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Before the Las Vegas Raiders moved to Vegas and before the Los Angeles Chargers relocated to LA, the NFL considered relocating either of the two teams to St. Louis.
A St. Louis Post-Dispatch report by Austin Huguelet, Joel Currier, and Katie Kull details Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s path to move the Rams to Los Angeles.
The report includes the league considering moving the Raiders to St. Louis as the franchise vied with the Chargers to become the second team in Los Angeles.
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According to the report, the owners talked about moving the Raiders to St. Louis in 2014 before the Rams moved out of St. Louis. At one league owners' meeting, they discussed a “restructured ownership” for the Raiders, which would have included a brand makeover and a focus on a “special diversity initiative,” but those plans never fell through.
The Chargers decided to relocate to Los Angeles while the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas
While the NFL re-considered relocating the Chargers or the Raiders to St. Louis, they ultimately chose not to. The Chargers relocated to Los Angeles, and the Raiders relocated to the city of Las Vegas.
The Chargers were in San Diego for 55 years before moving to Los Angeles. The biggest reason for their move from San Diego to LA was that the team didn't want to build a new stadium in San Diego. Qualcomm Stadium was outdated, and rather than rebuilding a new stadium in San Diego, the team decided to move to Los Angeles and start fresh.
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti welcomed the Chargers to LA once the move happened, stating LA has more visitors than ever.
Garcetti said:
"L.A. already has more visitors than ever before. The Chargers will make our NFL tradition even richer, and give sports fans everywhere one more reason to be in Los Angeles. I congratulate Dean Spanos and the entire Chargers organization, and look forward to the extraordinary contributions they will make to our entire region."
Oakland relocated due to a similar reason. The NFL said that the Raiders' current home stadium wasn't adequate for the NFL.
The league said in a statement shared back in April 2017:
"The commissioner and membership had found in 2016, in the context of considering an application by the Raiders to relocate to Los Angeles, that the Raiders' current home stadium is not adequate for NFL football, and must be replaced, a conclusion agreed to by the civic leadership in Oakland. Notwithstanding the established preference for clubs to continue to serve their existing fans and communities, the member clubs concluded that the Raiders should be permitted to relocate from Oakland."
When the Rams moved out of St. Louis, many fans were saddened by the news. While many understand it's all about business, maybe the St. Louis fans can be hopeful for a team to relocate there in the future.
