Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Cities are tripping all over themselves to lure teams away from each other. You have to appreciate that there are very few of these teams, and the commitment to building a viable facility is huge, so that limits the market, but the back-and-forth happens every year. For example, Justin football:
Oakland Raiders moved from Oakland to Los Angeles, then back to Oakland, and are soon to be off to Las Vegas.
Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis, and then back to Los Angeles.
San Francisco 49ers just moved to Santa Clara.
Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis, spurning an expansion team in the NFL.
Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, spurning an expansion team in Cleveland.
Houston Oilers moved to Memphis, spurning an expansion team in Houston.
San Diego Chargers moved to Los Angeles.
All of these were a desire of a city to have, or reclaim, a team. And all of them have resulted, or will result, in new stadiums. The value of having these teams is high, and the municipalities know it. This is why they continue to build arenas and stadiums, in hope of coercing one to come to their fair city.
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Talk to anyone in St Louis, and they regret ever building that stadium, and would never support another one. I believe LA and Las Vegas are all privately funded, aren't they?
Public sentiment in the US has taken a big shift against funding these kind of stadiums over the last few years. Sure, there will probably be some, but it is getting to be a harder and harder sell to the electorate.