NFL Team in LA? Rams May Be Heading to Southern California

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A year after purchasing 60 acres of land in Inglewood adjacent to the Forum and Hollywood Park, the Hollywood Park Land Company announced Monday that St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has teamed up with the owners of the Hollywood Park site to build a new NFL stadium. Put two and two together, this may mean that the Rams could relocate to Los Angeles, California, which hasn’t owned a NFL team since 1995 when those same Rams left for St. Louis.

The Stadium would reside in Inglewood, California, where signature gathering will begin soon for an initiative that would be placed on the Inglewood municipal ballot in 2015. If it passes, construction on the project would begin by the end of the year, explained by Inglewood mayor James T. Butts Jr. who sounded very encouraged about this opportunity, “This project is going forward,” Butts Jr. said at a news conference in front of Inglewood City Hall on Monday. “We’re thrilled in the City of Inglewood. Here we are in in the position to build that field of dreams and hope that they’ll come.”

The ballot measure details the characteristics of the stadium that will hold up to 80,000 seats and a performance venue of up to 6,000 seats, the stadium will also possibly be used for multiple sports such as soccer and the NCAA Final Four

Credit: AP Photo Tom Gannam

The Rams are attempting to convert their lease at St. Louis’ Edward Jones Dome to a year-to-year agreement very soon and are pressuring the city to agree to a deal to build a new stadium. Sources close to the situation reports that city and state leaders are committed to keeping the team  in Missouri,  “but not at the expense of a bidding war” with the powerful city that is Los Angeles.

The Rams could be out of St. Louis by 2016. According to league rule any NFL franchise interested in relocating for the next season would have to apply between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15 of that year. Roger Goodell says it wont happen, but the Rams seem hell bent.