By: Florian Gheorghe
Hosting an annual music or art festival is much more valuable than an NFL game in Los Angeles. Or at least that’s what the operators of the 18th largest stadium in the world are saying.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Rose Bowl board agreed unanimously on Thursday not to enter the NFL relocation race. The National Football Association is interested to see how many venues would accept being a temporary host for an NFL team and sent out multiple proposals last month to different sports stadiums, including Rose Bowl. The famous football venue home of the Bruins and host of the famous NCAA Rose Bowl Game doesn’t want any more sports events added to its already packed schedule and would prefer an annual music or art festival.
That leaves NFL with four potential landing sites for the three football franchises interested in relocating to Southern California: the Los Angeles Coliseum, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium and StubHub Center.
The San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams have all their eyes set on the Los Angeles areaas they plan to move out of their current cities to a more flexible and obviously much richer market. All three are planning to build new stadiums in California: one in Inglewood worth about $1.8 billion and one in Carson valued at $1.7 billion. The Inglewood project has already started with Rams owner Stan Kroenke leading the group of investors. Both Chargers and Raiders are actively pushing the Carson’s plan forward. The Chargers dismissed last month the San Diego mayor’s attempt to organize an election for a new stadium. The Raiders officials met with L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti earlier this month to discuss the relocation; Chargers representatives were also there.
But the new stadiums won’t be built until 2017 or even 2018. Yet the franchises would like to relocate as soon as 2016 and establish a strong fanbase immediately. That’s why they need a temporary home in LALA Land and that’s why the NFL is looking for possible solutions.
Los Angeles has been without an NFL team since 1995 when the Raiders and Rams departed for Oakland, respectively St. Louis. It is by far the largest U.S. market without a professional football franchise. However, this could change on August 11; on this particular date, the league’s board of governorswill meet to discuss the relocation of the three teams. To become facts rather than just mere assumptions, at least three quarters of the 32 owners will need to vote ‘yes’. It’s highly improbable that all three will be approved – for the time being at least – but at least one of them could have the unique chance of playing where the sun always shines starting from next year.
What I think is also very important to point out about the Rose Bowl Operating Committee’s rejection of the Request For Proposal is not the music and arts festival, which may or may not be a red herring of sorts depending how you look at it. It is the fact that the NFL itself didn’t try submitting a proposal of its own. That would have gone a long way, in my opinion, in repairing twenty years of ill will L.A. sports fans have towards the league because of its abandonment of our area . Instead, the league showed why we still can’t trust their words or their deeds. Either they stop with these leverage games, or they will never be welcomed back in the L.A. market