It seems the notion of an NFL team in Los Angeles, perhaps by as soon as the 2016 season, has lit a fire under a couple of current professional football cities faced with the proposition of losing their respective teams.
According to Tom Krasovic of UTSanDiego.com, the San Diego Chargers and city officials are expected to begin negotiations on a new stadium venture sometime in the near future.
"The Chargers, City Hall and San Diego County representatives will begin negotiations next week on financial plans for a new football stadium in Mission Valley to replace Qualcomm Stadium, which opened in 1967," writes Krasovic.
"At the suggestion of Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a nine-person panel has specified both site and financing for the project."
The Chargers are one of three teams - the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams are the others - currently viewed as top relocation candidates by the NFL.
The Chargers and Raiders have come together on a joint stadium initiative in Carson worth approximately $1.7 billion, which has reportedly taken significant steps forward in recent weeks, likely pushing San Diego city officials concerned with losing the team into action.
"The Faulconer Nine's $1.1 billion blueprint released May 18, several months ahead of the original schedule, will give negotiators a framework," writes Krasovic. "Because it underestimates revenues and overestimates costs, the plan allows both sides room at the negotiating table, said a spokesman for the panel."
This marks the first time that the Chargers and San Diego have come together to negotiate, so fans of the Bolts hoping to see their team remain in place, can allow themselves a bit of hope.
Unfortunately for Rams fans, things in St. Louis seem to be getting worse.
While Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has put together plans to build a new downtown stadium for the team in the hopes of keeping owner Stan Kroenke from relocating the Rams to Los Angeles - or in the hopes of seeing a new team come to St. Louis in place of them should Kroenke move ahead with his Inglewood-based California initiative - other state lawmakers are expressing concern with Nixon's plan in the form of a lawsuit, filed recently in Cole County.
"A group of six lawmakers are plaintiffs in the suit filed in Cole County Circuit Court, which claims that Nixon is misusing taxpayer funds and violating state statutes as he pushes to replace the dome," writes Marie French of the Associated Press.
The Rams current home, the Edward Jones Dome, is certainly outdated by current NFL standards and has become the lynchpin in Kroenke's decision to pursue relocation, but it seems funds for a new NFL mecca will not be easy to come by for Nixon.
"I want nothing more than for the Rams to stay," said Rep. Rob Vescovo, R-Arnold. "But I don't think the governor has the authority to bury us under the additional debt without proper vetting."
