Giants owner John Mara: L.A. could have two NFL teams next season
New York Giants owner John Mara said he believes there will be two NFL teams in the Los Angeles area next season.
Mara made the comments on WFAN 660 radio on Monday morning. Mara said a similar comment in March at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix.
"I think there's going to be one or two teams playing in LA next year—2016," Mara said at the time. "Maybe a temporary stadium [next year], but I think—and this is just my opinion—that one or two teams will be playing somewhere in L.A. next year. But we'll see."
Mara is on the the league’s committee to study possible relocation to Los Angeles and a member of the league's Competition Committee. Los Angeles is the second largest city in the United States and has not had an NFL team since 1995, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland and the Rams moved to St. Louis.
No team has officially submitted relocation paperwork to the league and any team that wants to move would need a two-thirds vote by the league’s owners. The next opportunity for a franchise to file for relocation would be in January 2016.
Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought 60 acres of land adjacent to the Forum and Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., last year on plans to build a $1.86-billion, 80,000-seat NFL stadium. He has not yet announced any plans to move the team.
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Missouri lawmakers are trying to stop Gov. Jay Nixon from working on plans to build a new $985 million NFL riverfront stadium in St. Louis in efforts to keep the Rams in town.
The Raiders and San Diego Chargers received an approval plan for a $1.7 billion stadium from the Carson, Calif. City Council earlier this year, but both teams have said they will continue to look for new stadium deals in their respective cities if the Carson project does not materialize.
San Diego officials hope that a public vote on a new $1.4 billion stadium could happen as soon as January, but the Chargers are not confident that the measure would pass, because of their issue with a $2.1 million environmental study recently approved by the city’s city council.
NFL owners are set for a meeting on Aug. 10 regarding the Los Angeles stadium situation.
- Scooby Axson
