We have read the reports. We have heard politicians talk about the likelihood. Heck, we have even started to hear key owners step up in support of the idea.
And considering that multiple owners meetings took place in November, some with the likely focus on relocation, the idea of a NFL team moving to Los Angeles has been put on the front burner, at least privately.
Now comes this outstanding piece of journalism from the venerable Kevin Acee of the U-T San Diego focusing on plans that the San Diego Chargers might have to move a bit further north to L.A.
Acee’s extensive piece looks into multiple factors currently leading to at least one team relocating to Los Angeles. Checking in specifically on the Chargers, he suggests that owner Dean Spanos is hellbent on preventing and/or beating the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams to the nation’s second-largest media market.
The report also indicates that there could be a plan in place for two of the teams, most likely the Rams and Raiders, to work together on a move to Los Angeles.
St. Louis and Oakland will see their stadium leases run out following the end of their seasons. Meanwhile, the Chargers can relocate after this year if they pay a small fee to the city of San Diego.
This means that all three are in play right now.
Citing someone close to the “secretive and tense” situation around the league, Acee tells us a story of individuals within league circles that would be “shocked” if at least one team didn’t move to Los Angeles in either 2015 or 2016.
This comes on the heels of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti indicating earlier this month that it is “very likely” a team will be calling his city home in 2015.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke met with Inglewood Mayor James Butts back in November. This is interesting because the owner purchased a 60-acre lot of land in the Southern California city just recently.
In addition to this, Raiders owner Mark Davis has had multiple meetings with power brokers in both Los Angeles and San Antonio in recent months.
In terms of the NFL itself, we mentioned in a prior article that NFL owners met multiple times in the month of November with some of the focus potentially being on relocation.
It has been 20 years since the city of Los Angeles fielded a NFL team, but all these factors seem to be pointing in the direction of a team moving to that city in time for the start of the 2015 season.
That much is clear.
Which team(s) it might be? Now that’s a completely different question.
Photo: Rams.com