Any possibility of the Rams, Raiders or Chargers moving to Los Angeles for the 2015 NFL season ended Saturday when NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell informed all three teams, according to league sources, they they will not be able to move to L.A. before 2016.
Los Angeles has not had an NFL team since 1994.
For a team to change cities, it requires not only the application, but a super majority of NFL owners to approve the move. Since Goodell is, on his best day, the owners’ mouthpiece, the comment effectively ends relocation discussion for at least a calendar year.
Last Tuesday, the Chargers announced that they won’t terminate their Qualcomm Stadium lease, so they were already planning to remain in San Diego. The Raiders have an economic interest in Los Angeles, even if they don’t really want to move. The L.A. market is a big part of their revenue streams, with San Diego claiming 30 percent of the market and conceivably the Raiders owning more than that.
The Rams, Raiders and Chargers are all on year-to-year deals with their current stadiums so there’s no local ties or contracts stopping a move.
There’s no question the preferred option for Los Angeles, the league and even NFL purists is the Rams returning to California. The NFL always opposed the Rams moving out of the L.A. market and only the threat of a prolonged legal case from now-deceased Rams owner Georgia Frontier forced the league to let them move east from the largest media market in the USA to the 18th largest in St. Louis.
Ironically it’s the Chargers, the least likely mover, that have the original ties to L.A. The franchise began as the Los Angeles Chargers in 1960 in the old AFL. The Rams actually originated in Cleveland in 1937. There’s no question there’s still a hunger in the L.A. community for the Rams to return, with Rams fans making up a significant portion of the crowd at Qualcomm Stadium when the Rams played at the Chargers earlier this season.
The Rams owner, Stan Kroenke recently purchased 60 acres in Inglewood, Calif., a space between The Forum and Hollywood Park, causing speculation that he’s building a stadium. The real question concerning the Rams moving back to California is just when it’s going to happen.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher’s ties to L.A. begin in college as a defensive back at USC. Fisher was the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams in 1991.
