- The Los Angeles Rams are back.
NFL owners in Houston voted 30-2 to ratify the Rams' relocation application for an immediate move to L.A., where the team will eventually begin play at owner Stan Kroenke's proposed stadium site in Inglewood in 2019. It's a seismic decision that returns the highest level of professional football to the country's second-largest media market after a 21-year absence.
The Rams could be joined by the Chargers, who have a one-year option to decide if they want to relocate and join the Rams in Inglewood. Per NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, the Chargers will have up until the conclusion of owners meetings (March 20-23) to decide if they're playing in L.A. or San Diego in 2016. The window creates the possibility -- however slight -- that the Chargers could remain in San Diego. The city is hosting a June vote for $350 million in public funding toward a new facility to replace Qualcomm Stadium. It is possible that the Chargers put off a final decision until that vote takes place.
The Raiders -- the third team that had L.A. aspirations -- withdrew their application for relocation on Tuesday and will work with the league toward a stadium solution, most likely in Oakland. If the Chargers do not exercise their option to move to Los Angeles, the Raiders will have a one-year option to join the Rams in Inglewood.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during a Tuesday night news conference that the league will provide $100 million to both the Chargers and Raiders if they remain in their current home markets.
- a bittersweet moment because we were unsuccessful in being able to get the kind of facilities that we wanted to get done in their home markets.
Thanks Goodell... thanks for reminding me why, as much as I love watching football once in a while, I hate you, the NFL and all of the financial games you play to make ME THE TAXPAYER give you a place to make even more money. So screw you. Move all the teams wherever you want. Shame on us for watching.
I love football, but I agree it's shameful that the taxpayers are put on the hook for exorbitant stadium costs. It certainly doesn't seem to benefit the regions paying for it. This study is based on relatively old data, but it's findings suggest that stadium construction actually HARMS the local community.
- Indeed, my work with Humphreys finds that the professional sports environment—which includes the presence of franchises in multiple sports, the arrival or departure of teams, and stadium construction—may actually reduce local incomes. For example, we found that the overall sports environment reduced per capita personal income, a finding that was new in the economic literature at the time we published it (1999). We also found that, in many local economies, wages and employment in the retail and services sectors have dropped because of professional sports.
The NFL made $7.2 Billion last year.
Make them build the stadium and prohibit taxpayer dollars from financing these white elephants.