The current stadiums in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego are "unsatisfactory and inadequate," and the proposed solutions are not viable to keep the Raiders, Rams and Chargers in their home markets, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a report distributed Saturday to all 32 teams.
The contents of the 48-page report were disclosed to The Times by someone who has seen it but is not authorized to discuss it publicly.
The intent of the report is to establish facts about the home markets, as the league views them, heading into a special meeting in Houston on Tuesday and Wednesday to resolve the two-decade L.A. vacancy.The report does not give teams the green light to move to Los Angeles — that will be determined by owners' voting — but establishes that the home markets have failed to provide stadium solutions.Goodell does not make any recommendations about which club or clubs should be approved to relocate, or which stadium project — Carson or Inglewood — should be approved.At least 24 league owners must vote to approve a move. The commissioner does not have a vote, but his strongly worded report is intended to provide objective information that will assist each club in making its own judgment on the proposals.
In the report, Goodell said that each of the home markets had "ample opportunity but did not develop their proposals sufficiently to ensure the retention of its NFL team."
The report says none of the three clubs has received a stadium proposal that is free of any contingencies and presents a viable long-term solution.
On Monday, the first day they were eligible, each of the three teams submitted relocation applications to the league.Earlier this week at league headquarters in New York, the stadium, finance and L.A. committees discussed those applications and met with the backers of each project. The Chargers and Raiders have teamed to propose a stadium in Carson; the Rams want to build a stadium in Inglewood.
After the meeting, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who did not attend, sent a one-page letter to Goodell saying that he supports the Chargers and Rams sharing the Inglewood stadium. The letter didn't mention the Raiders, a person familiar with the document said on the condition of not being identified.
Last month, Chargers owner Dean Spanos affirmed the “strong partnership” between his team and the Raiders in a letter to the league's L.A. committee dismissing an offer to share the Inglewood venue with the Rams.
Goodell's report says each of the teams has worked, without success, for many years to improve its stadium situation and identifies problems with each home market's response to the situation.
Oakland, while expressing an interest in keeping the Raiders, has not made a formal stadium proposal.St. Louis has put forward a plan for a $1.1-billion riverfront stadium, but Goodell's report said that proposal's financing package includes a request for league funding that is $100 million in excess of the maximum provided under current league policy. In their application, the Rams said no NFL team would take the St. Louis deal.
San Diego's concept of a $1.1-billion stadium on the Mission Valley site of the current Qualcomm Stadium is contingent on a public vote in June.
"We could have already gained voter approval of a stadium under the plan laid out this summer by the City and County," Chris Melvin, the lead negotiator for the city and county of San Diego, said in a written statement. "But the Chargers stonewalled, rebuffed attempts to negotiate a term sheet, and refused to act."
The report says that none of the three teams would be breaking its lease by moving from its current market, and that market research supports the conclusion that the L.A. area is capable of supporting two teams.
sam.farmer@latimes.com
knockout hit by Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict, and the Bengals were knocked out of the playoffs — yet again.
Thanks to Burfict's headhunting hit to the helmet of Pittsburgh receiver Antonio Brown — followed by an unsportsmanlike call on the Bengals after the play — the Steelers pulled off an 18-16 victory in a wild-card game, clinching with a 39-yard field goal by Chris Boswell.
The rain-soaked crowd, delirious just minutes earlier, watched in devastated disbelief. Orange crushed.
He was 15 minutes late. It was midmorning, yet he looked like he'd just climbed out of bed.
Lane Kiffin was the last Alabama representative to stroll into the College Football Playoff national championship media day Saturday, and he did so in all his Kiffinesque glory. There was the rumpled hair, the baggy sweats, the beard stubble and, of course, that mischievous glint.
"This is the third time I been here," he said of the Phoenix area. "The last time I was fired at four o'clock in the morning. Before that, I was here for USC's NCAA hearing.
It was bad to be a trash can if Kobe Bryant was mad.
This was years ago, back when there were championship expectations, but Bryant booted one clear across the Lakers' locker room at Madison Square Garden after a rough loss.
It was also sometimes bad to be toilet paper, apparently. Bryant angrily called his teammates "soft like Charmin" during a rant at practice in which he didn't feel challenged. This was a little over a year ago.
