Three NFL teams in LA is an unlikely football fantasy

Associated Press

CARSON, Calif.

Los Angeles is the hottest market for new stadiums in the country — and the NFL teams that could come with them — but the possibility that three teams will kick off in the region is a football fantasy, experts say.

The Oakland Raiders, the San Diego Chargers and the St. Louis Rams each have gained a foothold in the LA area. The Raiders and Chargers announced Thursday that they are planning a shared stadium in Carson, in the Los Angeles suburbs, if both teams fail to get new stadiums in their current hometowns.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke is part of a venture that wants to build an 80,000-seat stadium nearby, in Inglewood.

But the sudden rush to LA is tempered by a 20-year history of disappointment for fans — stadium proposals, complete with architectural renderings, have come and gone since the Rams and the Raiders fled Southern California after the 1994 season.

Scheduling games is just one snag that would make the notion of three teams in the region unfeasible. The Chargers-Raiders plan creates the odd prospect of divisional rivals suddenly sharing a home field.

“There is no reason to believe there are three teams moving there. There is not even a reason to believe one team is moving there. They are not done deals,” warned Victor Matheson, a specialist in sports economics who teaches at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.

Football is a business. Each team can now return to its home market and say, “We have a deal set up to move. Make me a better one to stay,” Matheson added.

That was echoed by Chicago-based sports finance consultant Marc Ganis, who said three teams would slice up the market far too finely to make it work. Managing TV broadcasting alone would pose a problem.