Wednesday marks the second of three town-hall-style NFL hearings–St. Louis, San Diego, then Oakland–being held this week to determine which (if any) of three football teams–the Rams, Chargers or Raiders, respectively–will move to the Los Angeles, California market.
NFL executive staff members for commissioner Roger Goodell are taking concerned fans’ questions and comments at each meeting. Advanced tickets are required, but free.
The city of San Diego and the Chargers organization have been locked in a bitter battle over the future of the team and a potential new stadium project. California Governor Jerry Brown recently inserted himself into the conversation, providing his certification to fast-track the state’s laborious environmental review process for a proposed San Diego stadium. That project would be erected in the same area as the current Chargers stadium at an estimated cost of $1.1 billion.
The alternatives are two stadiums proposed for Los Angeles. The proposed two-team Carson stadium could house either or both Raiders and Chargers, both current California teams. That facility has been estimated to cost $1.7 billion while the other proposed L.A. stadium project, in Inglewood, would cost an estimated $1.86 billion. That stadium was proposed as a single-team facility for the Rams.
Rams fans at Tuesday’s meeting in St. Louis voiced their dismay over the thought of their home team pulling up stakes for the west coast. The Los Angeles Times reported that udience members who spoke seemed “alternatively angry and mournful.”
The St. Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders both left Los Angeles in 1994 for their current cities. The Rams spent 49 years in L.A. while Raiders spent 14 years there.
The public meetings are being held 7-10 p.m. local time at each location. The Oakland meeting will be held on Thursday.
(For more details, see the previous story detailing the NFL’s announcement of the town hall style meetings. A livestream is available for those that cannot make it to a local forum.)
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