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Goodell: SD, St. Louis, Oakland stadiums failed

Posted at 5:47 PM, Jan 09, 2016
and last updated 2016-01-09 20:49:52-05

Sports Director Ben Higgins will be heading to Houston for the NFL Owners Meeting. Tune into 10News starting at 11 p.m. Monday night for the latest developments in the Chargers possible move to Los Angeles.


In just a few days, the future of the San Diego Chargers could be decided at a hotel in Houston.

There are still a lot of possible outcomes, and no one, not even the owners themselves, seem to know which team or teams will be given permission to move to Los Angeles.

Roger Goodell says the existing stadiums in St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland are "inadequate and unsatisfactory," and the proposals the Rams, Chargers and Raiders received to remain in their current cities lacked certainty.

A person who has seen the report told The Associated Press on Saturday night that the NFL commissioner sent a 48-page report to team owners and cited a lack of longer-term solutions in plans to build new facilities. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the league has not released details of the report.

The Los Angeles Times first reported Goodell's comments.

A special owners meeting is scheduled next week, and relocation by one or two of those teams to Los Angeles will be discussed, quite possibly voted on. All three franchises applied for relocation last week.

Goodell did not draw any conclusions on which teams should move, nor did he recommend either of two stadium sites being proposed.

At the meeting, the simplest outcome would have 24 of 32 owners voting to approve either the relocation of the St. Louis Rams to Inglewood, where they are ready to start construction on a $1.9 billion stadium and performing arts venue.

Another outcome could be 24 of 32 owners approving the application of the Chargers and Raiders to move to Los Angeles and build a $1.6 billion stadium in Carson.

In reality, neither of these outcomes is likely. Both sides are believed to have enough votes to block the other, and the NFL doesn't want to leave one or two teams with nothing.

Instead, NFL owners will likely push for a compromise. One possibility would be the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood, with the Raiders getting financial help from the league to build a stadium in Oakland or possibly even in San Diego somewhere down the road.

Dean Spanos has said he opposes this idea.

It's also possible that one team could get approval to move, either the Chargers or the Rams, with the possibility of the other team heading to Los Angeles later if no stadium deal can be reached in their home market.

There could be a surprise solution as well, or owners could delay the decision because no deal could be reached.