Al Davis should have never moved the Raiders back to Oakland. With his team ranked near the bottom in value (according to Forbes Magazine,) games that don.t sell out, luxury boxes that are not filled, legal battles and a team that has had only 3 winning seasons in the past 14 years, the Raiders are a devalued franchise in disarray. In Los Angeles they would be the only game in town, and would be playing a football only stadium. Instead they share a market with the San Francisco 49ers and play in a run down virtual bowl of a stadium that they share with the baseball.s Oakland Athletics

In the winter of 1995 the Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis. Al Davis had the entire Los Angeles market all to himself. This would have dramatically increased the value of his franchise (being the only game in town,) as well as the NFL.s television contract. In fact Al Davis would have been the only sports owner in L.A. to have the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area to himself. Every other team in L.A. has to share in some way. The Dodgers share with the Angels, the Kings share with the Ducks, the Galaxy share with Chivas USA and the Lakers share a building with the Clippers. When he moved the team to Oakland he then had to share a smaller market with the Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers. This is like the Clippers moving to L.A. in 1984.

If the Raiders hadn.t left Los Angeles then the NFL.s television contract would be worth a lot more. A city having a team to cheer for and buy tickets for makes for higher ratings because the community has something invested in that team and the team represents the community. Some people in L.A. like to argue that by not having a team in L.A., they get to watch an extra game on Sundays. While this is true, this means that a small number of people get to watch their favorite team. If L.A. had a team to cheer for then a much larger number of fans would get to see their favorite team and ratings would be higher.

Al Davis had a deal to build a football only stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood across the street from the Forum where the Los Angeles Lakers used to play. This deal was negotiated partially by the NFL and All Davis had to do was contribute $20 million and the stadium would have been built. Now the Raiders are one of three NFL teams (the others being the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings) that share a stadium with a Major League Baseball team. The Oakland coliseum is a lopsided virtual bowl with 3/4th circle and one side having a huge mountain of stands. The renovations ruined a beautiful baseball stadium. The coliseum is a jack of all trades in a league full of football masters.

Why did football not work for the Raiders in Los Angeles? The main problem with the Raiders in Los Angeles is the atmosphere that the Raiders created. It was a rough and touch crowd that tried to live up to the Raiders image, with people getting drunk and starting fights regularly, in a stadium in South Central Los Angeles. Upper middle class people were afraid of coming to the games for fear of their safety. You couldn.t bring a young child to the games, and you certainly couldn.t cheer for the other team with out fear. Getting to the Coliseum and parking your car was an adventure you would run into homeless people who cleaned your car window whether you wanted them to or not. Too many people had a bad experience and chose not to come. Clearly Al Davis needed to make a change, but since there was no public money for a new stadium, and he was too cheap to contribute $20 million for one in Hollywood park, he chose to take the shortest path without considering the long term consequences, and the reasons he left Oakland in the first place. The Raiders left a bad situation Los Angeles for one that is even worse in Oakland.

Why are there no NFL teams in Los Angeles now? There are two reasons why there is not an NFL team in Los Angeles right now which are first Los Angeles does not have a state-of-the-art stadium and second many citied around the country can use Los Angeles as a bargaining chip to get public money to build a stadium. In Los Angeles no one would ever consider using public money to build a stadium. All of the teams in the L.A. market, except for the Angels, play in privately financed stadiums (i.e. Staples Center, Dodger Stadium and Honda Center.)

Within the last 15 years look at all the teams that have used public money, or will be using public money for a new stadium. Here are a few examples. In the late 90.s the Seattle Seahawks announced that they were moving to Los Angeles, but Paul Allan bought the team and Quest field was built with public money. Indianapolis is a small market, and they used public money to build Lucas Oil Stadium for the colts. The New Orleans Saints play in a small poor market, yet before they had the hurricane they used $250 million to remodel the Super Dome, instead of fixing the levies, and after the hurricane they used $187 million of FEMA money to remodel the Super Dome. Cincinnati build Paul Brown stadium, the Buffalo Bills remodeled their stadium, and play games in Canada. For years the Arizona Cardinals had the lowest attendance in the NFL, and Phoenix just built the Cardinals a stadium.