Does Anyone Care if L.A. Gets a Team?

I wish you’d stop wasting space on your sports page on articles about L.A. getting an NFL team back. Almost all of my friends who are NFL fans agree we couldn’t care less whether there is football in L.A. or not.

In the first place, a lot of people go to sports bars to watch the games, so we can choose which teams to watch. In the second place, we’d all rather see a good game than the Ram-Saint (yawn) battles we used to be subjected to.

Who says the brain-dead network people have to broadcast every game the home team plays anyway? Especially when the home team goes 7-9, can’t sell out a regular-season game and plays insipid ball. Not everybody in L.A. liked the pathetic Raiders.

In the third place, if your whole concept of happiness depends on whether L.A. gets a team to root for, you need a life. There are literally hundreds of things to do in this city on a Sunday afternoon. Los Angeles fans deserve better than a return of a mediocre team like the Raiders.

Hey, Al Davis: Just get lost, baby.

ARIEL CARMONA JR., Covina

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It seems to me that controversy surrounding a new football stadium for Los Angeles and attracting a football team to the area points out a false approach to the problem. I am not a fan of professional football and am indifferent as to whether another team plays here, but I feel that indifference gives a clearer perspective on this problem.

Everyone should cease efforts to attract NFL teams to our area. Pro sports teams are a business and businesses need customers far more than the customers need them. Lack of spectator sports has never harmed anyone. That is even more evident in the current era, when teams exhibit absolutely no loyalty to any city or location.

When pro football is ready for and deserving of our patronage and loyalty, the NFL can come, build or renovate a stadium, charge modest ticket prices and make money providing entertainment. Until then, let’s spend our civic funds on things like housing, transportation, or even art. Those are far more beneficial to a healthy community than pro football.

STEPHEN NEWMAN, Burbank

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I really don’t believe T.J. Simers or anyone in L.A. is getting the point. The NFL will “award” a franchise to Los Angeles when it is on its knees and begging. By then, the price of a franchise will be well over $500 million, plus a new stadium, pushing $1 billion total. The NFL is using L.A. to raise the price to a completely new level.

BOB ARRANAGA JR., Pasadena

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I see a disturbing pattern.

First, The Times did all it could to vilify the Raiders while they were here. Now that there is a glimmer of hope that the Raiders might return, The Times is at it again. Some of us fervently hope that the Raiders will return and that when they do, The Times will give them a chance to succeed.

ED ALEKS, Santa Monica

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Regarding Bill Plaschke’s “Against NFL, L.A. Can’t Move the Ball,” [July 31]:

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas seems so set on the NFL coming to “his” Coliseum that he might cost L.A. a chance to have the NFL at all. If Ridley-Thomas were from Sylmar, would Sylmar be the best place for the NFL?

BRUCE E. KONSCHUH, Fullerton