Los Angeles Sports Fans Will Not Leave This Page Early.
by Alex Wilk
It's 7pm on a Saturday night in Los Angeles, entertainment capital of the world. You have literally thousands of options for things to do. But if you're like one of the millions of passionate sports fans in this city, you might be packing into a cramped seat with your overpriced hot dog to cheer on your favorite team.
Los Angeles and the surrounding area is home to nine major professional sports franchises, two college sports powerhouses, countless minor league and semi-pro teams... and in the coming years, a professional football team may be joining them.
Los Angeles fans are unlike any other.
They come late, they leave early, and they're much more mild mannered than their counterparts in Philadelphia or New York.
If you're not a seasoned veteran of the sports-watching world, here's an example of what those fanbases are like.
As for Los Angeles? The fanbase might not be as indifferent as the stereotype implies. Here are clips from conversations about sports in Los Angeles with two people who know it best--Andrew Siciliano, weekday host of ESPN710 radio, and J.A. Adande, former LA Times sports columnist and current ESPN writer/personality.
The fans themselves agree. Take Pitzer College student and major sports fan Alex Smith, who has lived in the area since he was born.
"The typical LA sports fan treats sports like all forms of entertainment in LA: as a diversion," Smith said.
"That doesn't mean they aren't passionate or die hard because they definitely are. But life doesn't revolve around a team or sport like it does on the east coast."
"LA fans love winners," Adande said.
"They love a show. It's not just enough to win, you have to win and put on a show as well. That's why the most beloved teams of the last 30 years were the Lakers in the 80's, Showtime. They were winning five championships and doing it with the most exciting fast-break style in the league."
Football? An afterthought to the fans I spoke to about the possibility of a team moving here.
"I would want to go" Smith said, "but I wouldn't pay more than a comparable seat at a Dodger game. To me, it's not worth the premium of a Laker game."
"It would have to be a successful franchise," Smith says, "because it would be competing with the end of baseball season, USC and UCLA and the beginning of the Laker season.
If it can't provide a better product than USC football then it wont be worthwhile."
How likely is that? Depends on who you ask. The most likely candidates in the NFL to move to Los Angeles are said to be the San Diego Chargers, Jacksonville Jaguars, St. Louis Rams, and Minnesota Vikings. The ESPN experts I spoke to agree that the Chargers' and Vikings' recent success on the field will likely facilitate new stadium deals that will keep those teams where they are.
That means the Rams (who have historic ties to Los Angeles) or the Jaguars (who are struggling in the small, college-dominated market of north Florida) are the most likely candidates to come to the city of Angels.
"Football isn't viable in Jacksonville," Siciliano says. "It simply isnt. The NFL doesn't work there."
But will it in Los Angeles, the city that the Rams and Oakland Raiders fled in the 1990's?
"You gotta figure whatever team moves here, they're not going to be doing very well..." Adande says. "And that's gonna be a tough sell here."
"This isn't a city that feels like it needs the NFL to validate it...Los Angeles didn't cease to function when the Raiders and the Rams left, and it's going to go on just fine without the NFL. Put it this way,
The NFL needs LA more than LA needs the NFL," Adande says.