The Rams, who were not satisfied with St. Louis’ proposal of a riverfront stadium, will move for the 2016 season and are expected to play in the Los Angeles Coliseum, one of their former homes, for three years until the new stadium is ready in 2019.
Advertisement
National Football League owners approved a Rams move back to Los Angeles with the possibility that the San Diego Chargers eventually follow.
Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, said Tuesday the league would give $100 million to the Chargers and Raiders if they stay in San Diego and Oakland, respectively.
The move, which comes after many years of speculation and deliberations, marks the return of professional football to America’s second-largest media market after a 21-year absence.
The NFL announced that owners voted 30-2 to approve Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s proposal for a £1.3million, 70,000-seat stadium in suburban Inglewood, in the southern part of Los Angeles.
The NFL has not had a team in the Los Angeles area since the Raiders and Rams left after the 1994 season.
Davis ruled out moving the Raiders to St. Louis to fill the void left by the Rams but said all other options would be considered, including a move to San Diego should the Chargers vacate the city.
The Rams are moving back to Los Angeles, maybe with company.
Where will the Raiders play in 2016 and in all seasons after that? “Our hope is at some point the Chargers wake up and realize that the one place they have a real say in their future is San Diego”. The team said in its relocation bid that the St. Louis market lags economically and that the stadium proposal is doomed to fail. But the lucrative potential of the Los Angeles market could yet make the new stadium and the extreme relocation fee of several million dollars worth it.
The Chargers may still move to the city and have a year-long option to join the Rams. “As much as we talk about our television and our content and our viewers, this was so important that we do it the rightest way we could in Los Angeles”. Leading up to the vote, the NFL’s Los Angeles Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities recommended the Carson stadium over what was painted as a more ambitious Inglewood stadium. “We thank fans throughout the Raider Nation for their unrivaled passion and support”, the Raiders said in a statement. “We are not interested in a charade by the Chargers if they continue to pursue Los Angeles”, Mayor Kevin Faulconer and county supervisor Ron Roberts said in a statement.
The Raiders and Chargers have agreed to share a stadium in Carson, California, while Kroenke wants to build a $1.8 billion showplace in Inglewood, closer to downtown LA.
Current Rams owner Stan Kroenke had bittersweet emotions when discussing the franchises departure from St. Louis, MO. The last two moves were the Oilers from Houston to Tennessee in 1997 and the Browns from Cleveland to Baltimore in 1996.
Advertisement
The process of relocating a franchise is not one of ease.
