The owners’ gathering, which began with committee meetings Tuesday, will be dominated by discussion of the empty Los Angeles market and the three teams vying to occupy it: the Raiders, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers.
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No decision on Los Angeles is expected to come from this week’s meeting, though multiple reports have put the first quarter of 2016, and perhaps ahead of the Super Bowl, as the target for making a decision between Kroenke’s Rams project in Inglewood or the Chargers’ and/or Raiders’ stadium proposal for Carson. “I don’t think we’re extremely close right now”. There is a ton of uncertainty surrounding these teams’ relocation, as each owner will need to get 24 votes out of the league’s 32 owners to approve any move, and the Inglewood project now faces a hurdle with the Federal Aviation Administration.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen”, said San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York. “The ownership has expressed their desire to get this done in a reasonable amount of time”.
“The 24 vote rule is key”, said Indianapolis Colts owner, Jim Irsay.
“So that seat hasn’t been removed”, said Giants Co-owner, Steve Tisch, noting it was possible, but not likely, that a team other than the Rams could end up in St. Louis.
“We want to hear more as we move forward in the next five weeks”, he said. The NFL also could force the Rams and the Chargers to work together in Inglewood, although the Chargers’ owners appear decidedly uninterested in being the junior partner in that complex. It remains unclear if owners will support a team moving to L.A., especially if the franchise’s hometown was working on a viable stadium option.
His deal could consist of a 50-50 split of the cost to build the $1.86-billion stadium as well as evenly splitting the revenue from it. San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis have countered with a two-team proposal in Carson, Calif., just down the freeway. That would be one of many factors owners would consider when determining whether a relocation-minded owner had satisfied the league’s guidelines to move a franchise. They are three of the NFL’s six owners on the Los Angeles committee.
The meeting will take place one day after the city of San Diego released its response to concerns league executives had with a term sheet for a Mission Valley stadium project proposed by the city and county two months ago.
“I think this was a given”, said Ganis, president of Chicago-based Sportscorp.
Teams can not submit relocation applications until January 4. That goes from three days before the expiration of a player’s contract to two days.
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Before they adjourn, the owners may or may not schedule a relocation vote for January.
