NFL Sets August Owners Meeting To Discuss L.A.

The league has been talking for years about getting a team back in Los Angeles, which is the United States’ second largest market. There have been teams there in the past with both the St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders both occupying the Los Angeles area for quite some time, but both moved out because L.A.’s stadiums were inadequate and behind the times.

But over the last few months, the talks about a team moving to L.A. have been heating up, with the  St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders as well as San Diego Chargers — who are having trouble securing a new stadium in their current city — interested in the move. All three teams have played at least a season in the area: the Chargers played their first AFL season in L.A. before settling into San Diego in 1961.

NFL Sets August Owners Meeting To Discuss L.A.

Now, it appears the talks have taken another step forward with the NFL scheduling an August 11 owners meeting to discuss the prospect of one or two teams — it is a big enough market for multiple teams — moving to L.A., according to NFL Insider Ian Rapoport.

Remember, the three teams currently vying for L.A. have already begun to make moves to secure a location. St. Louis’ Stan Kroenke has plans to build a stadium in Inglewood. Meanwhile, the Raiders and Chargers are collaborating for a stadium in Carson.

Either way, after the spring owners’ meeting, it sure looks like there is a possibility that one or two teams could be moving to Los Angeles for the 2016 season – the  August meeting is just another step in that direction.

With this said, if both the stadiums are to be built, Rams’ Inglewood arena would not be ready until 2018 and the Carson until 2019. As NFL has previously reported, technically only the Inglewood stadium would be eligible to host 2020’s Super Bowl.

Article by Anthony Falco