The last time USC Coach Andy Enfield was part of a quadruple-overtime affair, he was in college, playing at a community center in Shippensburg, Pa. As Enfield tells it, the referee — who happened to be his best friend — called a 10-second violation as Enfield crossed half-court, which negated a 66-point personal effort and handed his team a loss.
Safe to say he'll have fonder memories of USC's four-overtime performance against the Arizona Wildcats.
Frankie Edgar can recall when he was Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion, asking his bosses if he could fight to win a second belt at featherweight.
“They wouldn’t allow me to do that,” Edgar said Friday.
The rules are different now for Conor McGregor, the newly crowned featherweight champion who, according to reports, will have the opportunity to become the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold two belts when he fights lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC 197 on March 5 in Las Vegas.
USC described former football coach Steve Sarkisian's lawsuit against the school as "full of half truths" and "outright falsehoods" in a filing in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The 14-page motion to send the case to arbitration pushed back against several claims in the lawsuit Sarkisian filed last month that alleged breach of contract and discrimination on the basis of disability.
In the lawsuit, Sarkisian accused USC Athletic Director Pat Haden of abruptly firing him in October instead of allowing him to seek treatment for alcoholism.
Somebody, some scout, somewhere with the Dodgers really liked Alex Guerrero. When you saw him get off to a blazing start at the plate last season, it was easy to understand. When you saw him the rest of the season, you wondered what that somebody was thinking.
Fresh off their then-success of having signed Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers gave fellow Cuban Guerrero a four-year, $28-million contract. He was 26 and a shortstop, though no one projected him as one in the majors.In a glass-walled room high above Park Avenue, NFL executives and billionaire team owners huddled around a long conference table this week to solve a problem that has plagued the league for two decades: how to get professional football back to Los Angeles.
With billions of dollars in proposed stadiums and future league revenue at stake, the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities spent a day reviewing the relocation applications from three teams.
In a glass-walled room high above Park Avenue, NFL executives and billionaire team owners huddled around a long conference table this week to solve a problem that has plagued the league for two decades: how to get professional football back to Los Angeles.
With billions of dollars in proposed stadiums and future league revenue at stake, the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities spent a day reviewing the relocation applications from In a glass-walled room high above Park Avenue, NFL executives and billionaire team owners huddled around a long conference table this week to solve a problem that has plagued the league for two decades: how to get professional football back to Los Angeles.
With billions of dollars in proposed stadiums and future league revenue at stake, the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities spent a day reviewing the relocation applications from three teams.
three teams.The Chino Hills boys' basketball team is having a ball this season behind its multi-skilled band of brothers.On Thursday night, right after UCLA had defeated No. 7 Arizona, UCLA Coach Steve Alford issued a challenge.
He was still savoring the victory. But, he said, he would use Saturday's game against Arizona State as the week's measuring stick. The Bruins had already demonstrated they could beat top competition. But could they avoid a letdown less than two days later?
With little more than a minute left, the question hadn't been answered. The game was tied.On Thursday night, right after UCLA had defeated No. 7 Arizona, UCLA Coach Steve Alford issued a challenge.
He was still savoring the victory. But, he said, he would use Saturday's game against Arizona State as the week's measuring stick. The Bruins had already demonstrated they could beat top competition. But could they avoid a letdown less than two days later?
With little more than a minute left, the question hadn't been answered. The game was tied.On Thursday night, right after UCLA had defeated No. 7 Arizona, UCLA Coach Steve Alford issued a challenge.
He was still savoring the victory. But, he said, he would use Saturday's game against Arizona State as the week's measuring stick. The Bruins had already demonstrated they could beat top competition. But could they avoid a letdown less than two days later?
With little more than a minute left, the question hadn't been answered. The game was tied.
On Thursday night, right after UCLA had defeated No. 7 Arizona, UCLA Coach Steve Alford issued a challenge.
He was still savoring the victory. But, he said, he would use Saturday's game against Arizona State as the week's measuring stick. The Bruins had already demonstrated they could beat top competition. But could they avoid a letdown less than two days later?
With little more than a minute left, the question hadn't been answered. The game was tied.On a cold morning Wednesday, NFL owners hustled past reporters and into the 44-story building on Park Avenue that houses league headquarters.
They moved with urgency — and not just because of the temperature.
With a solution to the NFL's two-decade absence from Los Angeles appearing within reach, the league's finance, stadium and L.A. committees gathered to plot the way forward.
The Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and St. Louis Rams all submitted relocation applications to the league earlier this week.
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