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N.F.L. to Weigh Three Teams’ Proposals on Moving to Los Angeles

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A cutout of the Rams owner E. Stanley Kroenke’s face was among the props held by Rams, Chargers and Raiders fans at a May rally. Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — For two decades, N.F.L. owners in search of public funding for their stadiums have often played a trump card: threatening to move to Los Angeles. In a few months, that ultimatum may ring hollow.
After years of stalled negotiations and unused blueprints, the N.F.L. is as close to returning to the city as it has been since the Raiders left for Oakland and the Rams departed for St. Louis in 1995.
The Raiders, the Rams and the San Diego Chargers have unveiled plans to build stadiums near Los Angeles, a potential bonanza for the teams and the league. The concentration of fans and companies in the Los Angeles area, the nation’s second-largest market, could lift sales of tickets, merchandise and sponsorships and enhance the N.F.L.’s media rights.
But placing one or more teams in Los Angeles, where fans have many other diversions, is no guarantee of success, and it would mean abandoning Oakland, St. Louis or San Diego, which have been solid, if less lucrative, N.F.L. markets.
On Monday, the six owners on the committee that oversees the league’s options in Los Angeles will weigh those factors when representatives from San Diego present their plan to keep the Chargers from moving. (Leaders from St. Louis have presented their plan already.) The next day, all 32 owners will hear updates on stadium proposals in Carson and Inglewood, Calif.

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While the owners are unlikely to vote this week, the meetings are a milestone. For years, owners have claimed to be looking at Los Angeles without seriously developing plans to build there. Real estate tycoons have declared plans to build stadiums but have not had teams to fill them. The N.F.L. even considered building a stadium itself.
Now, ingredients are falling into place. E. Stanley Kroenke, the Rams’ owner, has plans to build a stadium in Inglewood as part of a new entertainment district, while the Chargers and the Raiders want to build a stadium in Carson, near the intersection of two major freeways. In both cases, developers and financing have been lined up, city approvals have been received and messy negotiations over public funding have been avoided.
While the owners are eager to put a team in Los Angeles, they must decide how many can move there as early as next season. One or two teams would be sustainable, but three would be too many. According to some sports experts, moving the Chargers and the Raiders into a new stadium simultaneously would give a boost to two of the league’s least valuable franchises. But if the N.F.L. leaves Oakland, St. Louis or San Diego, it might alienate sponsors and fans.
“It would be robbery to lose our team,” said Johnny Abundez, a member of Save Our Bolts, a Chargers fan group. “For the past decade, we blamed the City Council, the mayor. But we’ve been working with the mayor this time” to keep the team in San Diego.
Under league bylaws, a move needs approval from at least three-fourths of the owners. They must consider public financial support and the condition of a team’s current stadium, as well as “the willingness of the stadium authority or the community to remedy any deficiencies in or to replace such facility.”
Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer of San Diego, like his counterparts in Oakland and St. Louis, knows those rules well. To convince the N.F.L. that the city wants the team to stay, he assembled a task force that recommended that a stadium be built next to the Chargers’ current home on city-owned land in Mission Valley. He helped speed up an environmental review so a public vote could be scheduled for January.
After more than a decade of false starts, the Chargers say they do not have time to wait for the city to get its stadium approved because the Rams are intent on moving to Los Angeles and grabbing a chunk of the Southern California market. Rather than get caught up in what they consider the city’s unworkable efforts, the Chargers walked out of discussions in June.
“We’ve been trying for 14 years in San Diego, and unfortunately the city’s 11th-hour proposal is simply too little, too late,” said Mark Fabiani, the Chargers’ special counsel. “The Chargers can’t stand idly by and pass on a certain opportunity in the L.A. market while the city of San Diego insists on a plan to skirt California’s environmental laws that will ultimately be thrown out by the courts.”
Frustrated, the city has gone around the team.
“We have all the resources in San Diego, and that’s why we’re taking our case directly to the N.F.L.,” said Faulconer, who has spoken to Commissioner Roger Goodell and others at the league office. “Make no mistake: You can’t have a final plan without a willing partner. You can only achieve success if you work together.”
The dynamic in St. Louis is different. A group of civic leaders backed by Gov. Jay Nixon of Missouri has been working on a plan for a $998 million stadium downtown near the Mississippi River. Last week, the group passed a key hurdle when a judge ruled that the stadium authority could roll over its existing bonds to help pay for the new site.
Where the Chargers have openly pushed their point, the Rams have mostly stayed mum. The team’s chief operating officer, Kevin Demoff, has attended planning meetings, while Mr. Kroenke, the team’s owner, has remained out of the spotlight.
Mr. Demoff “has done everything he can to not impede our cause and tried to help,” said Dave Peacock, a leader of Mr. Nixon’s stadium task force. “They’re not going to get in our way.”
For years in San Diego, it seemed the team and the city could not get out of each other’s way. The Chargers have a sweetheart deal in their current home, Qualcomm Stadium. But it is one of the oldest and most outdated stadiums in the league, and that has restricted the team’s potential revenue. The Chargers are the 26th most valuable franchise in the N.F.L., according to Forbes. (The Raiders are ranked 28th, and the Rams are last.)
The Chargers have lobbied for a new stadium since at least 2003, but each attempt has been undone by political and economic events. In 2003, the city was forced to plug a gaping hole in its pension plan and was nicknamed Enron-by-the-Sea, leaving less money to help the team. The collapse of the real estate market ended other bids, and sites that the team looked at did not come through, partly because of political opposition.
The mayor’s office also became a revolving door. One mayor was convicted on charges of wire fraud and extortion, and another resigned after being caught up in a sexual harassment scandal.
Mr. Faulconer said that while he could not undo the past, he was committed to keeping the Chargers in San Diego.
“There’s so much speculation about what’s happening in L.A., but I need to focus on what we can do in San Diego,” he said. “We have such positive momentum with our economy.”
Knowing that someone somewhere will be hurt if a team moves to Los Angeles, the owners must also consider the chance that the league will be sued. A spokesman for the mayor’s office said San Diego had no plans to file an antitrust suit against the N.F.L. and the Chargers. But someone else could start a case that would further complicate the N.F.L.’s return to Los Angeles.
“The issue for the owners comes back to who raises more of a risk of dragging the N.F.L. into a lawsuit,” said Mark Rosentraub, a director of the Michigan Center for Sport Management. “This could get nastier before it gets better.”