Lotta NFL-to-Los-Angeles news floating around again lately--maybe it's just the season or maybe something's actually going on, who knows? The main thing is that whatever happens or doesn't, it will all go just the way the famously controlling NFL wants it to go. We heard yesterday that Mayor Garcetti and developer AEG are still trying to make an NFL stadium happen in South Park, even though the league made it clear ages ago that they weren't fans of that plan. Now NBCSports reports on an October memo saying basically "that the league owns the market, and that the league will decide if/when a team can move there." And furthermore that "a team buying real estate in L.A., ostensibly for a new stadium, wouldn't keep the league from doing its own stadium deal." The NFL is so bossy about the whole matter because a) they want to get the very best Los Angeles deal for themselves and b) they'll want to charge "a significant relocation fee" to any team that moves (and also c) they love to threaten cities with the possibility that their team will move to LA, in order to extract things like new stadiums). Anyway, NBC also notes that the memo could've also been partly addressed "to the powers-that-be in L.A." to indicate "that a deal can happen if/when someone is willing to do the kind of deal the NFL likes." The NFL was not hot on the South Park plan because it would've let AEG make a ton of money off the team and venue.
· League tells teams not to cut their own L.A. deals [NBCSports]
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