NFL wants team in LA by '08

Is this opening the way for the Saints to move to LA? Hmmm.


Posted on Tue, May. 25, 2004

NFL Aims for Team in Los Angeles by 2008

BRENT KALLESTAD

Associated Press


AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. - The National Football League would like to have a team back in Los Angeles by 2008, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said Tuesday.

Tagliabue said league owners were pushing for a decision on a stadium site by next spring, giving the NFL the time it needs to return a franchise to the country's second largest television market by 2008.

"We're hopeful we can stick to a timeline that would have us make some decisions on a stadium project maybe a year from now in May of '05," he said.

The league, which has not had a team in the Los Angeles area since the Rams departed for St. Louis 10 years ago, has been working with groups representing sites at Carson, the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

"Everyone has been working at this," Tagliabue said. "At some point decisions need to be made."

League owners have made no decision about expanding to a 33rd team or moving a troubled franchise to Los Angeles when and if they come to an agreement on a stadium there.

Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay, who is involved in discussions with community and state leaders about improvements in the Colts' situation, said he was confident of working out a new deal to remain in Indiana.

"This is clearly on the frontburner," he said. "More and more we're trying to get people behind this thing.

"I'm 44 years old, I'm not signing until I'm 74 years ... unless I know we have a strong, long-term plan," Irsay said.

The NFL also said it plans to honor the memory of former Arizona Cardinals defensive back Pat Tillman during the regular season - perhaps by having all teams display a helmet decal with his uniform No. 40.

Tillman, who starred at Arizona State and then the Cardinals before rejecting a multimillion dollar contract to join the Army, was killed last month in Afghanistan during a firefight with the enemy. He was 27.

"We previewed some of the initial thinking we have about paying tribute," Tagliabue said. "The key thing here is to have a proper balance between respecting what Pat did and what all the other men and women of the military do."

Owners also heard some preliminary discussions about the league's preparations for new television agreements and received an update on Jacksonville's preparations for the 2005 Super Bowl, scheduled Feb. 6.

Tagliabue said he would detail the Super Bowl preparations Wednesday. The owners wrap up their spring meeting Thursday.

Former NFL quarterback Jack Kemp briefed owners on the USA Football program aimed at increasing interest in the sport. This year the league will help with a kickoff promotion, "Play Football Week," that will run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4.

Supported by the league and players association, it will promote youth registration and participation in programs sponsored by police leagues, YMCA's and Pop Warner, among others.

 

Hopefully the Saints

 

Owners get your extortion plans ready now!

 

SO Cal fans will show up?

As a native of So Cal... Sports fans suck out here! Late to show, early to leave, and when the team is tanking they don't come. The support will be great this time around I think until they prove to be losers.. Keep away Georgia and Al. You morons have jacked us enough. None the less we need a team and fast. Too many Raider fans clogging the Sports bars for sure.

Chau,
Dulcea~

GO COWBOYS!!!

 

No way the NFL returns to the Memorial Coliseum (too old and its in a bad neighborhood . . . No offense Dulcea !!!!!!) or the Rose Bowl (good neighborhood, still too old though). I think the leading plan is a new stadium in Carson (The Hacienda? This was the proposed stadium for the 32nd franchise until Houston beat them out for it**). Maybe San Diego moves up I-5 to LA (which is where they originally started at in 1960, in case you've forgotten . . . )


**Or perhaps the group that wanted to renovate the Coliseum was the winning group but they could never pull the financing for the project together, which allowed Houston to win the 32nd franchise. I think LA was given the preliminary thumbsup by NFL owners before their bid (due to the Coliseum renovation funding issue doomed the project)

 

Were'nt you singing the praises of So Cal in the NASCAR forum?

 

Were'nt you singing the praises of So Cal in the NASCAR forum?

The praise was for NASCAR; a new product to Los Angeles. So Cal NASCAR fans are different. There is a fanaticism over NASCAR out here, the sport is fresh and too new to see fans arrive late and leave early. Besides, Fontana is hardly Los Angeles. But unless a team wins out here, the luster will fade fast, and the apathy will grow quickly. None the less, I'll support them; until they play Dallas.

-Dee~

 

agreed........

signed:

ole Victorville resident

 

To be honest I haven't heard a huge outcry from fans in LA that they want another team. It's always seemed it was the NFL or some random owner using the threat of moving there in an effort to extort taxpayer money for his private enterprise.

 

To be honest I haven't heard a huge outcry from fans in LA that they want another tea

Elric you just made a great point. IT is true. The only ones rying are the venture capitilists and the local media. The cries are not heard by way of public discourse from what I hearing out here. The market out here is full of Raiders and Rams fans. The risidual peeps are a small percentage asking for a home team.

True.

Dulcea~