Photo Courtesy of Aldipix of Flickr.com
It’s official. The NFL is back in Los Angeles. In a recent vote to relocate the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles, NFL owners voted in favor 30-2. Los Angeles, the second largest market in the country, now has an opportunity to sport up to three NFL teams. The Rams are officially heading to Los Angeles, with its new proposed billion-dollar stadium set to open in 2019. Yes, the face of the franchise is currently a defensive lineman, but this is definitely for the better of the NFL and Los Angeles. The other teams that might move in the near future are already from California locations: the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders. Yet Los Angeles seems to always get a little extra attention.
What’s stopping the Chargers and Raiders from making it official you may ask? The Chargers have up to one year to make a decision on making the jump to L.A. Yet, a future vote in June for a potential $350 million in funding for improvements to the current Chargers stadium can sway them to stay in “America’s Finest City.” The Chargers have decided to stay in San Diego for the upcoming year, however they do have an agreement with the Rams on the new LA stadium set to open in three years. This gives the Rams a huge advantage in areas such as advertising, marketing and ticket sales. The Rams are the only official Los Angeles football team worth jumping on the bandwagon for.
The Los Angeles drama gets more interesting with the Raiders. If the Chargers don’t end up in Los Angeles (and make the decision in a year), the Raiders will have a year from that decision to join the Rams. As of now, the Raiders are pushing for financial help on their current stadium in Oakland.
With every rise there is a fall, and this stands true for St. Louis and their fan base. The Rams packed up for the City of Angels, as they kicked the dirt right in the face of St. Louis faithful. Francis Slay, mayor or St. Louis, stated “The NFL ignored the facts, the loyalty of St. Louis fans, who supported the team through far more downs than ups, and the NFL ignored a strong market and viable plan for a new stadium.” St. Louis clearly isn’t happy, for obvious reasons (You still have the MLB Cardinals!). The Rams have been through this before, leaving Los Angeles back in 1995 to come to St. Louis. Twenty years later, they are going back home.
Whether or not Los Angeles has one, two, or three teams, it won’t change the fact that these teams need to win in such a big market. The fans in Los Angeles have a lot more hobbies then just football, so losing won’t keep L.A. fans interested. With other professional teams such as the Kings, Dodgers, Angels, and Clippers, the Rams (and whoever else) have to give their part.
