Latest On Rams, Chargers, Raiders, L.A.

The NFL’s team owners are meeting this week, and while those meetings are taking place in New York, it’s another major U.S. city that’s dominating discussions: Los Angeles. With the league considering possible relocation, Peter King of TheMMQB.com writes that a franchise may not move to L.A. until 2017, and it could be end up being either one or two teams.

According to King, owners aren’t expected to make a decision until January, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of notable updates to keep an eye on this week. Let’s dive in….

  • Team owners are somewhat at odds over the best path back to Los Angeles, as Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times details. While Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is among the proponents of Stan Kroneke‘s plan for the Rams, Panthers owner Jerry Richardson and Texans owner Bob McNair are believed to prefer the Carson project, since they reportedly feel that Chargers owner Dean Spanos has done more to exhaust stadium possibilities in his own market.
  • Speaking of Kroenke, the Rams owner ticked off one check-box today for a potential move to L.A., as his fellow owners approved his cross-ownership proposal. Kroenke will retain ownership of the Rams, transferring ownership of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche to his wife, writes Farmer.
  • While the Chargers and Raiders are ostensibly partners in the Carson plan, there has been speculation that perhaps a deal can be brokered between the Rams and Chargers, writes Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. If Kroenke and Spanos were to reach an agreement that would allow their two franchises to share the Rams’ proposed Hollywood Park location, it would leave the Raiders on the outside, but owner Mark Davis says he believes “everything is going to work out” for his club.
  • There are no formal presentations from team owners on Los Angeles scheduled for today, but Kroenke, Spanos, and Davis will have an opportunity to address their fellow owners, should they choose to, tweets Judy Battista of the NFL Network.
  • According to Jim Trotter of ESPN (via Twitter), he’s getting the vibe at the owners’ meetings that it will take a successful Hail Mary to keep the Chargers in San Diego long-term.
  • Count Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie among the owners who believes there will be a team in Los Angeles in 2016, tweets Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal.
  • With St. Louis vying to keep the Rams, their stadium project got good news and bad news this week. The stadium secured a $158MM naming rights deal with National Car Rental, as David Hunn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch details. However, Ray Hartmann of St. Louis Magazine reports that the St. Louis stadium plan calls for $215MM more in taxpayers’ money than what was initially anticipated.
View Comments (2)