While NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and owner Stan Kroenke both described the Rams' move to Los Angeles as "bittersweet," Goodell ended a Tuesday night news conference by saying the team is "returning home to Los Angeles."
"It's been a long process and a long day," Goodell said after league owners, on a 30-2 vote, approved the Rams' shift from St. Louis back to Southern California.
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"Relocation is a painful process," Goodell continued. "It's painful for the fans, for communities, for the teams, for the league in general. Stability is something we've taken a great deal of pride in. In some ways, it's a bittersweet moment, because we were unsuccessful in being able to get the types of facilities we wanted to get done in their home markets.
"So the excitement that we feel about being able to return the Rams to Los Angeles is balanced with a disappointment that we weren't able to get it done for our fans in St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland."
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The Rams will play in Los Angeles beginning in the 2016 season, initially at a temporary home. They will move into their new stadium in the LA suburb of Inglewood, on the site of what was Hollywood Park racetrack, in 2019.
Goodell said the league ownership believes Kroenke's project represents the type of signature complex that will make the NFL successful with a "vision to bring a new fan experience to NFL fans in LA."
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The Raiders withdrew their relocation application earlier Tuesday, but the Chargers have an option to join the Rams in Los Angeles if a June vote on public funding for a new stadium fails. Should the Chargers stay in San Diego, which owner Dean Spanos is still trying to make happen, the Raiders could still be an option to join the Rams. The Chargers will have to decide whether to move to LA by 2017. Goodell said the Chargers and Raiders would get $100 million each from the NFL if they remain in their current markets.
"This is not a win for the Raiders," Raiders owner Mark Davis said Tuesday night. "We'll see where the Raider Nation ends (up going). We'll be working really hard to find us a home. Don't feel bad. We'll get it right."
Spanos described the process as excruciating. Goodell, meanwhile, left open the possibility of a solution in San Diego.
"My goal from the start of this process was to create the options necessary to safeguard the future of the Chargers franchise while respecting the will of my fellow NFL owners," Spanos said Tuesday night. "Today, we achieved this goal with a compromise reached by the NFL ownership."
Steelers president Art Rooney II praised Kroenke for his commitment to bringing a franchise back to Los Angeles.
"We came together to make a good decision and see a great stadium be built in a great city," Rooney said.
Texans owner Bob McNair said Tuesday's vote was "satisfactory to our member clubs" and provides "incentive for the Chargers and Raiders to see if they can do something in their home markets."
Kroenke was the star attraction for the several St. Louis media members who were in Houston for the owners' meetings. Several of those reporters asked Kroenke questions that weren't always phrased politely. When asked why he didn't get personally involved in negotiations with the St. Louis stadium task force, Kroenke said he was involved and claimed reports last year that he did not return calls by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon were false because he and Nixon have "known each other since college."
Kroenke said in 2010 he did not "want to lead a charge out of St. Louis." After an eight-year battle over the lease at the Edward Jones Dome, Kroenke said, he "thought long and hard" about the future of the team in St. Louis and realized in 2012 a move would be possible.
"This has been multi-years in the making," Kroenke said in a rare media appearance. "I spent a lot of time on the Los Angeles committee. It's a difficult market. It's a difficult place to permit a stadium and build something we as a league can all be proud of.
"We understand the emotions involved with our fans. It's not easy to do these things. They are purposely hard. We tried to get something done on various alternatives (in St. Louis). When they didn't succeed, we worked this one out.
"What has happened has been going on since 2002," Kroenke added. "I understand the emotional argument. It's not something you want to do. But when you have a history and have a lease that was part of the reason the team moved there, and the lease required certain things, as an owner to be able to appeal to our fans, we have to have a first-class stadium project."
Before moving to St. Louis for the 1995 NFL season, the Rams were in Los Angeles and Anaheim from 1946-94 after spending the franchise's first 10 years in Cleveland. Kroenke said getting the move to LA done was the most difficult undertaking he has ever faced, but he said he knows Los Angeles football fans are happy to get their team back after a 21-year absence.
Kroenke, who acknowledged he has had an LA-area home for 20 years, said he has a responsibility to his fellow owners because "they have to play there, too." In successive weeks this season (against the Browns on Oct. 25, and the 49ers on Nov. 2), opposing players were injured at the Edward Jones Dome after slipping on bare concrete on the sidelines. Niners running back Reggie Bush filed a lawsuit against the Rams and the city of St. Louis after tearing his ACL.
Goodell said the Rams did not have an adequate stadium in St. Louis and added their new stadium in Los Angeles will meet the expectations and standards in the "entertainment capital of the world."
"It's more than just a stadium," Goodell said. "It's a project and entertainment complex we feel will be necessary for us to be successful in the Los Angles market."
Kroenke later said in a statement on the Rams' website that winning a Super Bowl and going back to another one are memories St. Louis Rams fans should always cherish.
“While there understandably has been emotionally charged commentary regarding our motives and intentions, the speculation is not true and unfounded," Kroenke wrote. "I am a Missouri native named after two St. Louis sports legends (Cardinals baseball stars Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial) who I was fortunate enough to know on a personal level. This move isn’t about whether I love St. Louis or Missouri. I do and always will. No matter what anyone says, that will never change.
"This decision is about what is in the best long-term interests of the Rams organization and the National Football League. We have negotiated in good faith with the Regional Sports Authority for more than a decade trying to find a viable and sustainable solution. When it became apparent that we might not be able to reach an agreement, it was then and only then that we looked at alternatives."