Caution: LA is coming to steal your NFL team in 2011

[Bjorn Touraque]

I have been known to read Metro Jax quite a bit.

Thanks for the repost.

Whats this about LA's new stadium being in COI? (city of industry?) Last I heard it was to be built between two hills (natural stands that don't fall in earthquakes) out EAST of town. In fact one of the websites puts it just off Metro-Link rail, and near Light Rail. For certain if trhey go through with this, with East Los Angeles, COI, and Pomona all filling that pass, Jacksonville will no longer be considered America's crime center!  [/color][/b]

Ironically, I went to college at Mt San Antonio Community College in Walnut, which is pretty much where this is. This is what they call the San Gabriel valley. San Gabriel Valley alone is home to about 2 million people. City of Industry is kind of a misnomer like Commerce or Hawaiian Gardens. Industry is between Covina and Pasadena and sits at the intersection of I-10 and the 605.

The vast majority of growth in Southern California for the past 20 years has been just to the East in San Bernardino and Riverside County. California has spent billions of dollars building the transit infrastructure there between freeway construction, renovation and mass transit.

It makes perfect sense to build it there and I suspect that it will be eventually. No one wants to go through the nightmare of inner city LA traffic to go to a game at the Coliseum.

[ac]

MetroJax now goes to 11!  Welcome, sir.

[Jason]

Its also isolated so maybe its for rural planners? (just joking)

Nevertheless, its nice for what it is.  I remember going to one of my friend's high school playoff games there in the mid 90s.  They played Daytona Seabreeze.  Seabreeze had a kicker with an unbelievable foot.  His name was Sebastian Janikowski who now plays for the Oakland Raiders.

Not to steer us further off topic but I played a bit of soccer with Sebastian beack in the day.  Did my first two years of high school at Seabreeze (Go Sandcrabs!) and can attest to his kicking abilities.  He was a natural soccer player and new little english at the time (from Poland).  I used to watch him kick soccer balls from goal post to goal post.  Needless to say the football coach decided to try him out with the pigskin and it paid off dearly.  As far as I know he still holds a record for the longest field goal kick at Seabreeze (60+ yards I think) and possibly holds a state and NFL record as well.  He was pick up by FSU out of highschool and then went to the Raiders.

And municipal stadium is where Seabreeze and Mainland highschools play their home games.  Its also used for many other exihibition games as well.  Beautiful stadium (for what it is).

[copperfiend]

Janikowski has been known to still play soccer. Usually in the Jacksonville area.

[blizz01]

Guess he's sticking around - I hear that his new home is under construction now in the Mandarin area.

[David]

The TU's take:

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-09-26/story/what_if_we_lose_the_jaguars

Possible blackouts all season. A home opener that drew 46,000 fans. A tight economy. And news of a stadium deal in Los Angeles.

Fans, sports radio talk shows and Internet blogs across the area are buzzing with this fear: Could the Jaguars actually pack up and leave Jacksonville?...

[BridgeTroll]

Good article... try this link instead.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-09-26/story/what_if_we_lose_the_jaguars

[David]

thanks, i'm not so good with the html code apparently!

can't wait to watch the game today, I still have a few shreds of optimism for this season.

[thelakelander]

Check out the slew of bad press slamming Jacksonville as a NFL town, all written in the last 24 hours :

NFL has no business being in Jacksonville

Blackouts, History May Ultimately Lead the Jaguars to Los Angeles

It's like these sportswriters want us to fail. A lot of them have always had it out for Jacksonville...

Did anyone notice that only 40,896 attended the blacked out Detroit Lions game today?

[mtraininjax]

No major city has an NFL-ready stadium (sky boxes, luxury items, etc.) ready to go for any other NFL team. Cheap money is not there either, so why would anyone want to rush out and get money to build a stadium? The average ticket price is rediculous and so the NFL is going to have to suck it up and endure like the rest of sports world and endure.

[Ocklawaha]

I have been known to read Metro Jax quite a bit.

Thanks for the repost.

Whats this about LA's new stadium being in COI? (city of industry?) Last I heard it was to be built between two hills (natural stands that don't fall in earthquakes) out EAST of town. In fact one of the websites puts it just off Metro-Link rail, and near Light Rail. For certain if trhey go through with this, with East Los Angeles, COI, and Pomona all filling that pass, Jacksonville will no longer be considered America's crime center!  [/color][/b]

Ironically, I went to college at Mt San Antonio Community College in Walnut, which is pretty much where this is. This is what they call the San Gabriel valley. San Gabriel Valley alone is home to about 2 million people. City of Industry is kind of a misnomer like Commerce or Hawaiian Gardens. Industry is between Covina and Pasadena and sits at the intersection of I-10 and the 605.

