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NFL to LA: Now the really interesting part begins
A rendering of he new stadium and complex to be built near the Forum in Inglewood was released by the Hollywood Park Land Company, Kroenke Group and Stockbridge Capital Group in January.
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Courtesy Hollywood Park Land Company
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NFL to LA: Now the really interesting part begins
For more than two decades, a parade of different NFL teams have threatened to move to Los Angeles, but no team actually filed the paperwork to make it official -- until Monday.
The Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams all requested to move, but the NFL has made clear only two teams – at most – can come to L.A., and there can only be one stadium. It will either be a complex in Inglewood (backed by Ram's owner Stan Kroenke) or a joint project in Carson backed by the AFC West rival Chargers and Raiders.
"The applications will be reviewed this week by league staff and three league committees that will meet in New York on Wednesday and Thursday -- the Los Angeles Opportunities, Stadium, and Finance committees," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a written statement.
Then, next Tuesday and Wednesday all 32 NFL team owners meet in Houston to try to hash out a resolution.
Any move requires approval from two-thirds of owners, a level of consensus no team appears to have and will be difficult to attain, according to Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist at Smith College.
"The owners, generally speaking, have 32 different approaches to most policy questions," said Zimbalist. "Most of them have locked horns on policy issues in the NFL in the past.”
Usually the league likes order, but no one seems to know what will happen now, including Chargers owner Dean Spanos, who was interviewed on his team’s website.
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"As I sit here, this is a very fluid situation," said Spanos. "You read all this stuff in the paper, and everybody’s tallying votes, but no one knows anything for sure.”
What we do know is the NFL doesn’t have much time. If teams are going to move to Inglewood or Carson next season, a decision has to happen quickly so that tickets can be sold and stadium plans can be made.
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