Clark Hunt Expects At Least One NFL Team In LA Soon


U.S. News reports that Kansas City Chiefs owner, Clark Hunt, expects at least one NFL franchise to be play in Los Angeles as early as next season. This makes Hunt the most recent person of key figures who expects an NFL team in LA. Hunt says this as he currently sits as a part of a six-man league of owners who will meet to discuss relocation plans.

The committee could even decide if LA will get one or two teams for the 2016 NFL season. The Chief’s owner even goes against his own wishful thinking by claiming that he prefers to keep teams where they are at this point. But the business aspect of these transactions make relocation inevitable.

“All three of those franchises have tremendous fan bases in their home markets. In an ideal world, I’d like to see them all stay where they are. It probably won’t work out that way. There will probably be at least one team moving to LA. I can’t speculate who that might be.”

Although Hunt did indeed proclaim his expectation. He did not speculate on which NFL team will land there. The most popular guesses are the usual Raiders, Chargers, and Rams–teams which have called LA their homes in the past. In addition, all three teams are expected to file for relocation the day after the regular season concludes on Monday.

There hasn’t been an NFL football team in LA since the Raiders and Rams departed from Oakland and St. Louis in 1994, respectively. This seems hard to believe considering that LA is the nation’s second-largest media market.

“There’s still a lot of information we need to look at,” Hunt said. “We suspect the Raiders will be one of those teams, and we have to consider opportunities that have been put forward by the markets in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego for their teams to stay. We’ll go through all that this week.” Such logistical issues as these are part of the reason why there hasn’t been an NFL team in LA for so long.

Missouri seems to want to keep their franchise in Missouri based on the extensive report they’ve submitted, and the willingness to feature a new Stadium by the iconic Gateway Arch. The city submitted a nearly 400-page prospectus to the NFL offices. And a proposal for a $1.1 billion stadium.

On the contrary, St. Louis Rams owner, Stan Kroenke, wants to move his NFL team westward as his camp plans to build a $1.8 billion stadium in Inglewood, California. This could prove to be detrimental for fans who want to keep the Rams in Missouri. The groundbreaking at the projected Inglewood site is already underway.

The Chargers and Raiders, on the other hand, have joined forces for a stadium in Carson, California, effectively sharing an LA stadium similar to the NBA’s Lakers and Clippers. But San Diego Mayor Kevin Falconer and County Commissioner Ron Roberts plan to build a $1.1 billion dollar facility in San Diego.

Another thing to note about the Raiders migrating to LA is the fact that Oakland city officials repeatedly have said that they do not want to pile extra taxes on citizens, that would come with a new stadium in Oakland, when they are still paying debt from renovations 20 years ago.

This could work in favor towards expectations for the Raiders in LA also. Twitter shows that the race for LA could be anyone’s game as far as we know. And multiple officials have weighed in.

Fans have caught wind of the speculated relocation as well, a lot of whom do not seem to be pleased with losing their teams.

What do you think? Is it okay to move any NFL teams this far into its existence? Or should business solely take the front seat for these sorts of moves?

[Image via AP photos]

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