There has been a longstanding debate about which team or teams will be moving to Los Angeles, but now it is being reported that only one team will likely go back to Los Angeles, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
The NFL may only move one team to Los Angeles, and that would not be a short-term move, but an indefinite move that could stop other teams from ever moving to Los Angeles, according to Florio. The reason only one team would move is because there is a desire to have the team located directly in L.A. It's seems like it would be easier to build a stadium with private money if 20 games per year are played there with two teams, and it would give L.A. a great way to reconnect with football.
The St. Louis Rams seem to be the frontrunner if only one team were to move to L.A., and that is because Rams owner Stan Kroenke already has plans ready to privately fund a one-team stadium in Inglewood. The Two team proposal in Carson requires both the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders, according to Florio. The Raiders and Chargers were reportedly getting closer to moving to Los Angeles this past summer, but nothing has really come out of that.
A one-team town in L.A. could cause all sorts of issues, because the San Diego Chargers would likely need public money to stay in San Diego. That's not even taking into account that Chargers seem to be set on leaving San Diego, and if that's the case, owner Dean Spanos could try to block the Rams from moving to L.A. alone.
With all this going on NFL team owners are taking control of the process, according to Sam Farmer of The Los Angeles Times. The Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities will be compromised of six owners and Commissioner Roger Goodell. The NFL team owners that will lead this committee are Pittsburgh Steelers' Art Rooney II, New England Patriots' Robert Kraft, Carolina Panther's Jerry Richardson, Kansas City Chiefs' Clark Hunt, New York Giants' John Mara, and Houston Texans' Bob McNair.
In the end, 24 owners will have to agree with what this group recommends, but that doesn't mean this will be the end of the debate. If Raiders owner Mark Davis and Spanos don't like the recommendation by this committee, they could try to get a collection of nine votes to block the move. All this is hypothetical, but the idea of one team getting Los Angeles could have huge ramifications for the other teams.
