Where’s the Right Spot for NFL in Los Angeles?

Mike Penner [May 20] writes of the octogenarian football stadiums with the “outmoded architecture” (almost as bad as the Colosseum or the Parthenon, but if Mr. Penner was ever in those towns he probably headed for the Hard Rock Cafe). How could one ever watch a football game surrounded by outmoded architecture? Concentration would be impossible.

Fascinatingly, the only things that actually matter to viewing a football game are the quality of the field itself and the visibility, two things that have not improved much in several hundred years. Mr. Penner is concerned not with the game, but with the trappings that often accompany it, like rich people ignoring the game to drink spirits in air-conditioned comfort. The trouble is that he’s probably right in line with the owners and the bulk of the money in the stands.

Bob Burket

Santa Monica

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Marketing 101 declares, “If you want to catch fish, go where the fish are.” To which the NFL adds, “Do some chumming ($10 million) for the suckers.”

Friends and neighbors, L.A. doesn’t need the NFL, it needs us. My sons got to see only one NFL game each before the Rams left. And I was a computer salesman back then. Can you afford a day at that game? Not to worry, just turn on the TV. Worry if the NFL returns. With a rejected franchise, unaffordable seats and blackouts.

It’s not about Carson, the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl. It’s about off-air TV revenue. The NFL wants to sell you your favorite game like the prizefight you can’t afford either. And every sports bar and every “club” that, like us, is at least getting some of it free. And we are the largest fish the NFL hasn’t netted.

If we take the bait, say goodbye to free games and say hello to the San Diego Chargers.

Tom Sloss

Fountain Valley

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Carson? Who in the heck wants to drive down to Carson to see a football game on a toxic landfill? Once again, Michael Ovitz has ruined everything.

Richard Craig Vincelli

Tujunga

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I wish, just once, someone would ask someone other than a bunch of billionaires if the people of Los Angeles even care if we have a football team.

The Chargers couldn’t make it here, the Rams couldn’t make it, the Raiders couldn’t make it and the next team won’t either.

Larry Berardino

Redondo Beach

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If Keith Jackson is a Coliseum man, so am I.

John Clendening

Dallas