NFL: Los Angeles becomes new home of the Rams as they beat Chargers and Raiders to move from St Louis

Rams had previously played in LA from 1946-1994

Tom Sheen
Wednesday 13 January 2016 07:18 EST
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(Getty Images)

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Arsenal majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has successfully moved his NFL team, the Rams, to Los Angeles.

Kroenke had been with two other NFL teams, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, to move his side to LA, a city which had been without a team since 1995, when the Raiders made the move to northern California.

The Rams had previously called Los Angeles their home after moving West from Cleveland in 1946 - the move to St Louis, Missouri, was made in 1994.

Thirty of the 32 NFL owners voted in favour of the Rams moving to LA ahead of the other two franchises.

Kroenke, who called the move "bitter sweet", and the Rams will have to pay a £311m ($550m) relocation fee, while NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called the relocation a "painful process".

The LA Rams will play home games at the 90,000-seat LA Memorial Coliseum until their new £1.29bn ($1.86bn) stadium in Inglewood is built.

The move sees the team now located 1,800 miles away from their previous home, a three-and-a-half hour flight.

Missouri governer Jay Nixon said the move set "a terrible precedent".

The Chargers may still move to the city and have a year-long option to join the Rams. LA now boasts a NFL team to go along with two NBA teams, two NFL teams, two MLB teams and two MLS teams from 2017 when Los Angeles FC join the Galaxy.

The Raiders' future is more uncertain, with the team's lease at the Oakland Coliseum, the second smallest stadium in the NFL, now expired and the city unwilling to contribute public money for a new stadium.

They would have the chance to move to Los Angeles if the Chargers turned down the option.

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