Rams officially ask for permission to move to Los Angeles

This rendering features a concept released in April 2015.

In an aggressive move Monday to end the NFL’s two-decade absence from Los Angeles, three franchises – the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams – submitted relocation applications to the league on the first day they were eligible to do so.

The Oakland Raiders were among three teams Monday to officially seek NFL permission to move to Los Angeles next season, leaving league owners to decide the fate of professional football in Oakland.

Former NFL and Chargers executive Jim Steeg said efforts by San Diego civic officials to keep the Chargers were not in vain, and that the city had to show the NFL it was willing to fight for its team.

Raiders owner Mark Davis wants to partner with the division rival Chargers to build a stadium in Carson. The relocation of a franchise requires the affirmative vote of three-quarters of the National Football League clubs, which would be 24 of the 32.

In doing so, St. Louis leaders breached a stipulation in the original lease the Rams signed upon moving from Los Angeles in 1994, which triggered the clause allowing the Rams to covert the lease to year-to-year with the intent to relocate.

The St. Louis Rams have played 21 seasons in the Midwest. But it’s noteworthy that the team’s ownership is at least warming to the idea of building in Oakland at a spot other than the Coliseum. Rams owner Stan Kroenke wants to build a stadium in Inglewood.

The franchise moved from Los Angeles to St Louis for the 1995 season.

However, this fluid situation could see a rearrangement of those competing plans, with, say, the Rams and Chargers sharing the Inglewood stadium.

The St. Louis stadium task force said in a statement it had anticipated the filing “for more than a year” and was “extremely confident” its proposal would be “well received as the league weighs its options in the weeks ahead”. The owners are meeting January 12-13 at which point a decision seems a pretty decent possibility.

The Chargers claim 25 percent of their fan base comes from north of San Diego County, although they’ve declined to offer proof. “They’ve got the same thing, going”.

One unofficial report said you take $200 million from the relocation fee and give it to the Chargers, doubling the league’s contribution to $400 million.

The Saints have played the Chargers twice since signing Brees, once at Wembley Stadium in London in 2008, and at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in 2012.

The Rams issued a brief statement indicating they had informed the NFL of their relocation proposal, effective for the 2016 NFL League Year. “I was told years ago to control what you can control, so I don’t really think about that”.