NFL Seems to be Realizing Los Angeles is Still Raiders Country

   November 24, 2019

They were warned, but the NFL loves learning things the hard way. Now the league seems to be figuring out they have a self-induced stadium dilemma on their hands. And it’s happening at the site of the most expensive investment (or “gamble” might be the more accurate term) in the history of the league.

That’s right. The Los Angeles Rams/Chargers experiment isn’t off to a very promising start and it’s causing the league a little unplanned anxiety about now.

Los Angeles doesn’t love the Rams. They barely know the Chargers exist. And the NFL’s multi-billion dollar investment in Los Angeles might be on its way to a painful belly flop for one key reason: the Raiders still own southern California and “home” will always be Los Angeles (among other cities), regardless of where the new stadium is going up.

An ESPN report this week outlined some of the frustrations the league is having as they try to force two teams on a city that was never in the market in the first place. Among the concerns outlined in the report is that the league is learning that Los Angeles is still partial to the Raiders – and now that the Raiders are about to be within driving distance of Los Angeles, it’s causing a few owners (you can probably guess who) to get a little nervous.

From Seth Wickersham in Friday’s ESPN report:

“In the end, most owners rooted for the Chargers to not piggyback off Kroenke but try to duplicate the success of the soon-to-be Las Vegas Raiders, who have sold nearly $400 million in SSLs, double their projected number, for their new stadium opening in September 2020 off the Vegas Strip. What’s more, a “fair amount” of the Raiders SSL buyers live in L.A. and will hop on I-15 on weekends, an executive with knowledge of the sales says. It has left a few owners and team officials worried and irritated that the Raiders have siphoned off part of an already wary L.A. fan base.”

Everyone knew Los Angeles wasn’t going to embrace the Chargers, but who would have imagined the Rams would get to the Super Bowl and still have jealousy issues with the Raiders?

But it sounds like that’s exactly what is happening.

From the beginning, there was only one team that had the potential to hit the jackpot by moving to Los Angeles, but the NFL thought they had a better plan. Now they are stuck with two misfits in a mansion and one of them has already been rumored to be considering a move to London.

The London Chargers. It has a nice ring to it.

But be careful, NFL. London seems to love the Raiders now, too.

twitter: @raidersbeat

Share:

12 thoughts on “NFL Seems to be Realizing Los Angeles is Still Raiders Country”

  1. They thought they were sticking it to the Raiders ,when they kept them out of LA, now they just have to deal with it!

  2. The League is still at war with Al Davis. It just can’t stop itself. They were never going to ok the Raiders & Rams in LA. Because of the Raiders Fan Base. Charger’s should’ve stayed in San Diego, where they had a Fan base. But it doesn’t travel very well. Ram’s at least have fans in LA and Orange County. I’m moving to Nevada and I already know I’ll traveling to see my Raiders in Vegas. I’ll miss traveling to Oakland, it’s one of my favorite Cities…

    1. “The League is still at war with Al Davis.”
      As it is now and as it has always been, it’s us against the world, Raider Nation.

  5. NFL sucks. An idot could see that la and vhf oakland belong to the raiders. The nfl will suffer 4 it,s stupidity . Fanbase comes from the fans not the nfl.

  6. L.A. is a Raider Town… NFL brass that kept the Silver & Black out got a big serving of karma. Bitches!

  7. All I can say is I’m a Raider forever what
    ever zip code there in.😎
    From 1981 till forever🎱🕳🏴

  8. The morons in the NFL should’ve just left it alone. The Chargers just aren’t wanted in LA. If it was the Raiders in LA instead, they’d be welcomed with open arms in a sustainable home. Oakland was always good to them but unfortunately it just wasn’t sustainable in the long-term. It should have been left in the glorious past. Al’s biggest mistake was moving them back to Oakland. If he had to go senile, it should’ve been a year before he died instead of some years after the last time they won the Superbowl. He did some good things afterwards but he made a lot of big mistakes.

Comments are closed.