The NFL is moving on with its plans to put a team or two or three in Los Angeles, as the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams were the focal point of the owner’s meetings, with the projects in Carson and Inglewood being the hot topic.
The Raiders and Chargers, both California teams in the present, are much further ahead in the process of leaving their current playground and moving on to Carson, at least when compared to the Rams, who have a California past. The Chargers seem to be the team closest to ending their relationship with the local council, with the help of the NFL making it as difficult as possible for the city of San Diego to put up a good, hard-to-refuse offer.
In Carson, the the city council has already allocated $50 million for the environmental cleanup, hoping for that $1.2 billion Goldman-Sachs football stadium to be built, although they have a fall back option in the form of an outdoor power center/entertainment complex called Carson Marketplace which is being put on hold because of the football stadium plans.
In Inglewood, there’s nothing happening right now. The Rams want to move there, but even if the move is approved, and it’s more complicated because of the Rams leaving their state to a new one while the Raiders and Chargers are two California teams that have never left the state and have ties to Los Angeles in their past, although the Rams were also a Los Angeles team until the 1990’s.
The NFL is pushing for the Los Angeles move. The local communities that are about to lose their football franchises are trying to keep their teams, but the NFL is on purpose putting up incredible demands and difficult obstacles just so it won’t happen. While the league manages to fumble and mess up its disciplinary actions and intentions, when it comes to ruthless business it’s much more efficient.