Future Shock Is in Store for Southland Fans

June 23, 1995: On the same day the last Ram moving van pulls out of Anaheim and heads for St. Louis, the Raiders announce their intention to return to Oakland this season, leaving the Southland devoid of professional football for the first time since 1945 and setting a most dangerous precedent.

Soon, the dominoes begin to fall. . . .

July 1995: Walt Disney Co., having purchased 25% of the California Angels, announces it is moving its share of the team to Orlando, with plans to move the other 75% at a later date.

August 1995: Without a starting pitching rotation, the Angels drop out of contention in the American League West.

September 1995: Leigh Steinberg forms “Save The Other 75% Of The Angels.”

October 1995: On the eve of the 1995-96 NHL season opener, the Los Angeles Kings’ debt level reaches $150 million, prompting Federal Express to foreclose on the team. The franchise is immediately folded and the players are entered into a dispersal draft. Denver picks Wayne Gretzky, Buffalo takes Rob Blake and Anaheim selects Darryl Sydor. The league’s other 22 teams decide to pass.

November 1995: Los Angeles Laker owner Jerry Buss, having fronted the Kings one too many advances on their Senate Seat money, reveals to a local newspaper that the till is all but tapped and he is considering a move to Nashville, St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, Jacksonville, Shreveport, Omaha or Paris.

December 1995: Leigh Steinberg forms “Save The Lakers And The Other 75% Of The Angels.”

January 1996: The Oakland Raiders defeat the San Francisco 49ers, 31-30, in Super Bowl XXX. Jubilant Raider fans trash downtown Oakland. No one notices. A jubilant Al Davis crows, “As the greatness of the Raid-uhs has proved once more, yes, you can go home again.” Los Angeles Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, watching on the big screen at home, notices.

February 1996: Dodger pitchers and catchers report to Vero Beach and the New York Post publishes a photo of Peter O’Malley caught secretly scouting potential stadium sites in Brooklyn.

March 1996: Leigh Steinberg forms “Save The Dodgers, The Lakers And The Other 75% Of The Angels.”

April 1996: The Mighty Ducks, having sold out all 42 home games and finished last in the Western Conference, announce they are raising ticket prices to $200 per seat on the plaza concourse and $100 per seat on the terrace. “We’re doing this for the convenience of our ever-loyal fans,” a Ducks spokesman says. “Two hundred or 100--it’s easier to remember this way.”

May 1996: The Mighty Ducks announce that all 17,174 seats at The Pond have been sold for every game throughout the 1996-97 season. “This is nice,” Disney CEO Michael Eisner says in a prepared statement, “but I believe this underscores the crying need for a bigger hockey arena for the Mighty Ducks. If Anaheim is unable to provide us 10,000 more seats by October, I reluctantly will be forced to move the franchise to Orlando, where plans are in place to build a 40,000-seat Happy Happy Duck Dome on Disney World property.”

June 1996: Leigh Steinberg forms “Save The Ducks, The Dodgers, The Lakers And The Other 75% Of The Angels.”

July 1996: Starting pitching still depleted, the Angels lose a major-league record 27 games in a row.

August 1996: “We can’t go on like this,” says Angels minority owner Michael Eisner, who announces plans to buy the other 75% of the franchise and move all of it to Orlando in time for the 1997 season.

September 1996: “The commissioner must step in and prevent the move of the other 75% of the Angels to Orlando,” Leigh Steinberg declares. “If the rest of the Angels go, the future of major league baseball in the Los Angeles-Orange County area will be left in the hands of Peter O’Malley. Is that what major league baseball wants?”

October 1997: Major league baseball informs Steinberg it has no commissioner and therefore cannot stop anyone from doing anything or moving anywhere.

November 1997: The Dodgers announce plans to move back to Brooklyn in time for the 1998 season. “We never should have left,” Dodger third-year starting pitcher Hideo Nomo tells a reporter. “I have really missed Brooklyn.” Reporter tells Nomo he wasn’t yet born the last time the Dodgers played in Brooklyn. Nomo solemnly nods. “That is why I tell you I have really missed it.”

December 1997: Unable to meet payroll, Laker owner Jerry Buss attempts to phone Bruce McNall and call in an old marker. Unfortunately, McNall is not accepting phone calls at Pleasanton. Unpaid Lakers refuse to take the floor for a game against the expansion Nashville Morphin’ Power Rangers.

January 1998: NBA Commissioner David Stern intervenes in the Laker crisis. “Road trips to Paris in the spring sound like a splendid idea to me,” Stern says. “I’ve always loved the Louvre.”

February 1998: The Lakers announce plans to move to Paris in time for the 1998-99 season. Parisians revolt en masse before Stern is flown in to assure them Disney has nothing to do with it.

March 1998: The Brooklyn Dodgers and the Orlando Angels decide to cancel the Freeway Series.

April 1998: The Ducks miss the playoffs again with the smallest payroll in the league and Eisner blames “the lack of a true home-ice advantage. We’re only drawing 17,174 fans a game. When the Rams started drawing that many, they decided to leave town.”

May 1998: The Ducks sign a 15-year lease with the city of Orlando, announce that upper level ticket prices will start at $300.

June 1998: Leigh Steinberg takes a long, long vacation.

July 1998: Laker moving vans leave for Paris, get only as far as Staten Island.

August 1998: Movers unload Laker vans and put the stuff on a boat. Thrice-retired Magic Johnson announces another comeback. “I’ll be bigger than Jerry Lewis and Richard Nixon,” Magique predicts. Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone promises to sit out all trips to Paris.

November 1998: With the entire Los Angeles basin to themselves, the Clippers host five-time defending NBA champion Houston in their home opener at the Sports Arena. Announced attendance is 4,735.

December 1998: The Clippers announce they are moving to Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival, so Donald Sterling can stop inconveniencing his actor buddies.

April 1999: The Clippers play their final game at the Sports Arena. For the first time in nearly 60 years, the Los Angeles market has no major league sports teams.

May 1999: Major League Soccer, after a couple unexpected snags and delays, opens its inaugural season, with the L.A. Campos playing to a sellout crowd of 92,488 in their Coliseum opener. Looking out at the stadium’s newly reconstructed press box, Alan Rothenberg beams, “The way we had it planned all along.”