In response, government officials in Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis all mounted proposals to build and finance new stadiums, in hopes they might keep their teams in town.
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Meantime, the Chargers were scheming on the Carson site long before the Rams went public with their Inglewood plans.
Three teams – the Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams, and San Diego Chargers – each submitted applications to our office today to relocate their franchises to the Los Angeles area beginning with the 2016 season.
“The Rams proposal to build a stadium and National Football League campus in Inglewood, California meets every objective in the Commissioner’s June 2012 memorandum, and the Rams’ application meets each every relocation guideline and policy”, the document begins. Select NFL owners will review the applications during meetings Wednesday and Thursday in New York City.
With any relocation bid needing the support of 24 out of 32 owners, there remains a variety of possible outcomes, including the possibility that the Raiders could be denied this year, but end up as the second team in Los Angeles later on if stadium talks don’t progress in Oakland. “Despite these efforts, there is still no certain, actionable solution to the stadium problem”. The Chargers and Raiders quickly followed suit, with plans for a two-team stadium in Carson, Calif.
Chargers owner Dean Spanos, however, commented at length on his decision, posting a video, a transcript and a statement on the team website.
But that’s a different question than the one that exists about whether the governor should have the power to able to obligate the people of this state to 30 years’ worth of debt without the legislature having any say in that process.
In doing so, St. Louis leaders breached a stipulation in the original lease the Rams signed upon moving from Los Angeles in 1994, which triggered the clause allowing the Rams to covert the lease to year-to-year with the intent to relocate. But it’s been 14 years we’ve been working very hard to get something done here. A new development could come as early as next week when National Football League owners meet in Houston on January 12 and 13.
The NFL confirmed it received the applications for the teams to move for the 2016 season on Monday.
The decision will of course come down in part to whether or not Los Angeles can support multiple, or even one professional football team. The fee is $550 million for any team approved to move by a vote of owners.
“I think that is what really was the catalyst that got this whole thing going”, he said, “because when the Rams decided to make their move there, this was a move to protect our business more than anything”. The study claims that “St. Louis is projected to have relatively flat population growth and significantly lower GDP over the next 20 years” than either San Diego or Oakland.
As for the area surrounding the stadium, the Rams’ proposal discusses space carved out for the NFL to set up shop for television, media and digital centers, as well as the building of a performance venue next door that could serve as the home of the NFL draft, NFL awards ceremony and other league events.
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“We are sad to have reached this point”, the Chargers said in a statement.
