Roger Goodell calls Rams relocation a ‘painful process’ but a big step for the NFL

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave a press conference Tuesday evening after owners voted to move the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles. Goodell’s conference was brief, but gave plenty of details about the Rams’ move.

Goodell said that the Inglewood stadium is scheduled to open in 2019. Goodell called it “more than a stadium, it’s a project, an entertainment complex.”

The vote also gave the San Diego Chargers up to one year to decide whether they will relocate to Los Angeles.

“If they do not exercise that option,” Goodell said, “the Raiders would have the option also to move to Los Angeles with the Rams.”

Goodell had sympathetic words for the fans in St. Louis and San Diego, though he didn’t hide his excitement that the NFL will be back in Los Angeles for the first time since 1994.

”Relocation is a painful process. It’s painful for the fans, for communities, for the teams, for the league in general. Stability is something that we taken a great deal of pride in, and in some ways, a bittersweet moment because we were unsuccessful in being able to get the kind of facilities we wanted to get done in their home markets.

So the excitement that we feel about being able to return the Rams to Los Angeles is balanced with a disappointment that we weren’t able to get it done for our fans in St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland. But we’ll continue to try in those markets and we’ll continue to try to address those issues.”

The Rams are set to begin playing in Los Angeles in the 2016 season, with the Chargers getting up to one more year to weigh their options. The Raiders are staying in Oakland for at least one more year after the NFL earmarked $100 million in funding towards a new stadium in the area.