The NFL is going to be back in Los Angeles one day. After about nine months of speculation, talk, rumors, land sales, meetings, threats and Roger Goodell quotes, that is pretty much all we know.
If we apply the 5 W’s (and How) of Writing to this situation, it would be woefully short of complete:
Who: ?????
What: Move an NFL team back to the Los Angeles market
When: ?????
Where: ?????
Why: $$$$$
How: ????? (Although by alienating a fan base and filling up a bunch of moving vans would technically work here)
One rumor has the Chargers joining the Rams in a stadium to be built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke in Inglewood. It would make sense on the surface but a recent report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch suggests the Bolts would be loath to move in with the Rams because of a business deal gone bad.
The story (which you can read in its entirety here) says in 2013 Chargers owner Dean Spanos called Kroenke asking if they would like to join together in establishing a stadium on the Inglewood/Hollywood Park site. According to the story Kroenke then went ahead and bought up all the land himself, eliminating Spanos.
If that is the case it would be near impossible for the Chargers to overlook such a bad business deal and be roommates with Kroenke’s Rams. However, the Bolts say that is not the case.
“No, Dean did not call Kroenke about a land purchase,” said Chargers Special Counsel Mark Fabiani. “Dean never made any effort to buy the land from Walmart.”
Walmart was the owner of a 60-acre parcel of land next to a nearly 250-acre spot owned by Stockbridge Capital Group. Dean Spanos and Stan Kroenke did sit down to have dinner prior to Kroenke purchasing the land but according to Fabiani, “Dean made no effort to acquire the 60 acres of land” before, during or after that dinner.
Kroenke’s purchase of those 60 acres was publicized in early 2014 and his company partnered with Stockbridge Capital to form the Hollywood Park Land Co. From the partnership the “City of Champions Revitalization Project,” which includes the proposed stadium, was born. However, the notion that Spanos is feeling jilted by Kroenke and the Rams may not have legs.
“The Chargers have never asked the Rams to join the Chargers in a stadium pursuit,” said Fabiani.
That would suggest the NFL could very well get the Rams and Chargers together in Inglewood, one of dozens of possibilities still alive in the NFL’s ongoing stadium soap opera.
