Los Angeles Has ‘Long Way To Go’ To Get NFL Team

Despite a major financing announcement made this week, a plan to build a stadium in Los Angeles and bring a National Football League franchise back to the city has a long way to go, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said today.

“The financing of the stadium in Los Angeles is still a very difficult proposition,” Goodell told reporters at his annual State of the League news conference in Dallas.

“We have to get the collective bargaining agreement addressed in such a way as to make it so that that is a smart investment that can be financed so that we can create the kind of economic activity in Los Angeles that I believe can happen, if we’re successful, whether it be in downtown or out at the city of Industry,” he said.

Goodall’s comments came three days after the potential construction of a stadium adjacent to Staples Center was boosted by the announcement of a 30- year naming-rights agreement with Farmers Insurance Exchange, potentially worth $700 million.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said at a news conference Tuesday that the agreement is “a major indication of the viability of a franchise in Los Angeles and yes, that’s significant money.”

“I’m on the committee for expansion out there,” Jones said. “Certainly the kinds of things they are doing within the framework of the financial dollars I’m hearing about should work.”

Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II told reporters at Super Bowl media day Tuesday that he thought Los Angeles would have an NFL team by at least 2016.

“I think Los Angeles is in the picture by then,” Rooney said. “It’s a great football town. They’ve supported a few franchises over the years and hopefully, we’ll get another one back there by at least 2016.”

A 75,000-seat stadium complex has also been proposed for Industry. Its developer, Edward P. Roski Jr., the chairman and chief executive officer of Majestic Realty Co., has said the stadium will not be built without a team first making a commitment to play there.

The lack of an adequate stadium is considered the leading reason the Los Angeles area has not had an NFL team since 1994.

Since then, failed stadium proposals have been made for Carson, downtown Los Angeles and Chavez Ravine, along with a proposed remodeling of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Anaheim Stadium-based Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995, the same year the Los Angeles Raiders, who played at the Coliseum, returned to Oakland.