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1.14.2016

Rams relocate back to Los Angeles, and why I'm ditching them



This evening, the NFL owners have decided to vote 30-2 in favor of relocating the St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles (Inglewood to be more precise), possibly to share with the Dean Spanos-owned San Diego Chargers. The Mark Davis-owned Oakland Raiders are expected to stay in Oakland. 
This means that the conferences and division stay the same. Had it been Oakland and San Diego that relocated to LA, then it would have necessitated moving one of the two teams to the NFC West (most likely Chargers) and consequently forcing a team to move to the AFC West (most likely Seahawks).   
Salvador Hernández at BuzzFeed News:
The NFL’s 32 team owners on Tuesday voted to approve the relocation of the St. Louis Rams, and possibly a second team, to Los Angeles, bringing the city one step closer to hosting professional football for the first time since 1994.
“We have the return of the Los Angeles Rams to their home,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said during a press conference Tuesday.
The team will play in a new stadium in Inglewood, and the Chargers will reportedly have an option to share the venue.
Kevin S. Held at Fox2Now.com: 
The move, by a 30-2 vote seemingly brings an end to a St. Louis bid to keep the Rams in Missouri with a new downtown riverfront stadium that Rams owner Stan Kroenke didn't support, and that league officials said as recently as this weekend did not meet the requirements necessary for NFL to oppose the relocation of the Rams.
[...]
City leaders have long held the belief that Kroenke was never interested in keeping the team in St. Louis. He would not meet with local and state officials, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said exactly one year ago. To this day, Kroenke and Slay have yet to meet.
[...]
The impasse between Kroenke and the city led to plans for a new NFL stadium along the St. Louis riverfront, just north of downtown. In December 2015, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a financing package for a $1.1 billion stadium by a 17-10 vote. But on Monday, January 4, the Rams, Chargers, and Raiders all filed relocation paperwork with the NFL.
A 21-year odyssey came to an end Tuesday when National Football League owners voted to allow the St. Louis Rams to move to Los Angeles for the 2016 season and gave the San Diego Chargers an option to join the Rams in Inglewood.
Their home will ultimately be on the site of the old Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood in what will be the league’s biggest stadium, a low-slung, glass-roofed football palace with a projected opening in 2019 and a price tag that could approach $3 billion.
At an unremarkable suburban hotel, NFL owners found a way to return professional football to Los Angeles, something a succession of billionaires, political heavyweights and Hollywood power brokers couldn’t do for decades.
HOUSTON -- In a decision that Raiders fans cheered and team owner Mark Davis lamented, NFL owners on Tuesday dashed the team's hopes of moving to Los Angeles next season, voting instead to send the St. Louis Rams back to their former home and help fund a stadium project in Oakland.
The vote appears to keep the Raiders in Oakland for at least another year, although Davis, uncertain whether the NFL's $100 million Oakland stadium subsidy will help, refused to say where his team will play next season. He also wouldn't rule out eventually joining the Rams in Los Angeles if the Chargers stay in San Diego.
SAN DIEGO (KUSI) - It was NFL decision day, except for San Diego Chargers fans.
We know the Rams are going to Inglewood, but the other team owners left the future of the Chargers and Raiders up in the air.
When Dean Spanos woke up Tuesday morning in his Houston hotel room, he fully expected to have his path to the city of Carson paved with all lights showing green.
However, the NFL's were more impressed with Stan Kroenke's vision in Inglewood than with Dean's plan to build a stadium with Carson refineries on the horizon.
Some reactions to the Rams relocation back to LA (and the Chargers possibly moving up I-5 and Raiders staying put in Oakland):
























My take: I am stunned, heartbroken, and upset that the Rams are moving back to Los Angeles (although those who live in the LA area and/or remembered them as the LA Rams are happy with this news). This is a team that I rooted for since I was 5, when they came to St. Louis. I supported them through the thick and thin during the good seasons and the bad ones. I will remember the times (good and bad), such as Dick Vermeil guiding them to a Super bowl victory over the Titans (who were coached by the current Rams HC) in 2000, lost to the Cheatriots in 2002 in their bid to have their 2nd Super Bowl win in 3 years, The Greatest Show On Turf led by Kurt Warner, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Ricky Proehl, and Orlando Pace during the late 1990s-early 2000s, the introduction of the Arizona (formerly St. Louis) Cardinals and Seattle Seachickens into the NFC West due to the 2002 realignment, the 5 Rams players who did the #HandsUpDontShoot pose during team intros a few days after the Wilson non-indictment occurred, Marc Bulger trying to succeed Warner, Rush Limbaugh nearly owning the team (thank God he was rejected, otherwise I would’ve boycotted them for that), constant O-Line injuries, boneheaded penalties (esp. by the O-line and special teams), Michael Sam being drafted (even though he never played an NFL snap) in 2014, the Sam Bradford era at QB, Todd Gurley’s rookie year, the emergence of Chris Long, E.J. Gaines, Janoris Jenkins, James Laurinaitis, Aaron Donald, Robert Quinn, and Alec Ogletree as playmakers on defense, Steven Jackson carrying the club during several awful seasons, Mike Martz’s aggressiveness on timeout calls, Lovie Smith coaching the defense during the peak years, and where Jerome Bettis had started his NFL career at. 
But tonight, on 01.12.2016, with Stan Kroenke (who also owns my favorite Premier League club Arsenal) and the Rams snubbing the die-hard fans of the team who stood by them through several awful losing seasons and a few winning ones since the move to the Gateway City in 1995, and St. Louis by relocating back to Los Angeles in a deceitful manner, I will no longer support the Rams unless they are playing Seattle or New England (Gunners will be my EPL team till I die though).
The team I’m choosing to replace them with— at least until another NFL team comes to St. Louis (if ever)—  is the Pittsburgh Steelers (already my 2nd favorite team, now bumped to my first favorite). The battle for my 2nd and 3rd favorite team will come down to the Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, and Minnesota Vikings. As for now, welcome to Steeler Nation, yinz!  






(cross-posted from Daily Kos)
Posted by JGibson at 1:53 AM 0 comments
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