National Football League

Baby steps: Carson City Council gives unanimous approval to NFL stadium

Published Apr. 22, 2015 10:55 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

The City of Carson is pushing hard to bring the NFL to its city, as the City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a privately financed stadium for two teams.

The two teams that would be playing in the $1.7 billion stadium are the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders.

"There are two things we need in California: rain ... and football," Carson Mayor Albert Robles said after the 3-0 vote, via the LA Times. "And football is coming to Carson!"

Fans in attendance reportedly chanted: "Bring them back! Bring them back" in response to vote. But let's just woah that thing for now.

We've all heard this song and dance before. This time, however, it seems real (er), as long as realize this is like the 87th time the NFL has been close to coming back to L.A.

"Baby steps" might be the best way of describing the NFL's recent trend toward relocating a team or two to Hollywoodland.

A baby step was taken in February, when the Inglewood City Council similarly voted to approve a $1.86-billion stadium project on the old Hollywood Park grounds, led by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke. The 80,000-seat stadium would house two teams -- the Rams and the Chargers.

Another baby step was taken in March at the NFL owners meetings, when Patriots owner Robert Kraft was very vocal about his desire to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles.

"I was sad 20 years ago when I came into the league and the two teams moved out of the L.A. market," Kraft said. "Just a very unfortunate thing and I don't think it's good that we've let a generation of fans grow up there without teams. ... It's not good for the NFL and I really believe within the next year we'll have two teams in this market."

Even New York Giants owner John Mara believes there will be "1-2 teams playing in Los Angeles next year."

So, to recap: Los Angeles now has two stadium projects that have been approved by its respective city's City Council, three teams who seem ready and willing to relocate (Rams, Raiders, Chargers) and two very powerful NFL owners (Kraft, Mara) who seemingly are championing this cause for the league in the public forum.

Those are three fairly large baby steps.

Now representatives of each project must give a progress update to an NFL owners committee Wednesday in New York.

Not that time is running out or anything, but NFL teams with plans of relocating must announce those plans prior to the start of the season prior to the planned move. And the who and the where still need to be determined.

With two very lucrative bids competing against one another, money and politics most certainly will play a role in who is relocating and to where those who's will be relocating.

While the future of the NFL in L.A. looks bright, unexpected turns should be expected.

Just remember, baby steps.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League