The Los Angeles Rams played their last game in the Coliseum in 1994. They've been in Los Angeles for 49 years. That year Los Angeles lost both of its football team. The second biggest market would not build a new stadium for the Rams or Raiders, and the late Georgia Frontiere of the Rams and Al Davis of the Raiders moved their teams. The Rams to St. Louis and the Raiders to Oakland.
Many claim Frontiere was kicked out of Los Angeles and that Davis was just using Los Angeles until Oakland made a new stadium. The Rams and the Raiders however were not the only team that has played in Los Angeles. In 1960 the Los Angeles Chargers played their first season. After that season though they left do to too much competition with the Rams.
Los Angeles has been trying to get a team back for sometime now. Over the past couple of years articles have been popping up about a Los Angeles move. But recently they've become more frequent. While the Vikings, Raiders, Chargers, Jaguars, and Bills have all headlined those articles the Rams have headlined them even that much more besides for maybe the Chargers. A move Los Angeles and the Rams might be very happy to see.
Recently Stan Kroenke a Missouri native became the majority owner of the Rams after some careful transactions with his other teams to not break NFL's dual ownership rule on other big teams such as the Denver Avalanche and Denver Nuggets. He is a business man first and a move to Los Angeles might be the move to make to bring the Rams worth north of 1 Billion. But Kroenke is playing it cool. He leaves simple comments to keep St. Louis of the edge. Kroenke has stated "I'm going to attempt to do everything that I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis. Just as I did everything that I could to bring the team to St. Louis in 1995. I believe my actions speak for themselves." But take that with a grain of salt as Kroenke is a member of the Los Angeles Stadium Working Group Committee.
AEG (Alderac Entertainment Group) got approval to build a top of the line NFL Stadium next to the Staples center. Now they just need approval from the NFL and a team. AEG is promising to privately fund the stadium. AEG has talked with multiple teams about moving to Los Angeles but they have had dealing with Kroenke before. In fact they have been partners. Together they manage Broomfield Event Center in Denver, where Kroenke owned the Nuggets for a long time.
St. Louis is a mid-sized market town getting smaller everyday but Los Angeles is the second biggest market only behind New York and they can easily support two teams. But didn't the rams recently move from Los Angeles? They did but St. Louis has a clause that they need to have a top eight stadium. They don't. So St. Louis needs to come up with a sufficient plan of a new stadium by February of 2012. It doesn't look like they will be able to. St. Louis doesn't have the money. Webster University Sports Economist Patrick Rishe in an interview with Fox 2 News says "I don't think that Stan Kroenke will get a new stadium in St. Louis for two reasons. One, I don't think he's willing to put up enough of his own money, and two, St. Louisans are going to be reluctant to put up their own money themselves."
St. Louis fans probably will not want to support a struggling team. The Rams seemed like they were becoming a good team last year when they left the season 7-9 after 1-15 the year before. But the Rams have the toughest early schedule in the league. In boards many Ram fans are wondering if this schedule was purely political in nature to help bring a bad team to leave St. Louis.
The Rams are in the top five worst teams filling up their stadium. That's because St. Louis in the majority are bandwagon fans or Cardinal fans. Since the Rams are currently losing, the stadium even has a tougher time filling up. But Los Angeles has the capacity to fill eight games a season definitely when a new team and stadium are there.
St. Louis originally had the football Cardinals but they moved to Arizona. There is still a big Cardinal fan base there but St. Louis was never a football town, it was always a baseball town and will remain that way if the Rams stay bad. Los Angeles on the other hand is so diverse that no one sport controls the city. The Rams already have a fan base in Los Angeles County and Orange County. The Rams never really belonged in St. Louis.
The Rams seem like the most appropriate choice to move to Los Angeles. But that doesn't mean they will. Another likely team is the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers can't fill the stadium and have a small fan base in Los Angeles that is growing by the year. Like all teams their value would raise immensely. On top of that the Chargers have stated their intentions about leaving. The Raiders have met with the AEG and if they would leave it would be for the new stadium. With the recent death of Al Davis this means their chances could increase or decrease by a lot depending on what happens with the ownership. The Vikings have had concern about their stadium over the last couple of years and with the avalanche on their dome last year they complain more. But what are the chance Minnesota will allow themselves to lose another team to Los Angeles after they lost the Lakers? Definitely when the Vikings have a huge fan base. The Bills need a new stadium but if they move it will probably be to Toronto where they already play a home game every year. Also, the Bills are playing good right now, something they haven't done in such a long time. Buffalo doesn't want to miss out on that. The Jaguars are another good fit for Los Angeles. They are last in value and last in filling a stadium up. However, owner Wayne Weaver has turned down many offers to move and expressed his wanting to stay in Jacksonville.
No matter who moves, Los Angeles will have a team soon. It will be a move from another city and not an expansion the NFL has stated. Who? Only time will tell, but the good bets are on the Rams or Chargers.
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