Meh. Ralph Wilson is 91. When he dies the team will be gone in less than five years. The current stadium is not set up for the luxury boxes that make the real money and Buffalo couldn’t support them anyway. Toronto is a much bigger tv market as well.
The move may be a failure in the future. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the short term.
Mile High is 1.8 miles in a straight line from the capitol building and about 2 to drive it.
The move also might well destroy the CFL, and its value as a development league for the NFL. There might be some resistance from both leagues to ending the handshake agreement.
Ford Stadium for the Lions is off Woodward Ave. near downtown Detroit. They are next to the Tigers stadium. Both in the city.
Monument Circle to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is 0.5 miles.
Cincinnati is pretty much moving the center of the city directly between the football and baseball stadium, both in the heart of downtown.
St. Louis’ stadium is also 0.5 miles from the Arch as well as the Old Courthouse, which is I believe where you’d put the “heart” of downtown.
ElvisL1ves:
How much value does it really have in that capacity?
The Pepsi Center and Coors Field are about the same distance, if not closer, too.
I don’t know how indicative it is, but it’s certainly true.
LA seems to be the only town where being a season ticket holder is a status symbol, but no indication of being a die hard fan. In fact, it’s the season ticket holders who tend to leave early and/or arrive really late for the baseball and basketball games. They’ve established their status by owning the seat, so there’s no reason to actually be there all the time.
San Francisco is very small, and Candlestick is about as far away from the city center as it can be and still be inside the city limits.
We riot when the Lakers win. Can you imagine what would happen if the Raiders come back, win a few games and we have some Raiders fans “celebrating?”
The Georgia Dome is technically in Downtown Atlanta and is within easy walking distance of pretty much everything.
Save the hyperbole for years when USC is in the AP top 25. Even the Lions can beat Washington.
I think having two major college programs in the city sucks up a lot of fanbase. Additionally, a big chunk of LA’s population are transplants from NYC or Boston, with diehard allegiances intact. On top of that, over 40% of the population speaks Spanish as first language, and less likely to be as passionate about the football that uses hands.
Plus LA Xtreme won the XFL in its first and only season, no where to go but down.
The Bills now play one game a year in Toronto and there are a huge number of people who think that they will move here when Wilson dies. However, those people don’t seem to understand that The Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome) is a woefully small stadium by NFL standards. There is no question the population could support the team but stadium is an issue, like it is in LA.
As far as LA goes, the city has 2 Baseball teams, 2 Basketball team, 2 Hockey teams and 2 major colleges. Not to mention a climate that allows you to be out-doors for much of the year. For whatever reason NFL was the sport/league that was the odd man out there.
I certainly have the Caltrain station is a block away. But the development there has little to do with the ballpark, other than the fact that development was allowed- something which is rare in San-NIMBY-Francisco.
That was why I said most years. But it was meant to be a snark at Detroit rather than USC boosterism. In fact I don’t like the Trojans at all, and schadenfreude-wise, the only team I like losing more than them is the Huskies.
Seattle. The baseball & football stadiums are an easy walk from downtown, can’t be more than a mile.
BTW, keep in mind that even though Giants Stadium is 7 miles from downtown NYC as the crow flies, there’s still the Hudson River in the way, as well as a TON of traffic congestion. It can easily take an hour to get from Times Square to the stadium, no matter which form of transit you are taking. Coming back is even worse because roughly the entire crowd is leaving at the same time. This is one of the reasons that I NEVER go to Meadowlands events. New Jersey Transit just built an extension to the stadium, but only run it for events that more than 30,000 people are expected to attend, which means football and U2-esque concerts.
Also keep in mind that the Giants and Jets originally DID play in New York City proper. They just kept the name when they were relocated to Rutherford.
The relocation to East Rutherford moved them closer to Times Square.
Well, I certainly had hoped that – waitaminute. Oakland? They just moved back up to Oakland?
I thought they were going to New Zealand!
I’m sure it’s been brought up (I haven’t finished going through the thread), but The Detroit Lions are located in the city of Detroit.
The reference to Detroit and Cleveland was sarcasm. 