The Rams Move to Los Angeles
As widely reported by many outlets, the St. Louis Rams are now set to become the Los Angeles Rams next season. They will most likely play in the Los Angeles Coliseum, currently inhabited by the USC Trojans football team. They will be set to move into a brand new stadium in Inglewood, California in 2019.
Chris Burrous of KTLA explains that the Coliseum will also go under renovation as well in 2017:
The Coliseum, however, isn’t exactly a brand new venue. It was built in 1923. Additionally, during part of the time frame where the Rams’ Inglewood stadium is under construction, the Coliseum likely will be getting a facelift. In October, USC announced a $270 million plan to renovate the Coliseum. Pending approval, USC plans to begin construction following the 2017 season and finish by the 2019 season.
Originally, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders had a joint plan to take both franchises to Carson, California. However, than plan fell through when the NFL owners voted 30-2 to approve the Rams’ proposal to relocate.
The Chargers are seen to have the worst of the deal. They have a one-year option to decide whether or not they want to leave San Diego and join the Rams in Inglewood.
Per NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, the Chargers have up until the owners meetings, which take place from March 20-23, to decide if they’re playing in L.A. or San Diego in 2016.
The Chargers could stay in San Diego. The city of San Diego is having a vote in June for $350 million in public funding toward a new stadium to replace Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers could possibly put off a final decision until after the vote.
The Raiders tossed their application for relocation on Tuesday. They will attempt to work with the league toward getting a new stadium and it will most likely be in Oakland. If the Chargers do not move to Los Angeles, the Raiders will have the same one-year option to join the Rams in Inglewood as the Chargers currently do.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during a Tuesday night news conference that the league will give $100 million to the Chargers and Raiders if they stay in San Diego and Oakland respectively.
The Chargers’ brass seem to be ready to work out all of the kinks involved with the process. It does not look like they will quit and they have many options.
“I will be working over the next several weeks to explore these options that we have now created for ourselves to determine the best path forward for the Chargers,” said Chargers owner Dean Spanos.
As for the city of St. Louis, it’s mayor has soured on a possible NFL return to the city.
“The NFL ignored the facts, the loyalty of St. Louis fans, who supported the team through far more downs than ups, and the NFL ignored a strong market and viable plan for a new stadium,” St. Louis mayor Francis Slay said in a statement. “I am proud of our effort and what St. Louis was able to accomplish in an extraordinarily short period of time. I thank everyone who worked so diligently on this project, especially the Governor’s Task Force.”
However, Goodell reassures the press and fans that he understands the pain the fans are feeling.
“Relocation is a painful process,” Goodell said. “It’s painful for the fans, the communities, the teams, for the league in general. Stability is something that we’ve taken a great deal of pride in and in some ways a bittersweet moment because we were unsuccessful in being able to get the kind of facilities that we wanted to get done in their home markets.”
Top 3 Cities for Relocation
1. London, England
London has held many NFL games in Wembley Stadium. It is well known that the NFL has future plans for London and a team of lesser talent, *cough* Jacksonville *cough*, could easily be moved to London.
The main issue with London is travel. Traveling to the west coast could cause problems for London’s future team, as well as teams traveling to London from the west coast. However, the financial gains will be immense.
2. Toronto, Canada
Toronto has also held home games for the Buffalo Bills. Fans have shown up in droves in Toronto because of the nearby fan base in Buffalo. The CFL already has a team in Toronto, however, because of the previous success of Bills games, Toronto should be looked at as a major option for the NFL. Who wouldn’t want to see Tyrod Taylor literally running through the Six?
3. San Antonio, TX
The Raiders are actually looking into moving to San Antonio if the Los Angeles move doesn’t work. The Alamodome is still in use and could easily be used as an NFL stadium with a capacity of 65,000.
“L.A. was their target,” said San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Richard Perez about the Raiders. “But that’s not happening.”
Perez, has been involved in talks with the Raiders about moving to San Antonio, said the window of opportunity for the city to get an NFL team is wide open.
“Step one is for the Raiders to take the discussions we have had to the next level,” he said. “I am confident they are going to call. We need to be ready when they do.”
