The NFL has long wanted to get a team back to Los Angeles and while that won't be possible for at least the next couple years after deals and other things fell through, reports have come out that up to four teams could be in the running to move after the 2014 season, including the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars and St. Louis Rams.
The league wants to bring a team back to one of the biggest media markets in the country and after looking like they were getting close with a proposal with Anschutz Entertainment Group for a downtown stadium, it appears a new plan is on the move. According to National Football Post, the league is looking into a new site at Hollywood Park, as it has the size to have a billion-dollar, state of the art stadium and also could house NFL offices and other facilities for the team and the league.
In the report, sources said that the league has spoken with a number of teams about possibly buying the area site and build a stadium on it, but obviously that won't happen anytime soon. The report says that four teams could be in the running since they can get out of their stadium leases after 2014, including the Chargers, Raiders, Jaguars and Rams. Obviously the Rams and Raiders previously were in LA and the Chargers move would not be as crazy as others, as they are in Southern California as well.
The report also says that the NFL could build a west coast office, NFL Network studio as well as a possible branch of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but all of that would have to come after a team agreed to buy the area or move. The report says that NFL teams had previously looked at the site and the Raiders had looked at it with Al Davis as a possible option, but instead after that broke apart, the team moved back to Oakland.
The NFL desperately wants a foothold in LA and it almost seems ridiculous that a team is not there now. The report says that the company selling the site could sell it to a team, but that they rather would build something more commercial and that "Terry Fancher, the executive managing director for Stockbridge Capital," isn't interested in getting involved in all that and would rather build another project there.
Still, another very interesting story as the NFL wants to return to LA.
