After 21-year absence, Los Angeles will get a football team. NFL owners in Houston voted 30-2 to ratify the Sent Lois Rams' relocation application for an immediate move to LA. The Rams could be joined by San Diego Chargers, who have a one-year option to decide if they want to relocate and join the Rams, where both teams will eventually share same stadium in 2019. that should be built at proposed stadium site in Inglewood. Oakland Raiders withdrew their application for relocation in LA on Tuesday and will work with the league toward a stadium solution, most likely in Oakland. If the Chargers decide not to move to Los Angeles, the Raiders will have a one-year option to join the Rams in Inglewood. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...ikely-to-relocate-to-inglewood-bolts-can-join
Unfortunately, it's currently St. Louis' team. I'm sad to see that market lose NFL football. (I'm old enough that I still kind of associate the Rams with LA. "St. Louis Rams" has always sounded weird to my ear.) Which raises the question of where they will play while their new stadium is being built. The talk I hear is the Colisseum. That place is ancient, but USC plays there to huge crowds, so it can host large football events I guess. The Rose Bowl would be another viable option. UCLA plays there. The Chargers have already said no, no, no and no, they don't want to be a secondary tenant in the Rams' stadium. They were willing to share the proposed Carson stadium with the Raiders, since the Chargers would be part owners and would probably have more clout than the hapless Raiders. I guess that a big part of the value of a football team these days is owning the stadium and facilities. Personally, I have always kind of liked the Chargers, ever since the Dan Fouts days. I like the city of San Diego a lot and would much rather that they get their act together and generate a stadium proposal down there. I don't want to see San Diego lose football too. I live in the Bay Area and like the Raiders a lot more than the 49'ers. I'd love to see the Raiders stay in Oakland. (Oakland is already losing the Warriors, who are moving to tonier and more upscale San Francisco, and the A's also need a new ball-park and are iffy about staying.) But... Oakland's already struggling to pay its bills and isn't going to put huge sums of city money into a new Raiders stadium where the Raiders' already-rich owners will reap the benefits. Nor are they willing to hand over valuable real estate that they could otherwise develop. So I don't see much chance of the Raiders ever building a new stadium in Oakland. They can't pay for it themselves. So I anticipate the Raiders moving away. Where isn't certain. San Antonio has been trying to lure them. St. Louis would be a good option, with that billion dollar river-front stadium plan of theirs. Unfortunately the NFL has already judged it "inadequate", without specifying exactly why. Presumably the league was really determined that the Rams move back to LA and didn't want any distractions. So the plan might not be so inadequate if it's the Raiders moving into it. It's certainly as big and lavish as anything the Raiders could afford to build in Oakland. There have even been rumors about the NFL wanting to move a team into Toronto, Mexico City or even London. I'd speculate that might be more likely than the Chargers moving there. It all depends on whether the Chargers can get a new stadium done in San Diego. (Having their Carson plan rejected might refocus their attention on really trying to do that.) They definitely don't want to be the Rams' tenant in the Rams' stadium. But it might look more tempting to the hapless Raiders. My guess is that the Raiders would explore other options first, though. If I had to guess, my guess would be that the Raiders will most likely be in San Antonio in five years.
Agree. I'm not a fond of relocation. There were too many moves throughout the history. Expansion would be much better idea. St. Louis already lost Cardinals. I think people there deserve NFL team. I think they must choose on of these options until 2019. But, one of the problems and reasons for previous relocation from LA, was the laid back mentality. Moving team into second largest market doesn't matter, if the stadium won't be sold out. They'll both get $100 million if they stay, if I understood correctly. If Chargers decide to move I hope they'd give a middle finger to everyone and take the name of California Chargers. To honor San Diego. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I hope they stay. Oakland and Black Hole are not only the symbol of Raiders, but also the history of this sport. St. Louis deserve team. I believe that Texans would be happy to see Raiders (or other team) in San Antonio just to make Jerry Jones mad.
They'd probably last more, but eventually they might look to move elsewhere... Again. I hope they'd get a permanent team. If not by expansion, then by relocation. *Cough...Jags...Cough*
Some more bad news for St. Louis. With Rams gone to LA, St. Louis is still stuck with about $144 million in stadium debt and maintenance costs. Taxpayers will now shoulder the remaining payments for the Edward Jones Dome with only the help of revenue from tractor pulls, volleyball tournaments, concerts and the like. St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed has asked the NFL to help pay off the stadium, but so far has gotten no response. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sports-nfl-stadiums-insight-idUSKCN0VC0EP
Update to this thread... Right now, there's lots of talk about the Raiders moving to Las Vegas. (The city kind of fits the over-the-top Raiders' style. Vegas, baby!) Upside is that there's an actual stadium plan, backed by some real Las Vegas money. The idea is to build the new stadium on land owned by the U. of Nevada, Las Vegas, a few blocks east of the Strip. The UNLV football team would be able to use the stadium too, and the university might conceivably get a share of the stadium revenues, in return for use of the very valuable real estate. Downside is that some of the rather traditionalist NFL owners still aren't comfortable with the possible influence of the local gaming industry, despite the fact that people already bet on all the NFL games all the time. Office pools, online gambling, fantasy football... But several influential owners have already endorsed the plan.
The odds of moving an NFL team to Las Vegas might be increased by news that the NHL has chosen Las Vegas for an expansion hockey team. Unbelievably, Vegas beat out Quebec City for the 31'st NHL team! Quebec's a traditional cold-weather city that once had a NHL team (that moved to Denver), located in the hockey-crazed Great White North. Of course greater Vegas has something like 2 million people, greater Quebec maybe 600,000. (It's even smaller than Winnipeg, currently the NHL's smallest market.) David Beckham says that if a new football stadium is built in Vegas for the Raiders, MLS would like to have a professional soccer team play in the same venue.
