Will Los Angeles finally get a football team? They might get two
Los Angeles might have two NFL teams by next season despite not having a professional football team of its own for over 20 years as three teams consider moving to the nation's second-largest city.
The owners of the San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders are all considering such a move, CBS News' John Blackstone reports.
Football fans in those cities were upset when the league held public hearings on the issue this week.
"We will always love our team. Please do not take them away from us and try to bring them back five years later," one fan wearing a Chargers jersey said at a town hall meeting.
Many fans say team owners have already made up their minds to move and that the town halls have been held for show.
Eric Grubman, the NFL's point man on relocation, disagrees.
"I think the fans can affect the outcome just as I think fans in the stadium can affect the outcome of the game. People think of it as based on nuts and bolts and dollars and cents. But without the fans, there's no game. Without the game, there's no business. And you can't ignore that," Grubman said.
Thousands showed up at public hearings to plead their case to NFL representatives. For many fans in San Diego, one man in particular has come to represent calculated business interests over their consistent team loyalty. That man is Special Council to the Chargers Mark Fabiani.
"We certainly have to worry about the future of the franchise and protect the future of the franchise. That's what we're trying to do," Fabiani said.
Fabiani knows that if the Chargers move from San Diego, many fans will be heartbroken, but he said, "If you had an opportunity to relocate your business to a much bigger market, if you'd been trying for 14 years to make something work in your existing market, but you couldn't, why wouldn't you fight for that market?"
Each team has troubles at home. The league wants upgraded stadiums, but the cities don't want the tax burden that comes with them. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is promising teams a world class stadium, all privately funded.
"There is, among people, an understandable concern about spending money on a sports facility when you have potholes in the streets and you have the police department underfunded and the fire department underfunded, so we understand where people are coming from," Fabiani said.
The NFL is expected to make a decision on relocation as early as January. The three cities say they want more time to score points with owners before the clock runs out.