Rams/Chargers To Join Forces On L.A. Stadium?

A pairing of the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood, Calif. is gaining momentum among NFL owners who fear that the Raiders don’t have the cash to make the move work, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report tweets. At this time, the Rams are on board with that plan but the Bolts are reluctant since there isn’t “a lot of trust” between the two teams at this time (link).

Long-term, Cole wonders aloud (link) if the Raiders’ financial situation could force Mark Davis to sell the team to someone with deeper pockets. He also hears that NFL owners and executives are kicking around the idea of moving the Jaguars to St. Louis to replace the Rams if they head west (link). Nothing is certain at this time, but it sounds like there could be a serious domino effect stemming from the NFL’s venture into the Los Angeles market.

Meanwhile, Floyd Kephart, the man trying to redevelop the Oakland Coliseum complex and finance construction of a new stadium for the Raiders, has been pitching his plan to the team for several months. As it turns out, that proposal didn’t jive with the team’s “terms and conditions” for deal and is a non-starter for the Raiders, Matthew Artz of the Bay Area News Group writes. In short, the Raiders made it clear to Kephart that they needed to control stadium revenues to help pay for the team’s $500MM contribution toward the stadium, including a $200MM stadium loan from the NFL. Kephart’s proposal, meanwhile, would have had the financial shortfall filled primarily through issuing bonds backed by future stadium revenue.

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