By Glenn Freeman

           Los Angeles County – It is official – Los Angeles will be without an NFL team for the 20th straight season next year.

NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, says the league will not support relocation of a team in Los Angeles for the 2015 season. Goodell’s statement was directed at three teams in particular – the Rams, Raiders, and Chargers – that have expiring lease terms/clauses, and who have each been mentioned as possible teams looking at the nation’s second-largest television market.

All three teams have natural connections to Los Angeles, with both the Rams and Raiders once situated in Los Angeles and both leaving following the 1995 NFL season for St. Louis and Oakland, respectively. Fan base remnants still remain, particularly for the Raiders. And the Chargers originated in Los Angeles as a charter AFL team in 1960 (before moving to San Diego after one season). The Chargers also now draw a significant amount of fans and sponsors from Greater Los Angeles, portions of which are less than 60 miles north of San Diego.

Goodell’s statement does not keep teams from filing an application to relocate for 2015 (and San Diego has since said they will not file at this time). Yet it’s highly unlikely any team that files for 2015 will garner enough support needed to relocate given the Commissioner’s directive. Instead, Goodell indicated that 2016 may be a more favorable time for relocation. ESPN.com reports that NFL insiders say Goodell is setting up the scenario in order that at least one team will be in place in Los Angeles for the 2016 season.

For the Chargers, Goodell’s statement could be both good and bad news. For now, it gives the team and San Diego another year to work out a new stadium deal. It also gives them an option to consider Los Angeles (and to also use it as leverage). However, if the Chargers remain in San Diego and Los Angeles ends up with two other teams, the Chargers say that would hurt them financially.

Mark Fabiani, special counsel to Chargers President, Dean Spanos, indicated that the Chargers will keep a watchful eye on Los Angeles.

“If we have two teams in that market, we dry up our 30 percent of the revenue that now comes from that market,” said Fabiani. “It’s such a huge market. It’s 19 million people if you count L.A., Orange County and the Inland Empire. And, if you have owners that want to go to that market, if you have a market that’s big enough that you can basically privately finance your stadium, somebody’s going to do it, and sooner rather than later,” Fabiani told a local radio station.

Oakland Raiders owner, Mark Davis, was approached recently by San Antonio for relocation. According to ESPN.com, Davis was “impressed” with the city’s pitch. However, most insiders say it’s unlikely that San Antonio will get a team before Los Angeles and that Davis won’t easily turn down the much-larger Los Angeles market.  Neither will Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, they say, easily welcome a third team to Texas.

In St. Louis, officials are working to keep the Rams. USA Today recently reported that Missouri Governor, Jay Nixon, has tapped former Anheuser-Busch President, David Peacock, and attorney Robert Blitz, to advise him on options to “ensure that St. Louis remains an NFL City for years to come.”

Speculation of a move by the Rams ramped up last year after owner Stan Kroenke purchased a 60-acre parcel in Inglewood adjacent to Hollywood Park – one of three possible sites mentioned for a new football stadium.

Yet, most insiders say the Inglewood site is likely too small, leaving the current front-runners as the downtown Los Angeles site proposed by AEG, and the Ed Roski-backed site in the City of Industry. Neither site, however, has yet been confirmed, nor could a stadium be built in time for the 2016 season, necessitating a temporary stadium added to the already complicated relocation scenario.

Thus, the waiting game for Los Angeles NFL fans is likely to continue for at least another year.