San Diego Chargers relocating to Los Angeles

Share

UPDATE (Thursday morning at 9am) -- The San Diego Chargers are officially moving to Los Angeles, the team announced on Thursday morning.

***

The NFL extended the Chargers' deadline to make a decision on relocating until next Tuesday.

But it appears the Chargers won't need that much time to decide.

The Chargers plan to announce their intentions to bolt San Diego for Los Angeles, according to ESPN, and the formal announcement could come as soon as Thursday.

If the Chargers do decide to go to LA, they would become tenants in the stadium being built in Inglewood for the Rams, who moved to Sourthern California prior to the 2016 season.

According to the ESPN report, the Chargers have informed NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell of there intent to move for the 2017 season, but chairman Dean Spanos has yet to submit a former letter to the NFL or notify either city of the team's decision to move.

The NFL's stadium and finance committees met Wednesday for about 3+ hours to discuss relocation of the Chargers and Raiders. The fact-finding meetings mostly centered on the Raiders' plan for a potential move to Nevada. No filings for relocation were made; Oakland has until Feb. 15.

"There was little to no discussion on the topic of the Chargers," league executive Eric Grubman said, according to The Associated Press.

And no decisions were planned nor made at the meeting, in which all members of the two committees took part, some by teleconference. Those owners are finance chairman Bob McNair of Houston, along with Atlanta's Arthur Blank, Tampa Bay's Joel Glazer, Kansas City's Clark Hunt, Indianapolis' Jim Irsay, Jacksonville's Shahid Khan, New England's Robert Kraft, Philadelphia's Jeffrey Lurie and Miami's Steve Ross.

Participating from the stadium committee were chairman Art Rooney of Pittsburgh, Arizona's Michael Bidwill, the Jets' Woody Johnson, Dallas' Stephen Jones, Chicago's George H. McCaskey and San Francisco's Jed York.

The owners did talk about possible relocation fees, though Rooney said no specific numbers were discussed. PJT Partners, which analyzed what the relocation fee for the Rams' move from St. Louis last year should be, has been hired by the league to do the same job again. The Rams paid $550 million to move to LA.

Much of the meeting was taken up with the Raiders presenting financial updates. Rooney and Grubman said there was no discussion of Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson's potential role in the Raiders' relocation. Rooney noted NFL rules and policies that would prohibit a casino owner from having ownership of a franchise.

"It would have to be in compliance with our rules," Rooney said. "The Raiders are looking at the potential of doing without Mr. Adelson if it comes down to that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Us