NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a 48-page report to league owners Saturday informing them that the Raiders, Rams and Chargers had not received credible stadium proposals from their current cities, a source who had seen the report told this newspaper. Several league owners including those on the NFL’s Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities have said it would be hard for a franchise to gain approval for relocation if a viable stadium option exists in the team’s current market.
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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been pushing the Inglewood angle, which would give Rams owner Stan Kroenke what he covets (his own stadium in the L.A. area) and which would give Chargers owner Dean Spanos what he covets (a one-way ticket out of San Diego).
The Rams are one of three National Football League teams – along with the Raiders and Chargers – trying to move to the burbs of Los Angeles.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke hopes to build a stadium in Inglewood on the site of the old Hollywood Park racetrack. And according to reports, Jones has already sent a resolution to the owners pushing that “solution” to the logjam of a race to LA.
And Mark Davis is going to be stuck out on the cold street corner with nothing but an empty book of matches, an intolerable stadium situation, a city that will not work with him, and a dream that’s dead.
It’s getting ugly in the fight between the Rams and the city of St. Louis.
League owners will gather for a special meeting in Houston on Tuesday and Wednesday to resolve the uncertainty.
The NFL report’s intent is to establish the viability, or lack thereof, of stadium proposals in the home markets of teams looking to move. They are both locations where a first-class stadium can be built.
Kroenke also neglects to mention that while the St Louis Rams ranked 29th in valuation at US$1.45 billion, more than double what he paid to buy the remainder of the team six years ago, the valuation will increase by at least a billion dollars in LA and who leaves a billion dollars on the table?
No, the move for all three teams is about potential and potential valuation.
Last year, a task force appointed by Nixon developed plans for a $1 billion stadium along the Mississippi River near the Gateway Arch. Plans call for public money and personal seat licenses to pay a big chunk of the cost, but for the owner to pay a share, too.
No matter what happens, it appears professional football is returning to Los Angeles in 2016. Pay blackmail/tribute to the NFL–or lose your team.
Louis Rams are all a step closer to possibly relocating to Los Angeles.
Each project, deemed shovel-ready by its backers, has faced questions.
The application said attendance at Rams games is well below the league average despite Kroenke’s “significant investments” since taking control in 2010.
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In a written statement Saturday, the St. Louis stadium task force said it is “confident our proposal will speak extremely well” for the city as owners deliberate in Houston.
