There’s nothing like bringing out the heavy artillery.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the NFL owners’
meeting in Texas on Tuesday to rally support to bring the NFL back
to Los Angeles. The Governator asked Commissioner Paul Tagliabue
and the owners to put not one but two franchises in the L.A.-Orange
County region a la the MLB, NBA and NHL.
According to The Associated Press, Schwarzenegger came forward
to make sure that “We’re getting not only one NFL team
to the L.A. area, Southern California, but to actually get two
teams. That’s why I came. Why limit it?”
Now that is the height of public service if I have ever seen it.
Maybe Arnie should run for re-election on this platform: “I
went to Grapevine, Texas, my fellow Caulyfornians, and I asked
those NFL girly-men to do what they have been dying to do since
1994.”
If President Bush is the “decider,” then
Schwarzenegger is the “stater-of-the-obvious.”
Everyone loosely affiliated with the NFL wants to bring football
back to Los Angeles. The only thing keeping this from happening is
Los Angeles.
The situation doesn’t call for the Terminator. It calls
for a couple of accountants and a financial visionary.
The L.A.-Orange County region is the second biggest market,
second only to the New York tristate area. The NFL has no reason to
keep a franchise out of the area. It’s a flat-out horrible
business move.
It makes you wonder why there isn’t an L.A. Saints team
right now.
“The fact that we’re here and doing what we’re
doing is better than anything I could say,” Dallas Cowboys
owner Jerry Jones said. “This is the strongest effort
I’ve seen on the league’s part.”
Listen to what the owners are saying. They would love to bring
football back to this city. The fault lies with the city’s
politicians, not the NFL.
Tagliabue is perhaps the most successful commissioner of any of
the Big Four of American sports. He oversaw a seamless transition
of leadership by replacing Pete Rozelle, a guy who was by all
standards irreplaceable.
When he took over the reigns in 1989, the NFL had an annual
revenue stream of $1.4 billion. The NFL is projected to generate
over $20 billion in the upcoming season. There have also been no
work stoppages during his tenure, while the other major sports have
all suffered from either a players’ strike or owners’
lockout. And Tagliabue’s working relations with union chief
Gene Upshaw has been the backbone of a well-structured salary cap
that has set the standard for competitive balance.
His track record is impeccable. During the 17 years Tagliabue
has transformed the NFL into an empire, L.A. politicians have made
no progress in securing a financial plan to build a new football
stadium. The city’s leadership keeps recycling half-baked
plans to renovate the Rose Bowl or the L.A. Coliseum. And each
time, the NFL finds no owner in his right mind who would jump at
such an offer.
The city councilmen have been unable to put innovative business
minds in a room and come up with a way to build a new football
stadium while not driving this city into bankruptcy.
Here are what every owner’s demands for the city will be:
a new, highly sophisticated sports facility with a long-term plan
for city development around that facility.
I don’t want to make it sound simple. It requires an
obscene amount of public funding that the city needs to use to
build roads and schools. You know, money needed to basically run
the biggest city in the country. And if the politicians were to
come out and say that, fine. There’s no disgrace in having
two pro basketball teams, two baseball teams, two hockey teams and
a stellar education system.
So, why don’t we just stop kidding ourselves. As far as
priorities, a football franchise is near the bottom of the list.
Nevermind two.