HOUSTON (AP) — NFL owners voted to allow the St. Louis Rams to move to a new stadium just outside Los Angeles, and the San Diego Chargers will have an option to share the facility.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the Oakland Raiders, who also wanted to move, were left out of the deal, but could move to Los Angeles if San Diego doesn’t.
The moves end the NFL’s 21-year absence from the nation’s second-largest media market.
The compromise — the Chargers and Raiders wanted to share a new stadium in Carson, California, and the Rams wanted to move to nearby Inglewood — was approved 30-2 after the other options did not get the 24 votes needed for approval.
No NFL franchise has moved since the Houston Oilers went to Tennessee in 1997. The Raiders and Rams both left Los Angeles after the 1994 season. The Rams had been in the LA area since 1946.