Los Angeles is going to have to root for the USC Trojans for yet another season.
Lost amidst NFL paradises in San Diego, Oakland and San Francisco, the LA football desert will not feel the rains of an NFL team — at least not next season. Funkiller Roger Goodell said so.
But it’s not that teams don’t want to go to LA. The most likely teams that might pack up and bring football to LA include the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams. However, the Chargers are looking to build a “Super Bowl quality” stadium in San Diego, and if they proceed with those plans, they’ll certainly be out of the mix.
It sounds like the Rams, in particular, are racing to get the hell out of St. Louis, a drinking town with a serious Baseball problem.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke, whose strong desire to get to LA as soon as possible is well known in league circles, was watching particularly intently as (Eric Grubman, the NFL executive overseeing the LA initiative for the league) spoke, sources said, and Rams officials remain frustrated with the pace of the process.
… It was reported here months ago that the league office was well aware of the intent of multiple teams to move to Los Angeles by 2015, and, if left to their own devices, those clubs would in fact be hastening their movement. However, the NFL has full control of the process via the votes necessary to gain the right to relocate, as well as the determination of relocation fees, etc.
So yet again, Roger Goodell enacts his NFL dictator rule upon the idea of moving and NFL franchise to LA — the reasoning is unclear, except that, it seems, Goodell wants prime real estate in LA for the stadium. In other words, the NFL will move to LA, but they want to stadium location and construction to be perfect before they cross the “t’s” and dot the “i’s.” However, in a dictatorship professional sports league, it’s not easy to tell what the dictator commissioner is thinking.
So now, LA will wait until 2016, at least, until they’ll have an NFL franchise they can call their own.
Who knew football could be so damn bureaucratic? It’s like they’re a big business, worth billions and billions of dollars.
Photo via Getty
Follow Henry McKenna on Twitter @McKennAnalysis.