Nobody in Minnesota really cares about basketball, you mean. lol

“Maybe the seasons of going 3-13, 2-14, 1-15 had something to do with the dwindling attendance after 2006?”

Oh I see. It is OK for a team that has poor on field performance to have poor attendance? So in the case of LA, the decline in attendance at Rams games in their final years there was OK?

“You do realize that most people who go to sporting events are only bandwagon fans, right?”

Oh so they are not welcome to the game? The only folks who should attend are folks like you? And how many is that in a stadium?

“Bandwagoners Suck”

No more like they have other diversions to take up their day. Football is just one of the many things they have in their lives.

I can see it now. “We actually like that it is in LA now because it gets us out of the state. Nice vacation for the kids. Good thing to save money for all year.”

Hamilton County owns Paul Brown Stadium – not the Bengals (the Bengals operate it). It opened in 2000, so it’s hard to see it in the convo. But Mike Brown sucks.

It does appear the Panthers own their stadium. It was built in ’96 – a creaky ancient (eyeroll) 15 years old.

LP Field (Tennessee) opened in ’99.

Probably should throw the Dolphins into the long-shot discussion as well, since their stadium was built in ’87. Again, seems crazy but at least for leverage you gotta think they’d see what the L.A. folks were up to.

-QG

My post basically tried to flesh out potential candidates for a hunch that would cause the fans to go bonkers – presumably because they aren’t thought to be in play at all. Perhaps the teams in question have no intent to depart but are using L.A. for leverage to get a better deal on a new stadium (not that any team has ever done THAT before )

So I went through ever team, figuring that there’s a lot of teams that are mortal locks to never have been even contacted by L.A. That’s the premise of my post – who could even be that team that would answer the phone and make their fans go bonkers.

Atlanta really seems like the answer – they want something to replace the Georgia Dome and that replacement is not 100% set. Talking to L.A. would be more akin to doing due diligence. And the fan base would go nuts if they were mentioned.

Cincy – wasn’t as serious about this one really, but Mike Brown is a hard bargainer and his mere presence disgruntles this Bengals fan. He does have a total sweetheart deal. The main reason I have him and Richardson on my list is because they are 2 of the hardest hard-liners. If they don’t like the deal that gets struck, giving them the L.A. market could be seen as a nice consolation prize. Do I think this is that likely – no of course not, but the concept is thinking about who L.A. would approach and who might at least give a listen even as due diligence. Under that frame, they fit better than the mortal lock teams.

I’m just trying to figure out who those speculative teams would be and assuming they are outside the “usual suspects” of Rams, Bills, Vikings, Jaguars, Raiders, and Chargers (and perhaps 49ers).

None of this is an opinion as to who “should” move – I really don’t wanna see any of ‘em move.

-QG

Viking vs Cardinals last play of the game: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

or

Vikings vs Saints: Why do you even ponder passing? This isn’t Detroit man , this is the Superbowl!

——————–

This has become a very difficult question to answer. Before the pondering of drafting Ponder the answer would have been the loss to Arizona. I mean the brutal terror and disbelief as Allen realizes what has occured is something out of a horror flick. The TD then the onside kick then the TD pass to Poole on a play that wasn’t even called. “Just get in the end zone” is all McNown had chance to yell to his receivers after the sack. The realization that all of this occured with Green Bay up 28 at the 2 minute warning to knock the Vikings out..I mean it all came to a head. His call is horrificly scary. But now, with the drafting of Ponder, it sure makes the Saints call after having the game won damn ironic. You know every time Allen calls Ponder’s name he is going to think of the gut wrenching choke job that kept Minnesota from playing for their first World Title. They had it won and then Favre Pondered passing….

He just needs to not pursue any team ownership then more teams could come his way!!!!!!!

“St. Louis didn’t lose the Cardinals because of poor fan support . . .”

Really?
Busch Memorial Capacity: 60,292
Cardinals Avg Attendance
1983- 38,702
1984- 46,519
1985- 40,669
1986- 35,548
1987- 27,821

You were saying?

” . . .they lost them because Bidwell wanted a new stadium (this being 1987).”

Georgia wanted a new stadium in LA, same, same. And in reality, this is the real reason the Cardinals left, just like the Rams.

As far as Rams attendance, STL did a pretty decent job supporting a team that drafted second 3 straight years. What city wouldn’t have dwindling fan support? Now we have Sam the Great though.

I’m not saying Tampa should be moved but look at them, they went 10-6 last year and I believe they did not sell out 1 home game. If the Bills were 10-6 the entire city of Buffalo would go insane and they could get 100,000 people to the games if the Ralph could hold them.

