Chargers, Rams, Raiders apply to relocate to Los Angeles. As expected, the St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers on Monday made their desires to move to Los Angeles official as each team filed relocation applications with the National Football League.
Their fate is now in the hands of the owners of the 29 other NFL teams — as is the long-range future of the NFL in the second-biggest market in the country.
Monday marked the opening of the league’s relocation window, and by 7 p.m. Pacific Time the Rams, Chargers and Raiders has submitted their applications.
Thus sets up a complicated three-team, two-stadium showdown that could culminate in Houston Jan. 12-13, when the league’s 32 owners gather to decide what team or teams are approved for relocation to Los Angeles and what stadium site they’ll call home.
The Houston owners meeting will be preceded by a special committee gathering in New York this week in which the 17 owners making up the NFL’s Los Angeles Opportunity committee and the stadium and finance committees will meet.
“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 NFL said in a statement. “Each team submitted the appropriate documentation in support of its application as required by the NFL Policy and Procedures for Proposed Franchise Relocations.
“The applications will be reviewed this week by league staff and three league committees that will meet in New York on Wednesday and Thursday — the Los Angeles Opportunities, Stadium, and Finance committees. The
applications will be presented for consideration at next week’s league meeting in Houston on Tuesday and Wednesday. The relocation of a franchise requires the affirmative vote of three-quarters of the NFL
clubs (24 of 32).”
Needless to say, there is a lot to discuss and decide if the NFL wants to get back to Los Angeles in time for the 2016 season, as hoped.
The Rams have their eyes set on moving to Inglewood, where owner Stan Kroenke is proposing a privately funded $1.8 billion, 75,000-seat stadium on the site of the old Hollywood Park race track.
In the meantime, the state of Missouri and the city of St. Louis have approved a $1.1 billion stadium deal intended to keep the Rams in St. Louis. The plan calls for a $400 million state and city contribution and a $710 million commitment from the Rams and NFL.
The Rams are not interested, though, and are focused entirely on returning to Los Angeles, the region they called home from 1946 to 1994. They feel justified as a result of a decision by St. Louis leaders three years ago to decline an arbitrator’s ruling to pay $700 million for upgrades to the Edward Jones Dome, the Rams current stadium, to lift the stadium among the top-tier venues in the NFL.