The NFL hasn’t had a franchise in Los Angeles since the Rams and Raiders left town in 1995, and there are no plans to put a team there any time soon. But AEG, the sports and music company that owns the Staples Center among other arenas, is still talking about building a stadium for an NFL team in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Daily News reports that AEG Vice President Ted Tanner told a Los Angeles Convention Center panel that plans for a stadium are still in play.
That stadium, which would be called Farmers Field, won’t actually be built unless there’s a commitment from the NFL to put a team in Los Angeles. And right now there are no plans to put a team in Los Angeles.
But the mere fact that the NFL has a big company that’s talking about luring a team to L.A. is helpful to the league’s interests: If places like St. Louis and Buffalo don’t give their teams the stadiums they want, the league can use the possibility of a move to Los Angeles as leverage.