Reason.com
The California Split
I have long been proud of my hometown for having the stones to tell the NFL that its billionaires, and not L.A. taxpayers, would have to shell out the cash to bring pro football back to Southern California. Yet there's still a negative side effect on stadium welfare, as the L.A. Times illustrated yesterday -- Los Angeles has been used, repeatedly, as a threat to scare subsidies out of less confident burghers.
In cities across the nation -- Phoenix, Seattle, Indianapolis -- owners have used the absence of a Los Angeles franchise as leverage. They have extracted concessions worth hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers while threatening -- though it is rarely said explicitly, and doesn't have to be -- to move to L.A. [...]
The strategy has been a critical factor in the NFL's stunning building boom; since 1995, stadiums have been newly built or renovated for 19 of the league's 32 teams, including Jacksonville, the site of next Sunday's Super Bowl.
Most Popular Stories
- 5 Classic Teen Sex-and-Drug Freakouts: Rainbow Parties, Butt-Chugging, And So Much More (By Which We Mean Less) (5.27)
- Government Beneficiaries and Other Fairy Tales (5.26)
- Do Organic Consumers Shop Exclusively at the Jerk Store? (5.26)
- Sharon Presley on Libertarian Feminism (5.26)
- Here Are the 15 Senators Who Voted to Stop Armed FDA Agents From Conducting Warrantless Raids on America's Farmers (Not One of Them is a Democrat) (5.24)
Reason RUPE: Public Opinion Survey
- Reason-Rupe: Wisconsinites Favor Increasing Public Union Retirement Contributions to Address Budget Deficit (5.25)
- Reason-Rupe Poll Finds Support for Public Union Reforms (5.25)
- New Poll: Obama Leads Romney In Wisconsin, But Gary Johnson Could Impact the Race (5.24)
- Wisconsin Recall: Walker Leads Barrett 50-42 Among Likely Voters (5.24)
- Reason-Rupe Poll: Walker Leads Barrett 50-42, Obama Leads Romney 46-36 (5.24)
advertisements
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsSite comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.
digamma|1.31.05 @ 12:54PM|#
Matt - Dodgers or Angels?
Matt Welch|1.31.05 @ 1:03PM|#
Oh, Angels all the way.
|1.31.05 @ 1:15PM|#
bring pro football back to Southern California
You know, the Chargers did make the playoffs this year.
|1.31.05 @ 2:47PM|#
*laugh* I think he meant besides the Chargers.
|1.31.05 @ 2:54PM|#
GO PATS!!!!!!!
|1.31.05 @ 3:11PM|#
Everyone I know in Southern California (if they care about sports at all) likes not having a football team and wouldn't want the Rams or Raiders back. The main reason is that residents now get to see more games (on local TV) than they could before -- they're not in any team's blackout zone any longer.
So if they threaten to leave your town, tell 'em to go fish!
|1.31.05 @ 4:49PM|#
It sure was sad the way Los Angeles dried and blew away when the football teams left.
I'm curious, does anyone still live there? I wonder what they do, now that no businesses will locate in the area.
|1.31.05 @ 6:26PM|#
How can LA be used as leverage when the previous teams left because of lack of support?
|1.31.05 @ 8:26PM|#
Ricky
LA being the largest market without an NFL franchise is an anomaly. Theoretically, LA should have significant fan support to carry a team even if only small part of the population is interested. Secondly, I don't think fan support was necessarily the biggest factor in why the Rams and the Raiders left. It had more to do with they were playing in facilities that were no longer up to current standards in the league, they could not get the local government build new stadiums and found better deals elsewhere.
rox_publius|2.1.05 @ 1:02PM|#
los angeles...
the new baltimore...