Chargers, Rams have stadium agreement, decision up to Spanos

The Chargers reportedly reached an agreement in principle Friday to share the Rams future stadium in Inglewood, in Los Angeles County, but there’s still no word on whether the team has actually made a decision to relocate. We have an option and an agreement with the Los Angeles Rams to go to Inglewood in the next year, but my focus is on San Diego. The Chargers were granted the right to relocate to Los Angeles by vote of the NFL’s ownership on January 12, 2016.

Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement following the NFL’s initial relocation decision that he was content with the results of the owners’ meetings.

The team confirmed to KPBS that the Chargers submitted plans to the city of Santa Ana for a 5-acre parcel that would house a practice facility and team headquarters should the team decide to leave San Diego. A source told Acee in a different story that the Rams and the Chargers hope to have a deal in place by “the end of the week”.

Terms of the deal to share the Inglewood stadium were not reported.

Yet the Chargers still have the option of playing the 2016 season in San Diego and, with the security of an agreement in Inglewood, make one final run at putting together a viable plan for a new stadium in San Diego. The cost for most new National Football League stadiums typically exceeds $1 billion. While there still is a small chance that the team remains in San Diego, it’s more likely that the team moves to Los Angeles, the only question is when. That lone team was the Chargers, who say that 25 percent of their current local revenues come from neighboring Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties. If a new San Diego stadium is approved, would that be better for business than sharing a stadium in the nation’s second-biggest media market?