The vast majority of growth in Southern California for the past 20 years has been just to the East in San Bernardino and Riverside County. California has spent billions of dollars building the transit infrastructure there between freeway construction, renovation and mass transit.

It makes perfect sense to build it there and I suspect that it will be eventually. No one wants to go through the nightmare of inner city LA traffic to go to a game at the Coliseum.

Thanks and WELCOME! Hey you left out beautiful downtown Paramount and Compton! Retch...
My wife and I met in Santa Clarita, lived in Newhall, Long Beach, Santa Clarita/Valencia, Fresno, and there are storys that I lived in San Francisco back in the day but damned if I can remember it. I used to drive along the old Pacific Electric Railroad up Alameda from Long Beach to LA, and dream that they would change the route back to Electric Rail. Then I left Ca. and damned if they didn't do it! THE BLUE LINE! Still haven't ridden it, but have to do so, I was on one of the last Red Cars, LA to LB back about 1963.

OCKLAWAHA

[David]

Did anyone notice that only 40,896 attended the blacked out Detroit Lions game today?

Hah, I feel bad saying this but...GOOD!

I think that the yahoo (appropriately named) sports writer was a bit pre-mature on writing his scathing headline about us.  We'll probably see more low attendance elsewhere this year.

[David]

An early score in the game of returning NFL to L.A.
Here are some answers to the most pertinent questions about where the league is on the issue of returning to the nation's second-largest market.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/nationworld/wire/la-sp-nfl-farmer25-2009sep25,0,4311752.story

Does this mean an NFL team is coming to Los Angeles?

No. It's another step in that direction. There is still a long way to go until that becomes a reality.

What does it mean?

Roski's site has a significant jump on any potential competitors, because even when the process is frictionless -- and it never is -- an environmental impact report takes at least a year to complete, and usually at least two.

These things weigh heavily in Roski's favor: He controls the site, is working with a cooperative city and has cleared the runway of the last significant legal roadblocks.

So what now?

Assuming he has the stadium financing plan in place, Roski needs to go out and convince an existing team that relocation is the way to go.

What's the big question for an owner considering such a relocation?

It boils down to this: Is the cost of privately financing an $800-million stadium, giving up a piece of your team and possibly paying a large relocation fee better than what you have now?

That's the leap of faith someone will have to make.

Which teams are most likely to relocate?

San Diego is the front-runner because the Chargers have a window each year to get out of their Qualcomm Stadium lease without the threat of a lawsuit. They also want a new stadium and haven't been able to get one done there.

Jacksonville can't get out as easily, but the Jaguars are in a dire situation. Even when they tarp thousands of seats, they can't sell out their games. Others who potentially could relocate down the road are Minnesota, St. Louis, Buffalo and Oakland.

[blizz01]

We'll probably see more low attendance elsewhere this year.

In addition to the Detroit game, The Raiders/Broncos game was blacked out as well - 45,602 attended.  Anticipate the Dolphins game in Miami this week to be blacked out & probably the Bucs in Tampa Bay - AT LEAST. 

It bites, but the reality is that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg........

From The San Francisco Chronicle

The Oakland Raiders lost horribly to the Denver Broncos 23 to 3 in a game where one had to ask "Where was everyone?" The game didn't sell out but I've never seen a Broncos - Raiders Coliseum contest where most of the third deck was empty.

I'm serious. It was that bad.

The official attendance count was 45,602 people in a stadium that can hold up to 65,000 people. That's 20,000 folks short of the madhouse level of fandamonium that normally goes with this contest and its all due to the economy.

It pretty much goes without saying or writing but the San Francisco Bay Area economy is in bad shape, along with the American economy. While the unemployment rate is officially over 12 percent statewide and about 10 percent nationwide, it's got to be worse than that in reality.

I've never seen a time where most of the people I talk to are looking for work, and its people who I'm used to seeing with money in their pockets. Does the NFL adjust to this?

No.

The Blackout Rule was designed for a different time when America was rich. Not today. The idea of The Blackout Rule was to get people to go to the football games by causing sellouts, then televising them.

That's not happening today.

The Blackout Rule must be lifted otherwise the NFL will find itself with a whole bunch of pissed off television execs and NFL sponsors. Jay Mariotti of ESPN and AOL is right: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should lift the rule for now and the future because its not clear when this economy's going to get better.

[David]

I like that idea. If i'm not at most of our home games, it's because I don't have the money for tickets and a lot of us are going to find other ways to watch it regardless.

Like Mtrain said, the NFL just needs to suck it up this year. Jacksonville's not the only one hurtin'.