L.A. Isn’t a One-Game Town

The long and arduous effort to bring the National Football League back to Los Angeles is over, for the moment. We’re sorry the NFL isn’t returning for now, but we cannot say we’re at all sorry that California taxpayers won’t be burdened with a substantial share of the cost of a new team and stadium, a record $1 billion. It’s clear that Los Angeles would still welcome an NFL team, just not under such exorbitant circumstances.

Houston’s victory was not tied to any particular failure of effort here. A stronger pitch by Southern California elected officials would not have made a difference in this fight. Nor can anyone slight the determination and resolve of any of the four primary players in the local ownership bid: Ed Roski and Eli Broad pushed one proposal, and Ron Burkle and Michael Ovitz another. Regardless of how they were received, the four made reasonable offers right up until the eleventh hour.

Sure, maybe there were some face-saving attempts at the end. The last-minute sniping on Tuesday night and Wednesday’s steam-letting and finger-pointing were unfortunate, but that is the nature of what turned out to be an NFL competition with the highest stakes ever.

After all was said, it came down to a sports league that was in no hurry to choose either Los Angeles or Houston unless someone was willing to make a mega-offer. Houston’s Bob McNair, the primary force in that city’s bid, certainly did that. The NFL saw Houston’s $700-million franchise fee and quickly tallied up the take for each owner: more than $22 million apiece. That was hard to pass up, given that the average NFL owner has debt totaling nearly a quarter of the team’s value. That big money was what convinced owners that the league could absorb further viewership losses in Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest television market.

Los Angeles might yet get an existing team. Such a move requires the approval of 24 of the league’s 31 (now 32) owners, but it’s also true that the last six team moves to other cities met little opposition. Any effort in Los Angeles to acquire an existing team should heed the bold standard of temperance with public finances that was set in this case.

In the meantime, there’s the proverbial silver lining: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum didn’t get professional football. But guess what? It’s now the city’s major soccer venue, having drawn about 270,000 fans for four World Cup games last summer. There is, indeed, more than one game in this town.