The San Diego Chargers, St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders have all submitted applications to the NFL to relocate to Los Angeles. While the league owners are scheduled to meet next week in Houston in order to try and make sense of whether or not one, two or all three are approved, the teams are going to be working the backchannels to make sure it’s abundantly clear that theirs is the best proposal for financial success in LA.
The Rams are backing an Inglewood stadium that would see the creation of a 70,240-seat stadium there while the Chargers and Raiders are backing a Carson-based stadium that would seat 65,000 but could be expanded for special events like the Super Bowl.
The Los Angeles Times has gotten it’s hands on the St. Louis Rams proposal and it provides us with a bit of insight into how at least one of those franchises is trying to position itself for approval.
“The Rams’ Inglewood Project presents the League and all of the Member Clubs with the best opportunity for successful long-term operations in Los Angeles,” the application said.
Some of the interesting tidbits learned while breaking down the proposal include:
- Despite previous claims that the stadium would be ready to go by 2018, the proposal cites 2019 as the first year it would be ready. No reason is given but the project is described as “shovel-ready.”
- Along with the 70K seating, the building would be able to include an additional 30,000 people in standing-room only capacity for large events (a.k.a. The Super Bowl). Speaking of, the proposal claims that “an Inglewood Super Bowl could generate as much as $50 million more in League revenue than the Carson proposed stadium based on increases in seat capacity, premium seating and total number of suites.”
- Speaking of those suites, there will be 274 of them as well as 16,300 premium seats and 12,675 dedicated surface parking spaces. All of those numbers are said to exceed what the Carson proposal is offering.
- The Rams envision this stadium becoming the NFL’s West Coast hub of operations much like how Cowboys Stadium is the go-to place in middle America. They see the stadium as not only the new home of the scouting combine but also the Pro Bowl.
- The Rams have concluded through polling that they have the strongest homegrown fanbase in the region, more so than the other two teams that are actually still in California. We’d be interested to see their work on that.
- In case you were wondering if the franchise is keeping the door open for wanting to stay in St. Louis, there’s a section titled “No NFL Club Would Be Interested In The … New St. Louis Stadium.” In it, the franchise argues that the $1.1-billion riverfront stadium deal would increase their current rent by a factor of 20 and would require the league and team to pay $710 million toward the project, something they vehemently object to.
Now, it’s all in the hands of the NFL owners. They’ll likely go with only one of the proposals and they’ll need three-fourths owner approval in order to make it happen. Per the LA Times, each proposal currently has at least nine votes, which means one of them will have to get the thumbs up from at least 15 other owners. As many feel as though the issue is damaging the league’s perception, especially in the markets where these franchises are currently located, a decision is expected by March so that it’s dealt with before the 2016 season begins.
