Posted on 05/02/2006 9:50:26 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
GRAPEVINE, Texas - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he wants the NFL to return to the Los Angeles area — with two teams.
After meeting with a group of NFL owners, Schwarzenegger said he was there to make sure "we're getting not only one NFL team to the Los Angeles area, Southern California, but to actually get two teams. That's why I came. Why limit it?"
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and a committee of 11 owners met to hear proposals from Los Angeles and Anaheim. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle were there to make separate presentations but joined the governor for a joint session.
"There enough room and enough audience to have two teams," Schwarzenegger said. "We just have to all work together and make it happen."
Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest television market, has been without an NFL team since the Raiders and Rams both left after the 1994 season. When the NFL expanded in 2002, the new team went to Houston after Los Angeles leaders couldn't agree on a suitable site for the team.
Tagliabue, who is retiring in July, has long made it a priority to get a franchise back in Los Angeles.
The owners' committee, which includes Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Bob Kraft of the New England Patriots, planned to hear stadium proposals from the Anaheim and Los Angeles officials. The cost estimates of $800 million are considerably higher than previous price tags.
Anaheim's plan calls for a new facility near Angels Stadium, which was converted to a baseball-only complex after the Rams left. The NFL team and the Los Angeles Angels had shared the stadium.
The Los Angeles plan is to construct a stadium inside the existing Los Angeles Coliseum, home to the Rams from 1946-70 and the Raiders from 1982-94.
The NFL owners' group won't make any decisions on the proposals during their meeting at a Dallas-Fort Worth Airport hotel. Instead, the group will make a presentation at the league's spring meetings in Denver, scheduled May 22-24.
After Schwarzenegger and the two mayors emerged from a 10-minute meeting with the owners, the governor chatted in the hallway with Jones, the Cowboys' owner.
The governor returned to Los Angeles immediately afterward. The individual presentations by the cities were later in the day.
TWO NFL TEAMS FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA? - Gov. Schwarzenegger is flanked by Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, left, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, during a press conference Tuesday at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Schwarzenegger says he wants the NFL to return to the Los Angeles area - with two teams.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger responds to a question during a press conference following a meeting with several NFL owners at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Grapevine, Texas, Tuesday, May 2, 2006. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez))
It should be done without tax payer money.
Los Angeles doesn't need or want an NFL team. Why does the NFL keep trying to force a team down the city's throats and mess with the division alignments?
The second one can be made up of illegal aliens.
They should move he Caridals and the Saints there. The NFL does not need any more teams....
WWCD
What Would Condi Do?
Build It! Them!
... and if the governator drives over to AT&T Park, he'll see first hand how good private ownership can be.
Let the free market decide,Arnold.
2 teams? Makes perfect sense to me. They can't even support 1, so the only solution is to double the indifference.
The Cardinals won't be moving anywhere in the near future now that they have their new sports palace.
It's the television market that they want...
Schwarzenegger and Villaraigosa want the NFL back in LA, but the fans don't seem to care. Nonetheless, the NFL is going to stuff at lest one team down their throats whether teh stupid idiot fans want it or not. They need LA for the TV ratings.
Why 2 teams? New York has 2 NFL teams, and LA has an inferiority complex about New York, so it has to have 2 teams to prove to itself that it's every bit as great a city as New York is.
The people don't; the officials and the TV networks do.
The networks and the city officials demand it. Nobody else cares. Once again, TV runs sports.
And who cares about the divisional alignment? That's been the same for what 4 or 5 years now? It's time to shuffle them, isn't it. Generates new interest, so the league's "great minds" believe.
The latest team I've heard rumored to be LA-bound is the Chargers.
The Cardinals and Saints are in the same conference. I think the different networks want both the NFC and the AFC in there.
Los Matadors de Los Angeles.
what if some one played a NFL game and no one showed up? Would any one hear it
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