Could Los Angeles host the NFL draft? Roger Goodell says it could

It has been almost 20 years since Los Angeles last had an NFL team. But even without a franchise, the nation’s second-largest market could potentially play host to the NFL draft.

In an interview with the NFL Network’s Rich Eisen, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was looking into alternative cities to stage the draft, which since 2006 has been held at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

“Radio City’s been a great place for us,” Goodell said. “But there are a lot of cities that are interested in having this in a future. And we’re going to look at that.”

Asked which cities have inquired, Goodell said: “Well, the two most aggressive, probably, are Chicago and Los Angeles. But we’ve heard from a few other mayors also.”

The interview with Goodell was for The Rich Eisen Draft Special which airs on NFL Network on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. PDT.

This isn’t the first time Goodell has talked about moving the draft out of New York City, where it has taken place since 1965.

In 2008, before the league renewed its contract with Radio City, Goodell said: “There seems to be a great deal of interest from various cities to do it. We think Radio City has been terrific, and obviously being in the media capital is a terrific thing for us, but it is something that we continue to evaluate, and we haven’t come to any conclusion on it. ...

“There are a lot of cities that think it can be terrific and we do too, so it is something that we are seriously evaluating.”

So don’t start forming that line in L.A. quite yet.