[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Michael Hopcroft

How eager is the rank-and-file LA sports fan to get the NFL back at this point? And how many of them have been Charger fans, and how many choose other teams to support.

I have an opinion, albeit from 3,000 miles away. I have to believe that there would be a great market for football in L.A. and I cannot imagine why that would not be so. This is from a Wikipedia article:

Professional American football, especially its established top level, the National Football League, has had a long history in Los Angeles, which is the center of the second-largest media market in the United States. Since 1995, Los Angeles has been by far the largest U.S. market without an NFL team. It is currently more than double the size of any other North American market to get serious consideration for a team. The NFL and other professional leagues have had multiple teams in Los Angeles between 1946 and 1994, all of which originally played home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The nearest team for the area is the San Diego Chargers.

But why, then did the Rams move out? From that article:

[The Rams] had long been dissatisfied with the L.A. Coliseum, due to its size (the cavernous venue sold out very infrequently, causing blackouts of Rams games on local TV), its location (in South Central Los Angeles, perceived to be one of the city's more dangerous neighborhoods), and its lack of nearby parking . . . [and they were] unable to persuade the city to build a new stadium in Los Angeles, so they decided to move out of the Coliseum to Anaheim (28 miles southeast of downtown L.A.) in Orange County, which was then experiencing an enormous boom in population and construction.

The Raiders were like carpetbaggers, never really settling down and sprouting roots in L.A.:

Due in no small part to the decision by the Los Angeles Sports Commission to halt further planned renovations to the Coliseum due to repair costs generated by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, Al Davis gave up on Los Angeles, and decided to accept a new stadium renovation offer from Oakland, California and to return to his team's former home.

So that explains things. Need a new stadium in L.A. The fans would come in droves.

And, as far as San Diego, I just looked at a map. The distance from Los Angeles to San Diego is about the same as from New York City to Philadelphia. If the Giants (and Jets) did not exist, I really would have no interest in any team playing in Philly and would have very little motivation to drive all the way there for a game.