Twistity Sports Exclusive: WAY OUT WEST

 
You hang around the NFL long enough, you learn to connect the dots. Especially when they’re the size of beach balls.

The owner of the St. Louis Rams, a team on a year-to-year lease in its stadium, buys 60 acres of land in Inglewood, California. He throws in with the owners of Hollywood Park, a spot long coveted by the NFL, to build a stadium suitable for an NFL team. Hmmm. One beach ball, two beach balls. The Rams want to go back to Los Angeles.

L.A., the nation’s second biggest market, lost its two NFL teams in 1995, with the Raiders returning to Oakland and the Rams taking off for the Midwest. L.A., with no team. The NBA has two teams there. MLB has two teams there. There’s the NHL, UCLA, USC. The Bay Area has two NFL teams (though we’re pushing it with the San Francisco 49ers some 35 miles south of SF in Santa Clara). The NFL? Zero.

Consider the NFL and its immense popularity. In this season alone its TV numbers and attendance are powerhouses. And that’s in spite of market failures. Give a good mull to what has transpired in the biggest and often strongest pockets of fans and people. Atlanta, Chicago, New York (both teams), Miami, Philadelphia and Washington saw their franchises miss the playoffs. The popular Pittsburgh Steelers were an early all-out. We love the Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers, but their national appeal does not approach that of the Bears, Jets, Giants, Eagles and Redskins (I could swear we left someone out …)

So the NFL inches closer to returning to L.A. and growing the economic pie. If a stadium is built in L.A. (theoretically for a team in 2016, but that seems to be an ambitious goal), a Super Bowl sooner and a Super Bowl later will follow. Everybody wins. Fans get a team, the city gets a team, the NFL gets L.A., L.A. gets Super Bowls again.

Warning, though. If football in L.A. has failed this often (the Chargers began life there and moved down the I-5 to survive, the Rams and Raiders), what indicates it will prosper now?
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .