A process that seemed headed toward an inevitable conclusion’s starting to at least show some inconsistency in its timeline. The NFL may not return to the Los Angeles market in 2016, with Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweeting the three-team pursuit’s encountered “gridlock” in terms of having a team there by next season.
Rapoport notes the league still hopes to hold a relocation vote in May 2016, although that is now uncertain, but hears from multiple sources that 2017 may be when LA reacquires a franchise.
Here is some more on the Rams, Chargers and Raiders’ LA jostle.
- Rams owner Stan Kroenke is willing to help broker a deal to keep the Chargers and Raiders in San Diego and Oakland, respectively, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Acee adds that the Rams and Chargers’ decision-makers will conduct some kind of negotiation about playing together in Inglewood, where Kroenke’s project is further along, but notes the NFL will likely try to appeal to the three owners’ sense of humanity and persuade at least one of them to remain in their current markets. With Dean Spanos‘ son living in San Diego and working in the Chargers’ organization, Spanos could be the easiest to persuade, Acee writes.
- St. Louis city comptroller Darlene Green will vote against the latest financing plan for a new St. Louis stadium due to viewing it as “fiscally irresponsible,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Green, one of three members of the city’s Board of Estimate and Apportionment, has been critical of the $1 billion stadium plan that calls for the city to cover approximately $145MM of the costs.
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With the NFL now wanting to have a May 2016 vote on which team(s) move to Los Angeles and the situation in a gridlock as well as 2016 not being a certainty including the league wanting to see a team(s) make a breakthrough (from two sources deeply involved in the process) it looks like 2016 won’t be the year the Chargers and/or Raiders, and/or Rams move to L.A. but 2017 will be the year the Chargers and/or Raiders, and/or Rams move to Los Angeles if a May 2016 vote on Los Angeles relocation happens since the three teams (the Chargers, Raiders, and Rams) wouldn’t be able to file for relocation since that’s way past the relocation window and dates of January 1 and February 15 it means either the Chargers and/or Raiders and/or Rams would have to play one more season in Oakland and/or San Diego and/or St. Louis before moving to Los Angeles if this happens.
The Kansas City Chiefs now strongly oppose the Raiders and Chargers proposed move to Los Angeles (according to one source with knowledge of the situation) because they see an unfair disadvantage of what amounts to one home game in the form of a away game and it would be it also creates a disadvantage for the Broncos and Chiefs the easy fix would be to have either the Chargers or Raiders move to the NFC and NFC West and 1 NFC and NFC West team moves to the AFC and AFC West (example: Raiders move from the AFC and AFC West to the NFC and NFC West, Seahawks move back from the NFC and NFC West to the AFC and AFC West) but as the source put it it’s hardly a given which means it’s unlikely 1 team from the AFC and AFC West moves to the NFC and NFC West and 1 NFC and NFC West moves to the AFC and AFC West which creates a major problem for Carson, it could mean the Chiefs and Clark Hunt (owner of the team) could side with Stan Kroenke and the Rams, including supporting the Inglewood proposal.
Since Stan Kroenke is willing to help the Chargers and/or Raiders to stay in San Diego and/or Oakland this could be in two scenarios:
1. Rams move to Los Angeles, Chargers stay in San Diego, and Raiders stay in Oakland via a negotiated solution by Stan Kroenke, Dean Spanos, and/or Mark Davis.
or
2. Rams move to Los Angeles, Chargers stay in San Diego, and Raiders stay in Oakland with Stan Kroenke (owner of the team) paying the relocation fee of $500 million and transferring his relocation money (paid by him) to the Chargers and/or Raiders to build new stadiums in San Diego and/or Oakland.