The NFL in L.A.? A City Holds Its Breath

The NFL is reviewing two proposals to return the sport to the Greater Los Angeles area. In one, the league will own the property on which a state-of-the-art stadium will be built, bookending one of the more aesthetic and successful baseball stadiums in the country. The NFL will function within a political and bureaucratic environment that has been generally business-friendly.

The second plan renovates an aged facility into something of a souped-up version of the “new” Soldier Field in Chicago, which hardly anyone considers a civic asset. There will be no supplementary development opportunity and the NFL must deal with meddlesome and quarrelsome city, county and state politicians. Finally, the NFL must share the facility with one of the storied programs in college football that over time probably will outperform and outdraw its co-tenant.

You’re right. Too close to call.

JEFFREY THOMSON

Los Angeles

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In a May 23 story, it was reported that USC President Steve Sample wrote a letter to the Coliseum Commission about USC’s status if an NFL team should move in. Alan Abrahamson wrote that Sample was “painting a doomsday scenario for USC without evidence or rationale” for his concerns.

The evidence is 1982, when the Raiders moved to the Coliseum, and the rationale is that the NFL can’t be trusted. On that occasion, the commission and the Raiders cut a deal that swept aside 60 years of USC’s (and UCLA’s) rights in the stadium, without advance consultation, and demoted the local colleges to second-class citizenship. It happily drove UCLA to the Rose Bowl, but USC was stuck. I know. I was there.

ALAN CHARLES

Retired vice chancellor, UCLA