For a city thats struggling economically why would you take away the one thing that guarantees to bring in money every year. The Bills may play the card that they are a small market franchise but they still end up on the positive side of 0 every year. In addition to that, every place near Orchard Park would suffer. Think of all the people that sell a spot to park for 10 dollars a game on their lawn. Thats upwards of 1000 dollars a year that would be taken away from them. Then, there is no promise that a place like the Big Tree Inn, a staple in Buffalo would be able to survive without a team there.

Definite: Bills, Jaguars, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Rams

Likely to be monitoring: Falcons, 49ers

Also could be monitoring: Bengals, Panthers

Bills – Naturally. [Possibly, but everything that's out there says that Ralph Wilson is trying to get things lined up for a Toronto move once he kicks his final field goal.]

Dolphins – highly doubtful. [Hadn't thought of them at all. Anybody know how much time they've got on their lease? I believe the NFL has been making noises that Miami won't get another Super Bowl unless they radically upgrade the stadium -- does that qualify as a "stadium issue" for the purposes of a threat to relocate?]

Bengals – I do not trust Mike Brown as far as I could throw him. [Doesn't Mike Brown -- or some legal entity controlled by the Brown family own that stadium? It would seem highly unlikely that the team would consider moving. if that is indeed the case]

Falcons – Have to be considered a possibility – they want a new stadium [Huh. Interesting.]

Panthers – Not likely, but a dark horse given how hawkish their owner is [Not entirely sure what this means . . . also, I think several posters have pointed out that Richardson owns the stadium (See "Bengals," above)]

49ers – Have to be considered a possibility if the new stadium somehow were to fall through [It's not outside the realm of possibility, although -- and this applies to the Raiders and Chargers as well -- I think there would be a lot more support politically for bringing in a team from outside California rather than robbing Peter to pay Paul]

May I just point out that they were “our” Rams before they were “your” Rams?

Also, the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals might take issue with St. Louis’ ability to support an NFL franchise.

Glass houses, stones thrown, so on and so forth.

He won’t be getting one in Oakland;

The 9ers don’t want him or the Raiders in their joint;

The NFL may push both teams into cohabitating in the same stadium anyway;

Thank the Lord AEG can save the day so Davis can show his colors and move them back down to LA.

Even if the LA stadium were more than wishful thinking (if I pretend I can build it they will come), AEG would have to face the reality that their stadium proposal is just as useful for existing teams to help them get new stadia where they are.

“Leave my Rams alone. They were just bought by a Missouri native who isn’t going 2 move 2 the city that has never proven it can support an NFL franchise!”

LA had the Rams 48 years. St Louis had the Cardinals for only 27 years before losing them.

And hasn’t attendance been declining since 2006? Just asking?

Meanwhile, Jacksonville, a market a little over a million people, will keep building the fan base, averaging 63K or more a week and building. (At 17 years, finally getting to a whole new generation of fans where kids who grew up Jags fans are old enough to buy tickets) Like most of the national media, you know nothing about our city or fanbase, so shut up. Here’s a quick one….which franchise had the most season tickets purchase last year in the NFL at 15K?

I think this is the sixth sign of the apocalypse:

“This is just a lot of grandstanding to keep the project in the news and make it appear something positive is happening.”

I agree, this is exactly what is happening. AEG is trying to get the LA City Council to approve $300 million in infrastructure funding and they are looking to create ‘project buzz’

“In 2009, we had one bad year in attendence and zero blackouts in 2010….”

Well not really. 2009 was an exceptionally bad year, but one of many. Yet thanks to discounted tickets, tarped seats, and special financing attendance climbed from 30th in attendance to 24th and filled an average of 94% of their stadium.

If the season is saved we will see how 2011 goes…..

So taking this apart leaves…

Definite: Bills, Jaguars, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Rams

Likely to be monitoring: Falcons, 49ers

Also could be monitoring: Bengals, Panthers

-QG

———————–

sanjosecupcrazy and sandiegobuffalo FU along with Tim Leweike because i’m tired of haters criticizing jacksonville. In 2009, we had one bad year in attendence and zero blackouts in 2010 so stop your whinning about our team. However, buffalo, sandiego, tampa, oakland have multiple blackouts and no one say anything to them. People like you disgust me because of your bias and misinformed information.

So . . . grew up in or around Buffalo and moved to San Diego, or visa-versa?

“It is bad karma to mess with teams that are supported and have solid fan bases and league history. ”

While it would be nice if this was true, history doesn’t exactly support this claim. Art Model took his team out of Cleveland and, in relatively short order, won the Super Bowl. Georgia packed up the Rams and — again — won the Super Bowl. Al Davis won one Lombardi after yanking his team out of Oakland, and then got to another Super Bowl not long after abandoning Los Angeles.

Granted, it took the Colts a long time to climb the mountain after moving to Indy, and the Cardinals — well, they weren’t exactly a powerhouse franchise before they moved. Either time.

Miami
Detriot
Tampa Bay