The NFL Is Returning to LA

Rams may be joined by Chargers or Raiders
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 13, 2016 1:51 AM CST
Updated Jan 13, 2016 3:44 AM CST
The NFL Is Returning to LA
A San Diego Chargers fan shows his feelings about keeping the NFL football team in San Diego outside the hotel where NFL owners met.   (Pat Sullivan)

The Rams are moving back to Los Angeles, maybe with company. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders might end up staying put, although the leadership of both teams didn't come close to making that commitment Tuesday night. Or one of them could be headed to LA, too. A long day of votes and revotes ended with 30 of 32 NFL owners approving Rams owner Stan Kroenke's ambitious plan to move his team from St. Louis to the site of the old Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood, Calif., about 10 miles from downtown LA. The Chargers have a yearlong option to join the Rams, followed by the Raiders if the San Diego franchise declines.

The Raiders and Chargers had a competing proposal to share a new stadium in nearby Carson, but neither option got the 24 votes needed for approval. After another negotiating session in the afternoon, Kroenke's $1.8 billion project prevailed. The decision ends the NFL's 21-year absence from the nation's second-largest media market. Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos was asked if he intended to play in Los Angeles in 2016. "I'm going to take a day off tomorrow, I think," he told reporters. "This has really been excruciating for everyone. It's very difficult to say right now I'm going to do this or do that." (More Los Angeles stories.)

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