Report: Goodell Says No NFL Teams Will Move to L.A. for 2015

It was reported on Saturday that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has informed that Raiders, Rams, and Chargers that no NFL team will be relocating to Los Angeles for the 2015 season. Brandon Wade/AP

By Jeff Pini

December 20, 2014

2 minutes to read

It appears the St. Louis Rams’ 52-0 thrashing of the Oakland Raiders in Week 13 wasn’t the “Battle for Los Angeles’’ after all… at least not for now.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has informed both teams – as well as the San Diego Chargers – that no franchise will be relocating to Los Angeles for the 2015 season, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

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The second-largest media market in the U.S. has been without an NFL franchise since the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders went back to Oakland in 1995. All three aforementioned teams have called L.A. home in the past: the Rams from 1946-94; the Raiders from 1982-94; and the Chargers as a member of the AFL from 1960-62.

The Raiders, Rams, and Chargers are all facing stadium issues in their respective cities. The Raiders lease at O.co Coliseum, where they first played in 1966, expires at the end of this season, and owner Mark Davis has said that “99 percent of [his] interests and energy are going towards getting something done [in Oakland].’’ But without a deal for a new stadium to be built, the Raiders could sign a one-year extension for 2015 and leave for L.A. as soon as 2016.

The Rams also want to secure a new stadium to replace the dreary Edward Jones Dome, ranked as one of the worst places to watch an NFL game, which the Rams can leave with league-permission in 2015. If the Rams were to return to L.A., St. Louis could become the first city (besides L.A.) to lose two NFL franchises since the 1970 merger (the Cardinals left for Arizona in 1988).

For much of the past decade, the Chargers have been trying to get a replacement for 57-year-old Qualcomm Stadium, which the San Diego Padres bolted for Petco Park after 2003, leaving the Chargers as the only pro tenant. The Chargers have no long-term commitment to Qualcomm Stadium, playing there on a year-to-year lease.

Despite the news that no team will move to L.A. in 2015, it seems an almost certainty that there will be an NFL franchise – if not two – in the City of Angels in the not-so-distant future.