The proposed stadium solutions in San Diego, Oakland and St. Louis are “unsatisfactory and inadequate” to keep the Chargers, Raiders and Rams in their home markets, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated in a report distributed Saturday to all 32 teams that was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
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The Chargers and Raiders are aligned with a $1.7 billion stadium project in Carson, Calif. The Rams, who played in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1994, are behind a $1.86 million stadium in Inglewood that team owner Stan Kroenke plans to build. The NFL owners, at their meeting this week, are scheduled to vote on the relocation issue, with a 75 percent majority – or 24 of 32 owners – needed to approve any team’s bid to move to Los Angeles.
However, the report does not think St. Louis, which has a $1.1-billion riverfront stadium plan to replace the Edward Jones Dome, and San Diego, which has a similarly priced plan for Mission Valley to replace Qualcomm Stadium, which is contingent on a public referendum in June, have workable stadium plans to keep their teams. Oakland has not submitted a formal proposal, and San Diego’s plan is contingent on a public vote this summer.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke blasted the city of St. Louis in his application for relocation. A vote to decide which team or teams can relocate could be decided in Houston.
Last month, Chargers owner Dean Spanos affirmed the “strong partnership” between his team and the Raiders in a letter to the league’s L.A. committee dismissing an offer to share the Inglewood venue with the Rams.
Cole said a lot of owners recall fights in the stands when the Raiders last played in Los Angeles and question whether the team’s ownership has the money to succeed there.
One potential compromise is to find an incentive to persuade the Raiders to drop out of the running and to pair the Chargers and Rams in one stadium. In asking the league to leave, the team said that accepting conditions for a new stadium in St. Louis would leave the team “well on the road to financial ruin”. The NFL owners, as we all know – or should know by this point – are driven by one thing and one thing alone: the Almighty Dollar.
Saturday evening, an NFL spokesman confirmed that Goodell had sent the report, and that the action is prescribed in the league’s relocation guidelines, but said the NFL had no further comment. Oakland had to see that coming as they only provided a conceptual stadium proposal.
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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Inglewood, which is in the approach path to Los Angeles International Airport, has been negotiating with the Federal Aviation Administration since November to address the agency’s concerns that the stadium could interfere with its radar. The league funding allows $200 million for a new stadium, while the St. Louis proposal calls on $300 million.
