It's Super Bowl weekend and the entire nation will come to a halt on Sunday afternoon to watch big game. Well, not everywhere. Certainly not in Los Angeles. See, we don't have an NFL team. Haven't had one since 1995 when two teams bolted for the greener pastures of St. Louis and Oakland. That's sixteen years with no pro football (Unless you're counting USC.) Almost an entire generation of potential fans in Los Angeles has been lost to soccer, basketball, the beach, going out to dinner and reading. Speaking for most of the populace, we don't miss the NFL one bit.
Suddenly the city officials have a hankering to build a billion dollar football stadium right in the middle of downtown, right in the middle of the recession. AEG, the people who brought us Staples Center and LA Live, have secured $700 million from Farmer's Insurance for the naming rights to Farmer's Field. The other $350 million will come from our financially strapped city issuing bonds. All the "haves" are spreading the word to the "have-nots" that we must build this stadium. Farmer's Field will be a boon for the city. More jobs! Better for the economy! Not so fast, haves.
First of all this stadium and team will be a toy for the rich, not the average citizen. Let's look at the Dallas Cowboys. If you want to buy season tickets, you have to pay a one-time licensing fee of between $16,000 to $150,000. For each seat! If you don't want to sit alone, double the licensing fee. Now that's just for the right to buy the seats, not the price of the seats themselves. If you think Dallas is extreme because it's Texas, think again. The Carolina Panthers charge $20,000 for seat licenses. How much do you think a pair of tickets on the thirty-yard line will cost at Farmer's Field? How much money do you have in your IRA? The people in Los Angeles will be paying for a party they're not invited to.
The NFL is not marketing to fans anymore. Like everything else in America, it's all about corporations. They're the only ones who can afford to buy tickets. Regular fans? Forget it. Think I'm exaggerating? This Sunday's Super Bowl is so ridiculously out of touch with average American that the NFL is charging fans the bargain price of $200 to watch the game on large screen TVs in the parking lot of Cowboy Stadium! I kid you not. Can you think of anything more humiliating? Give us money, but you can't go inside and heaven forbid, don't go near the hedge fund managers. Super Sunday has become Corporate Christmas.
There has been talk that if we build Farmer's Field, we will be able to attract two teams to Los Angeles. I'm not sure we'd like to steal two teams from existing cities. It really was devastating for sports fans in the Southland when the Raiders and Rams skipped town. Why would we want to do that to other fans? I don't. Plus the NFL hasn't exactly treated Los Angeles with respect the past few years. For some reason, they now play a regular season game in London every year. Last year they also played one in Canada. Hey, what about us? Seems like we're off the NFL's radar for good unless we build them a stadium. And if we do, there's no guarantee that we'll even get a team. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has gone out of his way to ignore us. They're just not that into us in Los Angeles.
I'm a football fan. I grew up in New York where my father had season tickets for the New York Giants. I loved going to the games with my Dad. Nothing better. After I moved out to LA, I bought season seats for the Raiders at the Coliseum with a group of friends. (Contrary to belief in the pro football universe, the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl are two fine stadiums, beloved by most Southlanders.) I've been to two Super Bowls at the Rose Bowl and enjoyed every minute of them. (The corporate tents only took up half the parking lot back then.) However, when we lost the Raiders and the Rams in '95, I lost interest in the NFL. Over the last sixteen years Los Angeles has been used by other teams to shake down their cities to give the local teams sweetheart deals on stadiums the communities can't afford by threatening to move to Los Angeles. The first time the NFL teased us with a team I'll admit I got excited. I lost interest the second time they pulled the rug out from under us, as did most of the fans that went to Raider and Rams games. They lost more fans the third, fourth, fifth and sixth time. Now, except for some transplants from back east and a handful of people who still believe they're part of Raider Nation, we really don't care.
We in Los Angeles have learned to live without pro football. It's not the end of the world. I'll be watching the Super Bowl at a party on Sunday, where most of us will fall silent and watch during the commercials while ignoring the game itself. We've lived without the NFL for sixteen years now. I'm pretty sure we can live without it for another sixteen. Besides, this weekend it's going to be in the eighties! Perfect beach weather!
*cough *cough Dodgers....
The massive transfer of tax dollars paid by the average family to the multi-millionaires and billionaires is the backbone of how LA functions. Why do you think we are giving $52 Million to the billionaire Eli Broad so that he can have a private parking lot for his art museum?
One - I appreciated your point on "stealing" someone else's team --- I can understand why a team like the Jaguars would leave Jacksonville, as the economy there doesn't seem to support an NFL team, but nonetheless - yes - if we're gonna steal someone else's team, then I'm plenty good with stealing just one - no need for two
Two - the Rose Bowl is a GORGEOUS venue and ONE OF A KIND! In addition, parking and tailgaiting is NO PROBLEM at all --- granted, if AEG was building the 'next great' stadium, then building it in downtown is one thing, but judging by the drawings they've put out, 'their' Farmers Field looks ATROCIOUS!!! I agree - let's take this show to the Rose Bowl - and let's spend a 'humble' $100 to $200 million in bonds renovating a fixture (Rose Bowl) that everyone in LA adores and will gladly foot the bill towards for improvements
Three - my one criticism of your article is the lack of mention of Ed Roski's proposed stadium in the City of Industry - Roski's stadium is absolutely BEAUTIFUL and really takes stadium design to another level (without the issuance of bonds) --- I hope we get a team and I hope it's playing in either Pasadena or Industry
With love and peace - great article!
Miguel Ali Hasan
oh and Chivas USA, but they haven't won shite.
This made me laugh. The Coliseum doesn't even have permanent lights, decent concessions or bathrooms, and the sight-lines are just awful. Maybe they were 'fine' when FDR first took office. Nice try, bro.
If having an NFL team is so important to some people then let them put up all the money.
BTW - Stadiums are ALWAYS money losers for the cities. For example, who is going pay for all the police, fire and paramedic personnel needed every game day? The team should pay 100%, but they won't, the taxpayers will. Also, the people required to cover the stadium will be sucked away from normal duties elsewhere in the city and their normal rest time . LA, like most cities is already understaffed in police, fire and paramedics, so on game day and for several days before and after the game, the city will be even further understaffed.
Note that Alameda country that lured the raiders from LA has a continuing huge hole in their budget due to the debt and expenses of having an NFL team.
The best thing LA could do is pass laws that allows the city to severely tax any NFL team that plays in LA because the teams can easily afford it.
BTW: The old line about how the NFL brings money to the city has been proven false. 8 games a year and very little money is actually spent on local businesses. (some local cafes may benefit). Most of the money goes to the team owner who most likely doesn't even live in the city and to million dollar paychecks to the players who often don't live there either. And the cost of going to the came comes out of the publics DISCRETIONARY money which means it probably would have been spent on local entertainment/businesses anyway except now they spent it going to the football game instead. So it doesn't benefit the economy at all overall. Huggs Becky