The NFL currently has 32 teams. Located in cities like New York (2 teams), Boston, New Orleans, San Diego, San Francisco/Oakland (2 teams), St Louis, Seattle, Phoenix, Detroit, Dallas, Houston and even Green Bay, the NFL appears to have all of its bases covered right? Well, not quite if you ask some ambitious developers in Los Angeles, California.  Los Angeles developer Ed Roski Jr. is bulldozing his way to breaking ground on a state of the art NFL facility that is sure to lure an NFL franchise back to the Los Angeles area.  The man leading efforts to bring an NFL team to Los Angeles points out that in spite of having 32 teams is cities with varying populations/potential fan bases, the NFL is nowhere within an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, CA.

Why Should the NFL be in Los Angeles?

Why should anyone care about bringing the NFL to Los Angeles?  Well, the stats seem to suggest we should care.  Fact: Save New York, none of the current NFL cities have population counts that come anywhere near the 17 million residents living in and around the Los Angeles area.  Fact: Los Angeles is a city that can claim some of the most legendary athletes of all time (Magic Johnson, Kareem, Kobe, Manny Ramirez, Wayne Gretzky, Eric Gagne and Jerry West to name a few), some of the successful franchises and storied organizations in all of sports (Lakers/Dodgers) and some of the greatest weather and cultural centers in the world.   Fact:  The average home price and wage of a Los Angeles resident ranks near the top of all major cities in the nation.  Fact: All those stats suggest that the NFL is crazy to not have a team in such a great market.  The facts seem to overwhelmingly support Ed Roski and his team of developers contention that Los Angeles needs an NFL team.

Why Shouldn’t the NFL care about being in Los Angeles?

I’m not suggesting that the facts don’t support the contention that the NFL needs and team in Los Angeles (as a LA resident I would love to have the option of seeing a live game or two each season).  Yet, its hard to ignore the other facts.  Fact: Even with a population that dwarfs that of most any other county in the United States, Los Angeles is the city that drove not one but two NFL teams out of town almost fifteen years ago due to lack of fan support and dwindling revenues.  Fact:  To keep its residents entertained, Los Angles has Hollywood, hundreds of miles of beaches, six professional sports teams from the big 4 sports (Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers, Angels, Kings and Ducks), two major College Football programs (USC/UCLA) and a slew of teams in tier two sports (LA Galaxy, Chivas, Sparks, etc).  Fact: Los Angeles has gone almost 15 seasons without an NFL team and yet in that time the NFL has grown into the most popular sport in the United States.

While the stats support bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles, its not certain if the people of Los Angeles deserves an NFL team.  Lets face it, Los Angeles has such a wide variety of entertainment options available to its residents that the NFL is not a must like it is in places like Green Bay and Arizona.  Also, unlike New York, which has an equally impressive slew of entertainment options for its residents, Los Angeles is a sprawling town that is burdened with the lack of a solid public transit system and the lack of a historical affinity to its NFL franchise.  While the stats may support an NFL team heading back to Los Angeles, the history suggests that it may just end up being another failed attempt for the NFL.

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