Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The NFL and The City of Angels: The Battle For Los Angeles

Goodell must want to party with the Kardashians

Appropriately, the city with the recycled-plastic conveyor belt that pumps out our movies and television shows would be the second largest television market in America. With 5.7 million households wired for everything from local news to late-night “As Seen on TV” infomercial murk, Los Angeles, California accounts for five percent of America’s home media spectatorship.

Only New York has a larger piece of the ‘idiot box’ pie (6.5%); only seven other metro areas can claim more than two percent each (Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, California’s Bay Area, Boston, Atlanta, and Washington, DC).

Those nine cities are represented by ten different NFL franchises, and yet one city listed has no team to call their own.

By now, you’ve heard that particular song, as well as its hook-wielding chorus. Since 1995, when Los Angeles lost both its NFL franchises, the Raiders and the Rams, many have wondered when La-La Land would be gifted with another 53 man squad. After all, for America’s Game to be blacked out in America’s number two city is akin to the NHL abandoning all of its Canadian franchises.

Wait, that might become a reality under Gary Bettman. Alright, bad example.

On Friday, Commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo to all thirty-two NFL teams that reads like a cautiously optimistic travel brochure. In light of the prospects of stadium development being “better than they have been in many years” in Los Angeles, Goodell offers a timetable and checklist of guidelines to owners who wish to follow Horace Greeley’s sage urging of “go west, young man.”

To read the rest of this article at Camel Clutch Blog, click here

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