Three NFL Teams Bid for L.A. Move

LOS ANGELES — The next stage of the National Football League's stadium game is underway.

The league confirmed late Monday that the Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams and the San Diego Chargers all submitted applications to relocate to the Los Angeles area.

The relocation of a franchise requires three quarters of the NFL's 32 teams to vote in favor. An owner's meeting is scheduled to take place in Houston, Texas on Jan. 12 and 13.

All three teams want a piece – or the entire pie – of the enormous Los Angeles market, vacant since the Rams moved from Anaheim to St. Louis after the 1994 season.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke has plans for a stadium in the L.A. suburb of Inglewood on the site of the former Hollywood Park horse racing track.

The Chargers and Raiders plan a joint stadium project 12 miles away in Carson.

Leaders in all three cities had submitted proposals to the NFL on Dec. 30 for keeping the teams in their current cities.

"This announcement isn't a surprise, but it's still disappointing for generations of San Diego Chargers fans," San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said. "Our city is the rightful home to the Bolts. We believe the viable stadium plan we have presented to the NFL should be cause for keeping the Chargers in their hometown."

San Diego city and county officials first presented the region's proposal – including a financial framework, a completed environmental impact report and stadium renderings – in August.

San Diego officials could put a stadium plan on the June 2016 ballot, if the Chargers return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement. The Chargers walked away from negotiations in June 2015, making it impossible to hold a public vote in December or January as San Diego had initially proposed, according to a Faulconer spokesman.

Cory Briggs, an attorney who is part of a coalition that proposed a hotel tax be put on the ballot to help pay for the city's infrastructure needs, also announced on Monday he would aim for the November ballot, rather than June, in order to avoid conflict with a stadium-related initiative.

In an interview posted on the Chargers website, team owner Dean Spanos, said the city will not be able to come up with a plan in a necessary time frame. While Spanos said he considers San Diego home, the team has fans in Orange County, Los Angeles and Riverside – and with two other teams proposing to move to Los Angeles, it can't afford to lose the market share.

He added that San Diego has never been able to come up with the subsidy the team needs to build a stadium there.

The city has offered to contribute up to $200 million and the county $150 million toward building a $1 billion stadium in San Diego for the team, according to its proposal.

"We have tried for more than 14 years, through nine separate proposals and seven different mayors, to create a world-class stadium experience for fans in San Diego," Spanos said. "Despite these efforts, there is still no certain, actionable solution to the stadium problem. We are sad to have reached this point."

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who sent a joint letter with Alameda County Board of Supervisors' President Scott Haggerty, said her city's letter focused on its strength as an NFL market, that the city has an approved stadium project, and a commitment by local officials to work towards keeping the team in a manner that works for the team and the fans, but is responsible to the taxpayers, Schaaf said.

"There was no expectation that Oakland would submit a fully formed proposal given the complexities of its situation," Schaaf said of her city's proposal in a statement.

In Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon worked with St. Louis officials to propose a heavily subsidized stadium to replace the Rams' current home, the Edward Jones Dome.