This is exactly what happens when you have a fickle fan base. They sell seats to the games, where people arrive 45 minutes late, but they have little penetration into the market beyond the stadium -- you go up there to Atlanta and you simply don't see Falcons jerseys or caps on every third person walking by on the street, the way you do with Saints jerseys in New Orleans or Ravens gear in Baltimore. Even with all these winning seasons, you hang around Atlanta on game day and you can't even tell the team is playing. Then go to a city like Baltimore or Buffalo or New Orleans, where the whole city grinds to a halt on Sundays.

It may just be talk to get a new stadium, but L.A. would actually be an extremely good move for them. They are the perfect team for that market, given that they have hit their financial plateau in Atlanta and it's still not enough of a loyal fan base for them to be competitive with other fan based markets around the NFL. Moving to LA they could sell Falcons tickets and jerseys and gear and corporate sponsorships etc to a whole new market, starting over from scratch, in one of the biggest cities in America, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think on some level Blank has to be looking at that. They would be a good fit in the NFC West, playing San Francisco and Seattle twice a year which would be really competitive, exciting games that the league would love. This has a lot more upside to it than a lot of the other standard rumors about moving teams.

Trust me. In the ATL you'll know when a game is being played if you live near the the Dome or Phillips Arena. There's always a HUGE traffic jam when the Falcons play. That's part of the reason people arrive late.