St. Louis, San Diego, Oakland to tell NFL why Rams, Chargers, Raiders shouldn’t move to L.A.
Reporting from NEW YORK — Missouri is the “Show Me” state, and this week the NFL is asking just that.
The league will conduct committee meetings in the ongoing process of determining which teams, if any, will get the green light to relocate to Los Angeles.
Representatives from the cities of St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland are expected to make presentations Wednesday to a joint meeting of the NFL’s Los Angeles, stadium and finance committees at league headquarters, outlining their various proposals to keep the Rams, Chargers and Raiders in their current markets.
The St. Louis stadium task force issued a statement last week saying it was ready to present its stadium and riverfront development project.
“St. Louis is a spectacular NFL market, with loyal and passionate fans,” the statement read, “yet our best days as a football town are still ahead of us with a new stadium anchoring a revitalized north downtown riverfront.”
Expected to attend the meetings on behalf of San Diego are Mayor Kevin Faulconer and County Supervisor Ron Roberts.
“Our best chance to keep the Chargers from moving to L.A. is to show San Diego’s proposal is real and ready to move forward in 2016,” Faulconer said in a statement. “Our message is that if the NFL decides to keep the Chargers in San Diego we have a fair and common-sense plan and can break ground on a new stadium as soon as 2017 — if the Chargers work with us in good faith.”
Although St. Louis representatives presented to the NFL in June, followed by San Diego in August, this marks the first time Oakland officials have been invited to present. To this point the NFL had excluded Oakland because the league did not believe that city had come up with a viable solution.
In a written statement, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the city “will demonstrate to the league how Oakland continues to be a tremendous market for the Raiders franchise.
“We’ll show how everything from Oakland’s growing economic momentum and urban vitality to the team’s die-hard regional fan base make it clear that there is no better time for a major league team to be located in, or associated with Oakland.”
Twitter: @LATimesfarmer
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