Roski's NFL plan for Industry

Developer Ed Roski sees his Los Angeles Stadium, to be unveiled at a press conference today, as the hook that will bring pro football back to Southern California and be a boon to his big commercial development where the 60 and 57 freeways cross. "Los Angeles Stadium will bring the NFL back to Los Angeles after 14 years and create a new entertainment center for families across Southern California," says the website. Sam Farmer in the L.A. Times grants that "it's a dazzling, asymmetrical venue built into a hillside in the City of Industry," but he gives Roski fat chance of succeeding.

Good luck, Ed, because the L.A. wreckage puts that Titanic mess to shame.

From Irwindale to Irvine, the Cornfield to Carson, Dodger Stadium to Hollywood Park, the Rose Bowl to the Coliseum, proposals ranging from ingenious to outlandish have fallen by the wayside.

Moving back to L.A. isn't among the NFL's top three priorities, and I'd be surprised if it were in the top five. Team owners don't want Commissioner Roger Goodell spending his time working on that conundrum when they're readying for a pitched battle with the players' union, can't figure out how best to share their billions in revenue, and have most of America channel surfing in vain for the NFL Network.

L.A. won't reappear on the NFL's radar screen until an owner stands up and says he can no longer get it done in his current city, and the prospects of staying are so bleak that his team can be more successful in Southern California -- even when saddled with the cost of a new stadium, an astronomical relocation fee, and heaven knows what else.

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There's little groundswell from untold millions of football fans in Southern California, the ones who appreciate less traffic on Sundays and more NFL choices on TV.

If you build it, Ed, they will come. But if you don't build it, will they care?

Roski is a partner in Staples Center and the Kings, and Farmer says he ranks 195th on Forbes magazine's list of 400 richest Americans with an estimated worth of $2.3 billion.