Rams apply to move to Los Angeles area

Monday was the first day organizations were eligible to petition the league, as required by the NFL Policy and Procedures for Proposed Franchise Relocations. Each of those teams have called L.A. home in the past.

Three NFL teams filed for relocation Monday night – the Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers are all aiming to move to the Los Angeles area. It will be interesting to see which team garners the most support from the owners though as this relocation process moves forward for all three teams.

NFL committees will begin to review each application this week and they will be presented to the league meeting for consideration next week. In order for a team’s owner to get the thumbs up to relocate, they must get at least 24 of the league’s 32 owners to say yes.

Under this scenario, the Chargers would end up with no stadium in San Diego and they could lose their option in Carson. All owners will meet in Houston next week and are expected to vote on whether to allow any of the teams to move. What happens next is in the hands of the NFL’s owners, who will meet in Houston on January 12-13. The Rams owner, Stan Kroenke, wants to build a stadium on the site of the former Hollywood Park race track in Inglewood, next to the Forum where the Lakers and Kings played before Staples Center opened.

The Chargers released a lengthy statement.

The St. Louis Rams, the San Diego Chargers, and the Oakland Raiders filed applications with the NFL to move their franchises to L.A. for the 2016 football season, the league announced Monday.

There’s plenty to consider for not just those 17 owners but also the rest of the owners who will ultimately decide the fate of the three teams and four cities.

The Chargers revealed their intentions first and went so far as to have owner Dean Spanos appear in a video on the team’s website to explain the decision for filing. There’s a growing sense among owners that leaving teams in limbo is damaging to the league and that the matter needs to be resolved in time for the 2016 season.

St. Louis has the most advanced plan, calling for a $1.1.-billion riverfront stadium that would be paid for, in part, with public money. That includes ongoing negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration to resolve the agency’s concerns that the stadium might interfere with radar at nearby Los Angeles International Airport.