Back in November, we ran a story that focused on St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke meeting with Inglewood Mayor James Butts in the Southern California city. The story in and of itself didn’t mean a whole lot outside of the fact that Kroenke had just recently purchased a 60-acre lot of land in Inglewood.
Considering that Kroenke earned his vast fortune in the real estate business, many around the NFL glossed over this as nothing more than a coincidence.
Now comes this report from the always great Sam Farmer over at the Los Angeles Times indicating that Kroenke, in partnership with Stockbridge Capital Group, the owners of the 238-acre Hollywood Park location, plans on building a NFL stadium in Inglewood.
Farmer goes into more detail regarding the plan.
They (Kroenke and Stockbridge Capital) plan to add an 80,000-seat NFL stadium and 6,000-seat performance venue to the already-massive development of retail, office, hotel and residential space.
To make matters more interesting, the Rams have an option to get out of their lease with the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis later this month. That option would transform the contract into a year-by-year lease.
It was reported last month that the NFL doesn’t plan on moving a team to Southern California in time for the 2015 season. St.Louis joined the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders as the three current NFL teams most likely to uproot to the second-largest media market in North America. A market that has been without a NFL team for two decades now.
As Farmer pointed out in his piece, there have been over a dozen stadium plans come and go over the past two decades in an attempt to get a NFL team in Los Angeles.
However, this is the first time that a sitting NFL owner has held the capital (land) that could house a professional football stadium.
Stockbridge founder Terry Fancher had this to say about the plans.
We are excited to unveil an expanded plan that will bring a world-class sports and entertainment district to Hollywood Park. We are committed to working with [the Kroenke Group] to build a project that will put Inglewood back on the map as home of the truly great sports and entertainment venues.
Farmer went on to indicate that the developers said there would be no tax dollars used in the building of the location. Considering this has been a point of contention throughout the state of California when attempting to build professional sports venues, that’s a rather big development.
Remember, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is the first NFL venue to be built in the state in over a half century.
With all the socioeconomic aspects and red tape that comes with public financing in California, this could help the project get off the ground relatively quickly.
These are huge developments, but it’s not the end all be all. There is a lot more that goes into not only building a NFL stadium but finding the support within the league to relocate a current franchise.
Either way, it’s rather clear what the Rams plans are at this point. It’s now all about putting them into action.
Photo: ESPN.com