NFL Back To Los Angeles?

© David Goldman/AP

NFL's L.A. committee recommends joint Chargers-Raiders project over Rams' plan - A powerful NFL committee has made its recommendation in the three-way race for Los Angeles.

The NFL’s committee on Los Angeles opportunities told NFL owners here Tuesday that it favors the stadium project in Carson, Calif., a joint venture proposed by the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. The other choice on the table was the project in Inglewood backed by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

The recommendation isn’t binding, but the committee’s influence is expected to carry weight at this week’s NFL owners meeting, where the committee recommendation was made on Tuesday.

To relocate from their current cities, teams need approval from 24 of the league’s 32 owners.

The committee was formed last year and includes six influential team owners: New England’s Bob Kraft, Carolina’s Jerry Richardson, Pittsburgh’s Art Rooney, Houston’s Bob McNair, Kansas City’s Clark Hunt and John Mara of the New York Giants. Five of the six favored Carson, with Hunt said to have not taken a position for or against it.

“Typically deferral deference in the NFL is granted to the committees,” sports consultant Marc Ganis told USA TODAY Sports last week.

Ganis speaks with many decision makers in the process and helped the Raiders and Rams leave Los Angeles for Oakland in St. Louis in 1995.

“This is the most powerful committee I have ever seen put together in the NFL,” Ganis said.

All three teams are seeking to move to the L.A. market this year and are unhappy with substandard stadiums in their current markets.  But there’s only two spots available in L.A. The NFL doesn’t want three teams in L.A. and isn’t going to help finance two new stadiums in the same metro area.

Instead, it will support one new stadium capable of being shared by two teams.

That means tough choices need to be made if the NFL hopes to finally return a team to L.A. this year for the first time in 21 years.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had pushed the idea of the Chargers joining the Rams in Inglewood, but the Chargers told USA TODAY Sports Monday in statement that they have “zero interest” in joining the Rams in that project.  Jones' proposal has been introduced as a resolution that could be voted on at the meeting, though even if it prevailed in a vote, a resolution would not be binding.

The Chargers say they are committed to the project in Carson, where it has spent significant resources and has a legal agreement with the Raiders.  Walt Disney Co. chief executive Bob Iger has been tapped to shepherd the Carson project and made a presentation on its behalf to NFL owners Tuesday.

Likewise, Kroenke also made a presentation on behalf of the Inglewood project, a plan that is bigger than Carson and part of a larger entertainment, retail and office development covering nearly 300 acres near the L.A. airport. The 168-acre Carson project is expected to cost $1.7 billion, compared to around $2 billion for Inglewood. Both are to be privately financed.

The NFL meeting here is scheduled to run through Wednesday, if necessary.