An old joke claimed the city of Los Angeles didn’t need a professional football team, because it already had one in the USC Trojans.
As the NFL inches closer to returning to the nation’s second-largest media market, USC will welcome the league with open arms.
St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke fully expects to help build a stadium in Inglewood, which sets up a possible return to the West Coast for the franchise. The city of St. Louis won’t go down without a fight, though. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon intends to facilitate the building of a new stadium to retain the Rams.
The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers are also considering a potential joint move to Los Angeles
The University of Southern California could ease the transition by opening the doors of the Coliseum to a team as its awaits the finalization of a new stadium.
“They’re going to have to play somewhere temporarily,” USC athletic director Pat Haden told the Los Angeles Times Gary Klein.
Haden specifically stated the facility could only accommodate one team, which doesn’t help the plight of the Chargers and Raiders.
USC wouldn’t simply hand over they keys to its stadium, though. A deal would need to be reached with whatever franchise emerges as the winner in the race to Los Angeles. According to Klein, Haden said last summer that he “would ‘love’ to have an NFL team play in the Coliseum for a few years and that ‘it wouldn’t be free.’”