Hey, if you wanted more evidence that the NFL is stringing Chicago along on this draft thing and that we're about to see a hard push for a new NFL/Los Angeles marriage, here's something interesting. The league might just build Los Angeles's new stadium entirely with money from their new stadium fund, which in the past has doled out subsidies to the 49ers and the NY teams.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-foo ... s-landlord



I don't think this is very likely. It doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. But neither does staging games in London, and they're doing that.

I do think it's inevitable that the NFL is back in Los Angeles very soon. Rams owner Stan Kroenke has bought up a big swath of land in Inglewood, of Fabulous Forum and "Compton, Long Beach, INGLEWOOOOOD" fame, which would be a better fit for a football stadium than the other locations that we've heard about. Meanwhile, Missouri and St. Louis don't seem too jazzed about building an expensive new stadium for the Rams after building the current one 19 years ago.

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Agree, the NFL almost doesnt give a shit anymore about fans attending. Which works perfect for LA, but they want that market.

I would think Annaheim county (Angels country) might be on the menu too.

If they would build an amazing Super Bowl city, now that would be really cool!

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They might be looking at Orange County for a second team down the road, but the LA Rams' move to Anaheim Stadium was a big part of their (intentional) undoing. I have a feeling the NFL wants to do this right and be as close to Los Angeles as possible. A quick look at Google Maps says Kroenke's stadium site (the old Hollywood Park racetrack, JORR) is just an eight-mile drive south of the LA Coliseum, about ten from Staples. That's reasonable, at least when it comes to the endless sprawl that is greater Los Angeles. You'd be looking at anywhere from thirty to fifty miles for an Orange County site.

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Any other predictions on which team is going to be moved to LA, if not the Rams? Earlier the Jaguars were pegged as somewhat likely, now I've been hearing the Bills.

Seems to be down to the Rams, Raiders, and Chargers. The Champaign-based owner of the Jags has inscrutably taken a liking to shithole Jacksonville and is investing a bunch of money in the region. The Bills are somewhat of a risk due to the auction factor, but the NFL would take a big hit if it were to cut and run on salt-of-the-earth football-lovin' Western New York. Some people say that Roger Goodell himself would stand in the way of the Bills leaving New York because Goodell is a New Yorker, but those people are making the mistake of ascribing human emotions to Roger Goodell. The tripartite bid of Bon Jovi, Rogers, and MLSE is compelling, because they swear they're going to keep the team in Buffalo when it was Rogers that subleased those horse abortions at the SkyDome. Also, because it's Rogers, MLSE, and fuckin' Jon Bon Jovi. Why? How?

The deal with the Rams is that their stadium lease says the Depressiondome has to rank among the top stadiums in the NFL by some metric or another. If you've ever watched a St. Louis Rams home game, you know that place ranks among the top of nothing. So they want a brand-new one already. Missouri doesn't want to build it. St. Louis can't build it. Missouri doesn't like St Louis City or Kansas City and gets in the way of their spending. Doesn't look good for them staying. The NFL can stomach the loss of St. Louis; outside of two seasons at the turn of the millennium it's been a big nothing for the league. Cardinals sucked, Rams sucked, and the window of years between teams allowed neighboring midwestern teams to gobble up potential fans. So bye.

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Wow -- I think the Rams would at least match the record for modern professional team moves:

Cleveland to L.A.
L.A. to St. Louis
STL back to L.A.

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