Team(s) in LA?

[BritishDolfan]

London or toronto wont get a team until the figure out what to do with LA be it the codfish or another team. Then expand toronto and london getting teams in the same year.

That would leave them with 34 teams, which I'm not sure is the best in terms of alignments (32 is obviously ideal, 36 would be okay too, 40 is the next ideal number, but they wont go to that in one go).

 

[Clayton]

St. Louis has already asked to switch with San Diego. St. Louis would want to be in the AFC, this way they get an even better travel schedule for their fans, games in Tennessee and Houston can be attended. And I think it would make most sense to have LA with SF and Seattle for the NFL.

The switch with San Diego would make a lot more sense. Chiefs and Rams seem like they could be easy rivals. The Rams are natural rivals with the Niners and breaking that up to play the Jags, Texans and Titans?

 

[Clayton]

London or toronto wont get a team until the figure out what to do with LA be it the codfish or another team. Then expand toronto and london getting teams in the same year.

I'm not looking forward to NFL expansion, personally. Its hard enough to find 20 QBs in the league that are starter quality let alone 30+

 

[BritishDolfan]

I'm not looking forward to NFL expansion, personally. Its hard enough to find 20 QBs in the league that are starter quality let alone 30+

The other problem with expansion is the number of playoff teams. I can see that if they expanded to 36 teams there would be calls to increase the number of playoff teams to either 14 or 16.

 

[TBBishop]

I don't understand how anyone thinks a team would work in London. It's just a ridiculous idea.

I've always believed that a billionaire owner should be paying for his own home. The Rays are trying to pull the same crap here. They wait until the economy takes a dump to start asking for a few hundred million from the city. I would never vote to give a sports franchise tax money but certainly not in a bad economy.

Beyond that though Stephen Ross recently said that he's not going to leave the Dolphins to his family which means he's going to sell it eventually which also means to me that he really doesn't care what happens to them. It was just a business venture. And without a stadium lease in place the next owners really may take them to LA or Toronto or San Antonio. Ross also said that when he dies he's going to donate the majority of his $4 BILLION worth to charity. If Ross really wants to contribute then he should renovate the stadium himself. It's just a dip in his well.

 

[TBBishop]

Well, the reason the Raiders and Rams both left LA was because of the stadium. Sure it seats 93,000. But the majority of that is regular, cheap, low profit seats. There is a pretty good reason why the newer stadiums have so many club seats and luxury boxes... those things bring in a ton of money. Just for a point of reference, according to the 49ers, Candlestick had zero clubseats and their new stadium will have 9000. Both teams left for promises of better stadiums, with more club seats and luxury boxes. Oakland polished up their turd with more modern seating and St Louis built that pretty little dome.

When one team left, the city of Cleveland sued the NFL for the rights to the worst nickname and ugliest colors in the League AND for a new franchise in the near future. LA let 2 franchises walk and hasn't done a thing to rectify it n almost 20 years. You won't sell me that it's truly important.

 

[TBBishop]

I don't disagree with you at all, especially not when you take the Dolphins' stadium concerns and the Marlins situation into consideration.

But why is this the case? I always thought of the Dolphins as one of the great NFL franchises, although I suppose that view is a bit dated at best since I'm thinking back to the franchise's icons like Don Shula and Dan Marino. How's the fan base these days? Is it the weather- because that was the excuse used for why LA was sometimes viewed as a market that was indifferent toward professional sports (although I know of many Southern Californians that prove that assertion wrong). There's no dearth of wealth in the region- but how much of it is there year-round, and how many of those people are there that give a shit about professional sports?

I have no idea, and I realize it's been some time since the Dolphins enjoyed consistent on-field success, but I have to admit as someone that doesn't follow the team closely that I'm a bit floored by all of this. Of course, it's one of the oldest stadiums in the league now, so I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised. We're still dealing with that same drama here in St. Louis right now as our shitty dome approaches its 20th anniversary and Kroenke looks for greener grass...er...turf elsewhere. I have opinions on that as well, but I'll discuss that in the appropriate spot another time.

HD, where's Preisman? I know he's an ex-South Floridian, so I'd love to get his perspective.

