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Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley @ Nokia Theater 10/28/09
The New Orleans Saints may be on the move, and Los Angeles might be their destination.
The Saints, of course, have used LA for leverage in the past, and the franchise might be using us again. But this time, Saints owner Tom Benson has also suggested San Antonio and Albuquerque as possible relocation sites.
LAists thinks that's garbage. If the Saints are moving anywhere, it's to Los Angeles, even if Tom Benson has ties to San Antonio. Name-dropping those other two cities only gives the next NFL team with a lousy stadium situation the opportunity to use other cities as leverage once LA gets a team.
LAist has supported the move of any NFL team here in the past, and we think Tom Benson would be foolish not to take advantage of an escape clause in his lease with the Superdome that opens after the 2005 season. New Orleans has little or no corporate support, and court documents from the Raiders-NFL lawsuit a few years back revealed the Saints were the only NFL team losing money.
Why lose money in New Orleans when you can play in an NFL-paid-for football stadium in the nation's second-largest market? It seems like a no-brainer to us.
That said, Benson would need to pay $81 million to leave, and while he'll probably make it all back in LA (the franchise value would certainly go up more than $81 million), owners are known to be cheap over these sorts of short-term costs. It is entirely likely that Benson will remain in New Orleans and hope for a new stadium in Louisiana, or hope the LA football market is still vacant by 2010, when he can leave New Orleans with no penalty.
If however, the Saints do come to Los Angeles as soon as next year, we have one simple request: Change your team's name. The "Los Angeles Saints" sounds awful. What do you think a new LA football team should be called?
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LA SmogCutters
I've noticed a trend in recent team names, especially in multicultural cities like LA and Miami (where MLS teams are named the Galaxy and Fusion), where the ethnic composition of various communities is highlighted by a name that celebrates the "melting pot" or "salad bowl" characters of modern US cities. Although NFL football tends to focus its marketing more to 18-35 year old white men, for a franchise to survive in LA's Laker-centric sports world, they'll have to come up with something appealing to LA's various communities, while still tying into football's image as a tough guy's sport. So my suggestions would be "Los Angeles Union", "Los Angeles Unit", "Los Angeles Syndicate", something along these lines.
With our luck, they do a play on hollywood and it'd be something cheesy like LA Stars.
Umm...no.
How bout LA Ballers! :) wait... that sounds like a bball team.
With so many transplanted teams (Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers) in town, it kind of seems appropriate for them to keep their name. Although if the Angeles are going to continue to try to rep LA then that might be too many holy teams in town.
Maybe go the exact opposite way and acknowledge our Latino heritage - The Los Angeles Diablos?
or maybe the Ranchers? the Wranglers?
or that kind of cool alliteration that works so well with the lakers and call them the Lancers?
If the NFL weren't so enamored with teams ending in "s", I'd suggest the LA Traffic. Offensive line known as The Jam.
Hell, we could do superbowl shuffle 2005.
Why not the Los Angeles Dons? Back in the 40's we had an L.A. Dons professional football team of the now defunct AAFC. I always thought this was a fantastic name.
L.A. Rattlers?
L.A. Chapparal? Nah.
L.A. (Commuter) Rage
How about the Drive-Bys?
Name it whatever you want, no one will care and you'll have an empty stadium in 5 years.
LA doesnt know how to support an NFL team. That is a fact.
the saints would fit here
plus we would have them by next year