There are currently too many cities that have an NFL franchise but don't really have the means to support it - Buffalo and Jacksonville leap to mind immediately, but I'm sure we could brainstorm up a few others. Every year the colleges come to LA to find the next great football prospect, and every year the NFL comes to USC and UCLA looking for more NFL personnel (as well as our local stars at out-of-state colleges). If LA truly wasn't a "football town" there wouldn't be so many great players coming up through our ranks every year.
On the other hand, when it come time to discuss NFL teams to move to LA, we're only used as a bargaining chip to land a more lucrative stadium deal. Rarely is there any decent effort put forward to find a team to move to this wonderful market. The first few times I almost fell for it - now the weak and transparent efforts just make me sick.
And most of all, I am sick of that abandoned quarry in Irwindale being hoisted up as a potential stadium site by whomever is threatening to move his team to LA (Al Davis, are you listening? Wayne Weaver, are you there? Alex Spanos, you're close enough to know better!).
There is existing infrastructure to put an NFL stadium near downtown LA - centrally-located like it needs to be. Either southeast of Staples Center along 11th st. or southwest of Staples and on the other site of the 110 (near where the UPS depot currently is. Either location will need to be supported by multi-level parking. So what? They won't be the first garages in downtown. And there is ample mass transit in place already.
LA's leadership needs to commit to this facility BEFORE an NFL team can be expected to move here - as the field nears completion, half-a-dozen of those guys will fall all over themselves to get their team in here. Perhaps even two of them will go the distance. Real estate isn't going to get much cheaper - now is the time to start.