#): > > Los Angeles seems to be the sole sensible city in the country by refusing to bow to sports-magnate blackmail. You want a new stadium? You’re billionaires. Fuck you. Build it with your own money. San Francisco was sensible enough to say that as well, and the Giants built PacBell/SBC/AT&T/whatever Park on their own dime. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/45 "2009-02-02T16:36:06Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think a big problem with building a football stadium is that it’s needed for fewer then ten games a year, making it difficult to amortize the costs. So how can it be used more often than that? Could it be used by a college football team as well? What about Major League Soccer? How does the LA Galaxy do? In Europe and South America, they fill stadiums for soccer matches and there are thousands of immigrants in LA, so you’d think it would be more popular than it apparently is. I went to a Galaxy game back in July (got free tickets from my wife’s office) and it was: a) a whole lot of fun, we have talked about going to see more Galaxy games b) fairly crowded c) a pain in the ass to get to and in a fairly small stadium. You _could_ put an NFL team there I think. I would say the stadium as a whole seemed smaller than the rose bowl, but that could just be my perception. If it was about Rose Bowl size, the only downside would be it’s location. But even that could be spun to be an upside since it is roughly half way between LA proper and Orange County. Does anyone know why the Home Depot Center wouldn’t work for an NFL Team? ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/46 "2009-02-02T17:18:14Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > The Nets do not play in “The Big Apple.” The New Jersey Nets play in New Jersey. > > And regarding the Giants and the Jets…what’s with all you people in other parts of the country claiming that parts of New Jersey are really part of New York. There was a recent thread where someone from somewhere in the Midwest kept insisting that Hoboken was in NYC. Or rather, he conceded that it was technically part of NJ, but for all intents and purposes, was part of NYC. 😕 > > Sorry guys, but while the Jets and the Giants are “New York” teams, they play in New Jersey. Most everybody around here is okay with that. You should be too. Sheesh… I changed my post to say “Big Apple” instead of NYC so we could avoid this sort of pedantic argument. The point with respect to the Jets and Giants isn’t whether or not their stadium is located within the city limits of New York. The stadium’s not in Princeton… its five miles from Manhattan. The point is that they draw their crowds from the New York metropolitan area. That doesn’t change if the Jets move from the Meadowlands to the west side, or if the Nets move from East Rutherford, NJ to Brooklyn. Similarly, it doesn’t matter to the NFL whether a new football team moves to Industry or Pasadena or South Central… what matters is that it would be in the Los Angeles market. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/47 "2009-02-02T17:49:30Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > I went to a Galaxy game back in July (got free tickets from my wife’s office) and it was: > > a) a whole lot of fun, we have talked about going to see more Galaxy games > b) fairly crowded > c) a pain in the ass to get to and in a fairly small stadium. > > You _could_ put an NFL team there I think. I would say the stadium as a whole seemed smaller than the rose bowl, but that could just be my perception. If it was about Rose Bowl size, the only downside would be it’s location. But even that could be spun to be an upside since it is roughly half way between LA proper and Orange County. > > Does anyone know why the Home Depot Center wouldn’t work for an NFL Team? According to Wikipedia, it’s a 27,000 seat stadium, so much smaller than any NFL stadium. Plus Wiki says that it’s a purpose-built soccer stadium; I don’t know how well a stadium could be used for both soccer and football. Given the size of the LA market, how much is an NFL team going to make from stadium revenues (tickets, concessions, luxury boxes, advertising, sponsorships, etc) vs television revenues? Could you put some money into upgrading the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl (less than the billion or so for a new stadium) and make a profitable franchise, based primarily on the television revenues? ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/48 "2009-02-02T21:03:03Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Given the size of the LA market, how much is an NFL team going to make from stadium revenues (tickets, concessions, luxury boxes, advertising, sponsorships, etc) vs television revenues? Could you put some money into upgrading the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl (less than the billion or so for a new stadium) and make a profitable franchise, based primarily on the television revenues? If you’re an NFL owner and you can’t make a profit, you deserve to have your franchise revoked. The NFL is an astoundingly successful enterprise, and it generally pools its revenues equally among its franchises. A notable exception to this rule is gameday revenue, i.e. tickets and parking. But the problems with the Rose Bowl, Coliseum, and Home Depot Center are that they belong to other entities. Pasadena (a well-to-do suburb) owns the Rose Bowl and isn’t eager to add NFL traffic to the UCLA traffic that is already there 6 times a year. The Coliseum is owned by the Coliseum Authority, a clumsy, poorly-run political agency which just got finished with a pissing war it had with USC, its main tenant. And parking around that area sucks. And that area in general sucks. The Home Depot Center, in addition to the fact that it’s too small, is on land owned by California State University, Dominguez Hills. Their neighbors didn’t want the HDC in the first place and definitely won’t welcome an expansion that would bring it up to NFL size (which is around 65,000 seats). ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/49 "2009-02-02T21:21:04Z")
Parenthetically…former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue was voted down, for the third time, for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday (every other man who served as NFL commissioner for 10 years or more is in the Hall). It’s alleged that one of the two biggest reasons that some voters are sour on him is his inability to get a team back into Los Angeles. Also, I read on [SI.com](http://SI.com) last week that there’s some rumblings that the San Diego Chargers may be considering moving back to Los Angeles (where they played in their first season, 1960). ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/50 "2009-02-02T21:21:16Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > But the problems with the Rose Bowl, Coliseum, and Home Depot Center are that they belong to other entities. Pasadena (a well-to-do suburb) owns the Rose Bowl and isn’t eager to add NFL traffic to the UCLA traffic that is already there 6 times a year. > > The Coliseum is owned by the Coliseum Authority, a clumsy, poorly-run political agency which just got finished with a pissing war it had with USC, its main tenant. And parking around that area sucks. And that area in general sucks. These are the reasons why the Rose Bowl and Coliseum will never happen. Padadena will block anyone else trying to get into the Rose Bowl and the Coliseum Authority is a pain in the ass. They are the reason the Raiders left. The Rams used to play at Anaheim Stadium though. That would put the team well outside of LA, but still, is that usable as a football stadium? The Angels play there so my guess is that it’s large and nice enough for a major league sport (what with the Angels being a popular major league team and all.) > [@](#): > > The Home Depot Center, in addition to the fact that it’s too small, is on land owned by California State University, Dominguez Hills. Their neighbors didn’t want the HDC in the first place and definitely won’t welcome an expansion that would bring it up to NFL size (which is around 65,000 seats). I suspected that it was way too small. I think it could be converted, but that runs into the same problems you have with the Coliseum, and if Dominguez Hills doesn’t want the NFL I don’t know that the NFL will want Dominguez Hills enough to care. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/51 "2009-02-02T21:27:30Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > The Rams used to play at Anaheim Stadium though. That would put the team well outside of LA, but still, is that usable as a football stadium? The Angels play there so my guess is that it’s large and nice enough for a major league sport (what with the Angels being a popular major league team and all.) I imagine that it _could_ be…but, in the time since the Rams left there, the NFL has gone away from using “multi-purpose” football / baseball stadiums. There used to be a fair number of them (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Seattle come to mind)…but all the new NFL stadiums (and, for that matter, all the new MLB parks) are specifically built for one sport. I believe that there are only 3 teams still playing in multi-use stadiums: Oakland, Minnesota, and Miami (and I think that Dolphins Stadium was originally designed for football, and they retrofit it so the Marlins could play there). Oh, and the Niners are still playing in Monster / Candlestick / whatever they call it these days, even though the Giants left for their own park a few years back. I also think that they’ve done some renovations to the Anaheim stadium since the Rams left, and I’m not sure if it’s as appropriate for football as it was before. My guess would be that the NFL would far prefer a football-only stadium. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/52 "2009-02-02T21:33:23Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > The Rams used to play at Anaheim Stadium though. That would put the team well outside of LA, but still, is that usable as a football stadium? The Angels play there so my guess is that it’s large and nice enough for a major league sport (what with the Angels being a popular major league team and all.) Nope. The Angels completely renovated the stadium after the Rams left town in 1994. Now it seats slightly over 45,000 and is a baseball park, not a multi-use park. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/53 "2009-02-02T21:35:54Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > My guess would be that the NFL would far prefer a football-only stadium. I am sure they would. MLB probably would rather not share either, but there isn’t anywhere where a new football stadium is going to get built, and the existing ones really won’t work. I don’t know that there is any other choice if LA wants a team. (Not that we do, but I think if we did it would probably be the only way to go.) ETA: silenus says it’s no longer suitable for multi use. Well there goes that idea then, I guess LA can do without football. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/54 "2009-02-02T21:43:09Z")
> [@NAF1138](#): > > The Angels play there so my guess is that it’s large and nice enough for a major league sport (what with the Angels being a popular major league team and all.) Well, as Silenus notes (and as I suspected), renovations in Anaheim have made it moot. Part of the issue is that current thinking in MLB and the NFL on stadium size has diverged greatly. The multi-use stadiums that were built in the 1960s and 1970s typically seated around 50K-60K, which will usually sell out for an NFL game (unless the team is terrible, or fan support is weak), but leaves a ton of empty seats for most baseball games. For many MLB teams, drawing more than 20-25K for a game, particuarly a weeknight game, is very difficult. So, as the new single-use stadiums have been built in the last 2 decades, NFL stadiums are more typically around 65K - 70K, while most of the new baseball stadiums are more like 35K - 45K. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/55 "2009-02-02T21:49:52Z")
The other problem, of course, is the difference in the shape of the playing field, which means that any stadium used for both baseball and football will be a compromise. That’s why I was wondering if you could use the same stadium for both (American) football and soccer. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/56 "2009-02-02T22:43:16Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The other problem, of course, is the difference in the shape of the playing field, which means that any stadium used for both baseball and football will be a compromise. That’s why I was wondering if you could use the same stadium for both (American) football and soccer. Sure. Every game in World Cup '94 was played on an American football field. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/57 "2009-02-02T22:44:21Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The other problem, of course, is the difference in the shape of the playing field, which means that any stadium used for both baseball and football will be a compromise. That’s why I was wondering if you could use the same stadium for both (American) football and soccer. You probably could…but I think the issue again runs into capacity. It seems like those MLS teams that have their own stadiums have built ones that are far smaller (from a seating standpoint) than an NFL team would want. Los Angeles’s Home Depot Center has already been mentioned; Toyota Park (home of the Chicago Fire) is even smaller, only seating 20,000. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/58 "2009-02-02T22:49:13Z")
That’s in the US, however. In most of the rest of the world, they fill 100,000-seat stadiums for soccer matches. I was wondering whether LA, with its large population with many immigrants from soccer-mad countries in Latin America and Europe, could do the same thing. So far, though, it appears not, even with David Beckham. Edited to add, or do those immigrants just follow their hometown football clubs and not the LA Galaxy? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/59 "2009-02-02T22:56:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Edited to add, or do those immigrants just follow their hometown football clubs and not the LA Galaxy? This. I see all sorts of support for the “home country” team, but none at all for the LA Galaxy. Maybe they know we don’t take soccer seriously here. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701/60 "2009-02-02T23:01:54Z")
Maybe Chivas USA sucks up all the immigrant fans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-la-have-an-nfl-team/483701.md?page=4)