As Deadspin’s Barry Petchesky noted, the Chargers will need to act quickly if they are planning to move to Los Angeles.
Advertisement
The Rams, Chargers and Oakland Raiders each applied for relocation to Los Angeles. The bid needed approval from 24 owners to get the green light. The plan, which was announced by Rams owner Stan Kroenke a year ago, includes the option of housing a second team – which right now would be the Chargers, should they decide to go. They also gave the go-ahead to the owners of the San Diego Chargers – led by majority share holding billionaire Alex Spanos – until 2017 to decide if they want to move the team to Los Angeles.
UPDATE 6:43 p.m.: The Chargers have denied that anything is imminent.
Spanos was still traveling back from Houston, where Tuesday night he suffered a stinging defeat while still being granted the chance to leave San Diego for Los Angeles.
“For us, I think it’s great”, said head coach Pete Carroll, referencing that the team will stay on the west coast one more week per season.
Both teams were told by the league that they would be given an extra $100 million – on top of the league’s existing $200 million stadium fund – if they decided instead to build a stadium in their home markets.
Even though the Raiders are headed back to Oakland after losing out on Los Angeles, their fight is far from over to get a new stadium.
If the struggling team choose to relocate, it may not spell the end of football in San Diego with a June vote for $350-million in public funding toward a new facility to replace Qualcomm Stadium with the Chargers set to possibly play between one and two matches a season to the Mexican border city.
“There will be life without the Rams here in St. Louis, I can assure you that”, Slay said, adding he has “no appetite” for seeking another NFL team because of dishonest practices of the league in the relocation matter. They will then be moving to a new stadium in 2019, once construction is completed for them. The vote marked the return of the National Football League to Los Angeles, which has not had a franchise since 1994. The city won’t commit public dollars to stadium construction.
“Today isn’t about the past”, Faulconer said in a clear reference to the strained relations between the city and Spanos camps.
San Diego has made a proposal to the Chargers to keep the franchise in the city.
St. Louis officials have been quick to note that the city is searching for new tenants for year-round use and would review how much the loss will affect the area’s finances.
Advertisement
The St. Louis proposal calls for an open-air, $1.1 billion stadium along the Mississippi River north of the Gateway Arch to replace the Edward Jones Dome.
