In a 48-page report distributed to all 32 teams, Goodell deems all three stadium proposals “unsatisfactory and inadequate” according to Sam Farmer and Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times.
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The Rams, Raiders and Chargers have all applied to relocate to Los Angeles.
The report does state and establish that the three home markets in question, St. Louis, San Diego, and Oakland, have all failed to provide viable stadium solutions to keep the teams in their respective cities.
Raiders owner Mark Davis has said he wants to stay in Oakland but has not been happy with the city’s proposals, which include no public money for a new stadium.
Oakland didn’t submit a finalized stadium proposal, and San Diego’s pledge of $350 million toward a new football stadium is contingent on a public vote.
To that end, the Los Angeles News Group has learned Jones forwarded a letter to the National Football League proposing an alternative solution in which the Rams and Chargers team up in Inglewood. Spanos has had the right to leave San Diego since 2008, but the team’s long, contentious efforts to replace aging Qualcomm Stadium became more aggressive after Rams owner Stan Kroenke announced plans to build a stadium in Inglewood. Moreover, the report indicates that the Los Angeles area is capable of supporting two teams.
Earlier this week at league headquarters in NY, the stadium, finance and L.A. committees discussed those applications and met with the backers of each project.
“It’s unlikely those franchises considering relocation will all be able to find suitable, workable stadium deals in their home markets”, Carter said.
Each of the teams in those cities has been working to improve on the inadequacies.
But they believed they didn’t when Kroenke made his move. Pay blackmail/tribute to the NFL–or lose your team.
Goodell says in the report that city leaders in each town agree that their current stadiums don’t work.
There are still a lot of possible outcomes, and no one, not even the owners themselves, seem to know which team or teams will be given permission to move to Los Angeles. No matter the justification for relocation – and the falsehoods in the statement of reasons strongly suggest the Rams have no justification to vacate St. Louis – the style in which their point was made was unprecedented, personal, groundless and unbecoming of a steward representing what we feel is the greatest professional sports league in the world.
But Rams owner Stan Kroenke has his own leverage.
The Los Angeles Times first reported Goodell’s comments.
“I wouldn’t buy anything with that terrible snail logo”, Troy said, referring to the St. Louis redesign of the traditional Rams horns.
None of the three teams would be breaking a stadium lease to move.
The Raiders and Chargers also were represented at the rally by a few fans of each team and banners towed behind planes.
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The same company that designed Jerry Jones’ monument to himself in Dallas has come up with drawings for the old Hollywood Park site Kroenke already controls.