From my experience people in Florida are bandwagoners. If the team isn't winning, the team doesn't matter. There are of course die hard fans but there are far, far more fickle fans. So if a team isn't winning, and it doesn't really matter which sport we're talking about, the fans aren't supporting. this is just not really a sports state IMO, at least not in the same manner that Midwestern states support their teams.

 

[BritishDolfan]

I don't understand how anyone thinks a team would work in London. It's just a ridiculous idea.

I think it could be made to work, but there's no way it would be simple.

 

[wazzu31]

I never brought up Gillette, but again, that's not relevant. If the stadium can make enough hosting all that, it can be privately funded and make its money back.

I was just tossing Gillette out as an example of a poor economic reason for public funds. A city like Miami it is a sound economic investment to use public funds to get a state of the art stadium.

Taxes generated from outsiders attending year round major events helps the blow plus a steady increase in the economy with a set yet increasing amount of revenue. Baseball stadiums are different, football stadiums and basketball/hockey arenas are a wise thing to have the public invest.

 

[JDM]

If it is a wise investment, a private investor can make it.

 

[TBBishop]

I think it could be made to work, but there's no way it would be simple.

You can do any ridiculous thing and say it works. I mean there were a lot of people convinced for years that the BCS worked. But no matter how you slice it a London team would have to travel to the States up to 14 times including preseason, the playoffs and the Superbowl. I know you can have them stay in the States for a couple of weeks at a time but no more than a couple of weeks. So that's a ridiculous amount of travel for that team. I know when people talk about the travel all they bring up is the team going to London and it almost always is followed by "the traveling team will get a bye the next week". that doesn't work for the London team. I just don't see how it would actually work. Beside that, I don't believe that London cares enough about this sport for it to work long term. I mean how many NFL Europe teams were left in England by the end?

 

[BritishDolfan]

You can do any ridiculous thing and say it works. I mean there were a lot of people convinced for years that the BCS worked. But no matter how you slice it a London team would have to travel to the States up to 14 times including preseason, the playoffs and the Superbowl. I know you can have them stay in the States for a couple of weeks at a time but no more than a couple of weeks. So that's a ridiculous amount of travel for that team. I know when people talk about the travel all they bring up is the team going to London and it almost always is followed by "the traveling team will get a bye the next week". that doesn't work for the London team. I just don't see how it would actually work. Beside that, I don't believe that London cares enough about this sport for it to work long term. I mean how many NFL Europe teams were left in England by the end?

NFL Europe may as well have been "NFL Germany (plus Amsterdam)" by the end, yes. The travel is the major headache I think, more for teams travelling to Europe rather than the London team travelling to the US. It could maybe be worked out with creative scheduling (it's not really a lot further than travelling from NY to LA, after all), but there would need to be a system developed before a team is moved / created in London.

 

[tabascojet]

If Ross really wants to contribute then he should renovate the stadium himself. It's just a dip in his well.

he was forking up 70% of the renovation money himself in the deal that just got killed.

 

[JDM]

Why should the state pay for any of it though?

 

[tabascojet]

because it generates money for the city and state. Keeps the dolphins competitive in the nfl and miami competitive for marquee sporting events. You insist on beating a dead horse with your opinion. we get it already. you dont think tax money should be used for stadiums. Unless you are flying down to south florida and staying in hotels there often it doesnt effect you anyway.

 

[JDM]

Lots of things generate money for the state. That doesn't mean they should pay for them all.

 

[TBBishop]

he was forking up 70% of the renovation money himself in the deal that just got killed.

He should fork up 100%.

 

[threelittleturds]

When one team left, the city of Cleveland sued the NFL for the rights to the worst nickname and ugliest colors in the League AND for a new franchise in the near future. LA let 2 franchises walk and hasn't done a thing to rectify it n almost 20 years. You won't sell me that it's truly important.

The Raiders were originally from Oakland, the Rams were originally from Cleveland.

So, I hope you see that if L.A. tried to sue on the same grounds that Cleveland did for the Browns... it wouldn't have worked.

I don't think L.A. would have sued anyways, they aren't defined by the NFL. So they didn't need to protect that image. Unlike Cleveland, if it wasn't for the Browns and Indians... nobody would even know Cleveland existed.

 

[Rvnight18]

Why should the state pay for any of it though?

does it get voted on by the citizens? I am guessing so. And if so, and it passes, then that is what the people want. So be it.

 

[Rvnight18]

He should fork up 100%.

your owner didn't