It looks like the St. Louis Rams will be returning to Los Angeles with the Oakland Raiders bowing out of the race for the lucrative market. Thanks to today's vote by NFL owners, a story that has pushed coaching searches to page two for a day, they will likely be heading to Los Angeles with the possibility of the San Diego Chargers joining them.
Sounds like the #Raiders have bowed out. It's #Rams and #Chargers, with details and timing being worked out. In Inglewood
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 13, 2016
The Rams will play football in Inglewood, which is a southwestern city in Los Angeles County about 11 miles from Los Angeles. It is very close to Los Angeles International Airport and just minutes from the beach.
This is all good for the San Francisco 49ers, who will have to travel a lot less for division matchups in the future.
49ers fans get a small win with the Rams potentially going to LA. Inglewood is 1,739 miles closer than St. Louis, give or take.
— Chris Biderman (@ChrisBiderman) January 13, 2016
The Rams will play in a new stadium during the 2019 season. Until then, they are likely to play in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum near downtown Los Angeles.
With the Raiders out, the Chargers will have the option to join the Rams in the Los Angeles area. The 49ers and Chargers play each other during preseason each year. For 49ers fans in the Los Angeles area, and there are a number of them, this means that they will get to see their team during the regular season once a year and then possibly during preseason every other year without the need to travel.
NFL Network reported that the NFL was impressed with the proposal for the Inglewood stadium project and there was a lot of opposition around the league to the Raiders returning to Los Angeles.
The NFC West will actually feel like the "west" again.