|
 Owners voted overwhelmingly to give the Rams approval to return to
Los Angeles for the start of the 2016 National Football League
season while the Chargers have until next January to agree to lease
terms with the Rams.
If the two team's cannot work out a deal then the Oakland Raiders,
the other team that was hoping to move to the world's entertainment
capital, will be given the first option to work out a deal with the
Rams.
"This has been the most difficult process of my professional
career," Rams owner Stan Kroenke said in a statement. "While we are
excited about the prospect of building a new stadium in Inglewood,
California, this is bitter sweet."
The Rams, who won one Super Bowl since leaving Los Angeles in 1995
for St. Louis, will play their home games at the L.A. Coliseum until
their $1.86 billion stadium in Inglewood, roughly 10 miles from
downtown Los Angeles, is complete.
The Rams, who first moved to Los Angeles from Cleveland in 1946,
will also pay the NFL a $550 million relocation fee.
In his remarks shortly after NFL owners voted 30-2 to ratify the
Rams' application for an immediate move, NFL Commissioner Roger
Goodell called relocation a "painful process."
"It's painful for the fans, the communities, the teams, for the
league in general," said Goodell. "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."
The Chargers and Raiders, who began the day as partners in a
proposal to share a new stadium in Carson, about 15 miles south of
downtown Los Angeles, were each promised $100 million by the NFL for
a new stadium in their respective markets should they choose to stay
put.
"My goal from the start of this process was to create the options
necessary to safeguard the future of the Chargers franchise while
respecting the will of my fellow NFL owners," said Chargers chief
executive Dean Spanos. "Today we achieved this goal with the
compromise reached by NFL ownership."
DAY OF INTRIGUE
The day began with representatives from the three relocation
candidates making presentations to team owners and ended with a
compromise deal not originally on the table.
For 20 years Los Angeles had been an NFL wasteland without a
franchise since the Raiders and Rams left the region in 1995.
In the past, the threat of relocation to Los Angeles has worked to
push other cities to pony up public money, with the league often
encouraging such brinkmanship.
[to top of second column] |
But on Tuesday owners gathered on the fourth floor of a Houston
hotel for a two-day meeting eager to bring an end to a
two-decades-long saga and had plenty of options to consider.
They could choose one of the two proposals, Kroenke's vision to be
constructed on the old Hollywood Park racetrack site or the joint
$1.75 billion venture from the Chargers and Raiders for a new
state-of-art facility.
At one point during the day of intrigue and high-stakes pitches, it
seemed a deal was close to being struck when the NFL's six-owner
committee recommended the Carson proposal.
But the first round of voting, however, ended with neither plan
surpassing the requisite 24-vote threshold and reports of the
Inglewood proposal had become the frontrunner.
The move is expected to bring greater revenue from naming rights, TV
and future hosting of the Super Bowl but there are no guarantees
that Los Angeles can ultimately support two NFL teams in a city
saturated with sports and entertainment options.
Shortly after the Rams move to Los Angeles was confirmed by the NFL,
reaction from local officials in St. Louis poured in expressing
their disappointment in losing their team.
"Today’s decision by the NFL concludes a flawed process that ends
with the unthinkable result of St. Louis losing the Rams," the St.
Louis Stadium Task Force said in a statement.
"We will leave it to the NFL to explain how this could happen and
hope the next city that may experience what St. Louis has endured
will enjoy a happier and more appropriate outcome."
(Writing by Steve Keating; Editing by Frank Pingue)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
