The fans say that despite articles in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and elsewhere about Kroenke buying a large parcel of land in Inglewood, Calif., they trusted statements he and other Rams execs made about staying in St. Louis.
St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke is moving the team to Los Angeles because he grew exhausted of being a victim. The San Diego Chargers face a big decision: take the option to move to the Los Angeles area along with the Rams, or accept an extra $100 million from the National Football League and try to fix their badly damaged relations with San Diego in working out a deal for a new stadium. “There will be life without the Rams here in St. Louis, I can assure you that“.
But the distance between St. Louis and Kansas City is 247 miles – seven miles longer than the trek to Indianapolis.
Welcome back Rams. Let’s Ram It!
CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora has reported that NFL owners officially approved the Rams’ relocation in a 30-2 vote. “It’s painful for the fans, for the communities, for the league in general”, Goodell said.
But the deal is also a major snub to the city of Carson, where the Chargers and Raiders had planned to build a $1.7 billion, 72,000-seat stadium. The St. Louis football Cardinals bolted for Phoenix in 1987.
Now the team plans on renovating the old Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood, CA, but the stadium will not be finished for the upcoming season and the Rams will likely play in the Los Angeles Coliseum until the stadium is finished in 2019. Where will the Rams play in the interim?
In Inglewood, there are incentives for Rams owner Stan Kroenke to get another team sooner rather than later because of a restricted clause in the resolution the owners passed.
The Rams finally moved on, making the weeks of rumors and plans of relocating to Los Angeles official. Spanos has wanted a replacement for aging Qualcomm Stadium for around 15 years, a quest stymied by the city of San Diego’s fiscal problems of a decade ago, the recession and difficulty in finding a suitable site.
When the Rams take the field for their regular season opener in September, they will end the NFL’s 21-year journey back to a sprawling, vibrant city that loves both a spectacle and a victor.
The good news for the NFL is that once the stadium is built, it will be able to host nearly any league-related event, something that the Rams pointed out in their relocation application.
How about the Raiders, who are playing on one-year leases in a baseball stadium? “We’ll get it right”.