NFL Wants Two Teams in L.A., Rams Offer to Share Stadium

Although the NFL has scheduled a special meeting on the Los Angeles relocation situation for January, Rams owner Stan Kroenke charges ahead, offering a deal to the San Diego Chargers or Oakland Raiders to share a new $1.86 billion stadium in Inglewood, California.

According to San Diego Union Tribune sources, Kroenke penned a letter last week to the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities outlining such a deal.

League meetings in Dallas start on Wednesday. Kroenke has balked at keeping his team in St. Louis, rebuffing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s request to meet with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Dave Peacock, the co-chairman of a stadium task force set up by Nixon. But he agreed to meet with Nixon on Wednesday, according to The Orange County Register.

Kroenke has been battling an axis created between San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis, who have joined forces to build a $1.75 billion stadium in Carson. Both Kroenke and the Spanos/Davis partnership have enough votes among other owners to block another team from relocating.

Many of the other owners would prefer to wait until late February or March to decide which teams will relocate. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, an ally of Kroenke, had mentioned waiting until March. Kansas City’s Clark Hunt said he would consider such an idea. NFL officials agreed, asserting that a vote on relocation or a decision regarding a relocation fee will not occur on Wednesday.

Disney chief Robert Iger backs Spanos/Davis. Last month he consented to chair Carson Holdings, which supports the Carson stadium, if the NFL approves the Chargers’ and/or Raiders’ relocation. The Chargers/Raiders relocation seemingly depends on whether St. Louis partisans can convince Kroenke of a viable plan for a local stadium.

Although the Rams propose a partnership, the deal would prevent the partner from consulting in the surrounding development or stadium design, only allowing them to share construction costs and game-day revenue.

Some of the owners among the six-owner L.A. Committee, which includes Pittsburgh’s Art Rooney, New England’s Robert Kraft, Kansas City’s Hunt, Carolina’s Jerry Richardson, Houston’s McNair, and the New York Giants’ Mara, expressed impatience with the proceedings. Houston Texans owner Bob McNair stated, “We want to get something done in January,” while John Mara of the New York Giants echoed, “This needs to get done.”