Quote:There's no leverage play about it. Never was. He stopped putting any real effort into stadium talks with St. Louis pretty shortly after starting them, and at that point it was apparent that he wanted to move the team. The land purchase in Inglewood just made that all the more clear.
Even if the NFL tells Kroenke that they've chosen the San Diego/Oakland tandem for LA, he can still build his stadium and move the team, and there's really nothing the NFL can do to stop him. I think it's more likely that, instead of watching Kronke move the Rams to Inglewood and create a three-team clusterfudge in LA, the NFL would give him a sweetheart deal on the land in Inglewood and facilitate a move of the Rams to Oakland or San Antonio.
Or, potentially, Kroenke could force the NFL's hand by saying that he's moving to LA regardless of what the league wants to do with the Raiders and Chargers, which would probably result in the league abandoning the Carson plan and having either the Raiders or Chargers (probably the Raiders) move to Inglewood with the Rams and the other team being left to find a new city to move to. In that instance, San Antonio would probably be the favorite over Oakland, as Oakland has consistently refused public funding for a new stadium while San Antonio has repeatedly indicated that they're open to using public funds to build one. Also, I mean, let's be honest, the Raiders are a much bigger brand than the Chargers.
Either way, I expect the LA derby to be an ugly, three-team race, and despite the Raiders and Chargers intending to share a stadium in Carson, I still think that the most likely scenario involves the Rams sharing Inglewood with one of the two, and the loser having to either go back to the table with their current city or find a new city, possibly Oakland or San Antonio, maybe even St. Louis if they build a new stadium, to move the franchise to.
I agree that everything seems to point to Stan Kroenke wanting to go to Inglewood.
One big X factor is the NFL has demonstrated it wants control of the situation. Roger Goodell has been weakened in the last year or so. But it's realistically possible that Goodell will decide the NFL will challenge Kroenke in court in order for the league in order to attempt to re-establish control in general. Not to mention, St. Louis is in the process of putting together a very good stadium proposal. San Diego is far behind in that respect and they have major environmental issues to overcome. Like you said, the Oakland stadium situation is going nowhere. Hence, the NFL might conclude that the Carson Stadium plan is in the best interest of the league based on team situations.
