Once upon a time the city of Los Angeles was home to two NFL teams simultaneously, the Rams and the Raiders. Nowadays the city only supports one professional football team, USC. But the Trojans are on probation and just had to abdicate their 2004 BCS title, so to be accurate (and less flip) Los Angeles now supports no professional football teams. But that doesn’t stop NFL observers like NBC’s Al Michaels from picturing a Shangri-La scenario in which a billion-dollar stadium is constructed in Los Angeles and the cost is offset by two teams playing to a full house every Sunday in the fall.
“There’s no question in my mind that if a stadium gets built, they’ll start with one team but get another team. The league may not come out and say this overtly, but where would you rather play a Super Bowl than Los Angeles?” Michaels said. “It’s a great sports town, it’s always been a great sports town. People denigrate it because people leave a Dodger game early. Does that mean you’re not a great sports fan?”
(More or less.)
“It’s a great sports town. What really bothers me is that when I see it written that L.A. won’t support professional football because everybody is off surfing. So let me get this straight: In Southern California there’s like 15 million people or something, and they’re all out surfing, on a Sunday? When they say you won’t have enough support, I say excuse me, so you can’t sell 75,000 tickets on a Sunday? Of course you can.”