Report: NFL May Come to LA Coliseum as Soon as 2015

College football fans in Los Angeles might soon be unable to call USC and UCLA the city’s NFL teams. A real one is reportedly coming, according to a source of NBC Sports’s Mike Florio.

The report could see LA hosting NFL games as soon as next season, with the Rams, Chargers and Raiders being the top candidates. All three have played home games in USC’s LA Coliseum before, and that could be in the works, as Florio explains:

"The timeline would include a team announcing its intention to move in the 2015 or 2016 offseason, with arrangements to play at the Rose Bowl or the L.A. Coliseum pending the construction of a new stadium. Possible sites for a venue in L.A. include the AEG project at L.A. Live in downtown, the land purchased recently by Rams owner Stan Kroenke at Hollywood Park, Chavez Ravine, and a couple of locations that have not yet been publicly disclosed. Ed Roski’s shovel-ready site at City of Industry is not regarded as a viable destination."

Wouldn’t that be something. Then again, rumors have run rampant for the last 20 years about a return to Los Angeles and nothing has ever come of it.

The Coliseum would have to prove it’s a better host than the Rose Bowl, which would be a big task. While the Rose Bowl is currently best suited to host an NFL team given the facilities and luxury boxes, the Arroyo Seco neighborhood is notoriously difficult, making the Coliseum an easier, if lesser, option.

What would it mean for USC though?

Well for starters, it’s a tenant for the Trojans, who have had operational control of the Coliseum for the last year.

The lease agreement allows the university to have priority scheduling of 25 ‘major events’ in a calendar year that draw at least 25,000 spectators. An NFL team could host a maximum of 12 games per season, with USC hosting no more than seven or eight football games if you include a well-attended spring game.

Add in parking money and operational fees that would be passed on to which NFL team could potentially play in the Coliseum, and USC could profit pretty well from the league coming back to Los Angeles.

Plus, it’s not inconceivable that an NFL team could provide additional incentive for USC to put the wheels in motion on renovating the Coliseum sooner, in hopes of keeping them around.

That would be a long shot, as any team coming would likely want a new stadium to be in the works when they first step foot back in LA. But alas, it’s something to think about.

But what say you? Are you happy about the NFL possibly coming back? Or have you been burned too much by rumors to believe these ones?

Do you want the NFL back?

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