Well, it's official. The National Football League's 32nd franchise has been awarded to Houston. Los Angeles lost out--or so says the NFL.

No one in LA was prepared to compete with Houston billionaire Bob McNair's offer of $700 million AND a new $310 million stadium with glass walls and a retractable roof. McNair also had the advantage of $200 million in public funds, while such funding was ruled out in LA from the beginning.

So, how is the City of Angels reacting to this?

The feeling of most Angelenos was summed up by Mayor Richard Riordan: "I haven't met anybody yet who feels depressed because of this. We have so much going on in our city. Sure, it would have been nice to have a team, but I'm not going to miss a moment's sleep over this."

I couldn't have said it any better. Pro sports, especially football, is long overdue for a reality check.

Doesn't money man McNair remember that the Houston Oilers left town to become the Tennessee Titans because they had little fan support? Even now, the feeling in Houston is an odd mixture of joy and wariness. After all, they were burned once before.

But, there's more.

TV ratings for pro football are down, and the demographics are getting older. How many 20-somethings do you know who will religiously watch most or all of the games? Sure, the guys will hang out and sip a few brewskis for the big contests, but real money comes from loyal viewership all season long.

Then, we have to look at ad revenue. If the target audience for beer consumers is males 18-25, the problem is that these are exactly the guys who AREN'T watching. Young men have more exciting things to do than sit around for three plus hours observing a televised sporting event.

TV football is made even harder to watch by the generally abysmal commentators. Fancy graphics don't make up for dull as dirt and often inaccurate presentations. Most fans know that the best play-by-play has been on radio for years.

If anything, technology has hurt more than it has helped. Part of any sporting contest is the human factor. There will be bad calls, but unless outright fraud is occurring, logic dictates that just as many of these will go for a team, as against it. Is there really any point to the endless analysis of instant replay to second guess the officials on the field? It IS just a game, for all but the big time gamblers.

Add to the mix the astonishingly low moral character of many of the athletes with the growing public disgust, and you have a disaster waiting to happen.

Simply put, if the beer companies wake up one day and decide that their ad money is better spent elsewhere, it is GAME OVER.

Perhaps Ralph Wilson, Lamar Hunt, and the other anti-LA owners should take a lesson from our city, which always seems to be ahead of the curve. The Internet was conceived here, maybe the new face of pro sports will be too.