Chicago: National Football League club owners heard updates on Tuesday on possible relocations by three teams to Los Angeles, with a decision over who might play there in 2016 possibly coming by January.
Owners of the San Diego Chargers, St Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders are all looking at moving back to Los Angeles, a market that could see up to two teams playing there as soon as next year.
San Diego officials pitched their latest stadium offer in the hopes of keeping the Chargers from moving up the California coast.
Then owners heard about new stadium possibilities in St Louis and Oakland. A St Louis city task force made a presentation to the league for a new venue in April, while no such measure has come forth in Oakland, the only city where an NFL and Major League Baseball team share the same field in September.
Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis, along with former 49ers and Browns executive Carmen Policy, reported on their efforts to join forces and build a stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson that would be home to both clubs, much the way the New York Giants and Jets share a home stadium.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke presented his plan for a stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.
Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan described on Tuesday as “really the start of the process. We heard great presentations on what will be great stadiums. We knew things that were happening, but it was new today in the format it was presented.
“In terms of timing, we’re probably looking at January when something will be decided. But there can be a lot of twists and turns between now and January. Just let this process play out.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said most important in the process is that “we make sure we have a solution for the long term and that whatever we ultimately decide we have the ability to be successful in Los Angeles for the long term.”
