NFL owners allowing Rams to go back to L.A.; Chargers may follow

The second-largest city in the U.S. is getting their football team back.
On Tuesday, thirty out of the thirty-two NFL owners voted to allow the Rams move back to L.A., officially making them the Los Angeles Rams. However, they have not yet altered their name on social media but that will be coming soon.
By 2019, the Rams will be able to move into a new stadium. For now Rams owner, Stan Kroenke, will be moving his team to the Hollywood Park Racetrack, ten miles from L.A.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “Today, with the NFL returning home, Los Angeles cements itself as the epicenter of the sports world. We cannot wait to welcome the Rams, and perhaps others soon, as they join a storied lineup of professional franchises, collegiate powerhouses and sports media companies.”
There is a $550 million fee to move a team but the Rams will be paying it in ten installments of sixty-four million dollars.
The Chargers will also be able to move and if they decline, the Oakland Raiders can take their place. Charger’s owner, Dean Spanos, is still pondering the idea.
“I’m going to take a day off tomorrow, I think,” Spanos said. “This has really been excruciating for everyone. It’s very difficult to say right now [that] I’m going to do this or do that.”
As for Oakland, they’re still in debt from a relocation from L.A. twenty years ago. As for now, the Raider’s program is asking the NFL for more time to develop a relocation plan.
Owner Mark Davis, told reporters, “We’ll see where the Raider nation ends up. We’ll be working really hard to find us a home. So for our fans and everything else, don’t feel bad. We’ll get it right.”
As for the Rams, this relocation could be good for the team since they have not made the playoffs since the 2004 postseason. When in L.A., the team won a NFL Championship, had four conference championships, and eleven division championships. In total, they also had twenty-one playoff appearances.
L.A. could be a fresh start for the historic Rams but they will have to rebuild a hurt fan-base. After the announcement that the team would be going back to L.A., St. Louis’ fans erupted on social media, outraged with the announcement.
Jack Lindquist, former president of Disneyland and co-chairman of Save the Rams told reporters, “I truly feel sorry for the people of St. Louis.” “I think for the last five years, the Rams have deliberately been destroying a very proud franchise with only one thought in mind, and that is the financial end of it. I think they’ve been working toward finding somebody somewhere that they could just make a killer deal with.”
Another group of fans announced that they would be collecting jersey, including their own, to give to homeless.
The Rams “homecoming” should be an exciting one, as it will be interesting to see where the team ends up in these coming years.