NFL team owners granted conditional approval on Monday to allow the Oakland Raiders to move to Las Vegas, the league announced, setting up the third franchise relocation in 14 months.

An NFL Twitter posting featured a Raiders helmet beneath the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign with the caption "The Las Vegas Raiders".

No vote total was released but the team needed support from at least 24 of 32 club owners to make the move, which follows the St. Louis Rams return to Los Angeles in January 2016 and the San Diego Chargers move to Los Angeles this past January.

Raiders owner Mark Davis said the team would play the 2017 and 2018 seasons in Oakland to complete its stadium lease deal ahead of the expected 2020 opening of a new $1.9 billion (1.75bn euros) domed stadium near the Las Vegas Strip.

"The Raiders were born in Oakland and Oakland will always be part of our DNA," Davis said. "We know that some fans will be disappointed and even angry, but we hope that they do not direct that frustration to the players, coaches and staff.

"We plan to play at the Coliseum in 2017 and 2018 and hope to stay there as the Oakland Raiders until the new stadium opens. We would love nothing more than to bring a championship back to the Bay Area."

But that history and affection was not enough to convince him to stay, even with a last-minute revamped stadium pitch from Oakland city leaders that had pleaded for owners to delay a vote and negotiate with Oakland about staying.

"My father (ex-Raiders owner Al Davis) always said, 'the greatness of the Raiders is in its future,' and the opportunity to build a world-class stadium in the entertainment capital of the world is a significant step toward achieving that greatness," Davis said.

The Raiders were founded in Oakland in 1960, moved to Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994, then went back to Oakland and now become the second major sports team in the US gambling haven.

Where concerns over gambling ties once shied away pro sports clubs, the allure of new venues and rich sponsors has the NFL following the National Hockey League's expansion Vegas Golden Knights, who begin play next October in a new arena.

"It truly is an exciting time to be from Las Vegas," said Knights chairman Bill Foley. "Las Vegas has always been one of the most popular destination cities in the world and it is now emerging as a premier location for major league professional sports."

The Chargers departed San Diego for lack of a new stadium and the Raiders did the same, with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell calling Oakland's proposal not "a viable solution".

Nevada lawmakers will put $750 million in taxpayer funding toward the new stadium with the NFL and Raiders chipping in $500.

Bank of America stepped in to provide the remainder of the funding after casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Goldman Sachs pulled out of the project.

- 'I don't know how we should feel' -

The Raiders went 12-4 last season, sparked by new quarterback Derek Carr, after 13 consecutive campaigns without a winning record, but lost to Houston in the first round of the playoffs.

"I am overwhelmed with emotion," Carr said in a Twitter message. "I don't know how we should feel. I feel the pain of our fans in Oakland. I also see the joy on the faces of our new fans in Las Vegas. As players, we will show up and give everything we have, we will compete and we will do our best to bring a championship to the entire Raider Nation.

"So Las Vegas, you can count on us bringing a piece of Oakland with us and you are getting a tough, loyal and competitive fan base and team. When the time comes, I hope you are ready. For now, it's about 2017 and our diehards in Oakland." </s> NEW YORK — The NFL is coming to Las Vegas.

NFL owners voted Monday to approve the Raiders’ move from Oakland to Las Vegas, the league announced.

“My father always said, ‘the greatness of the Raiders is in its future,’ and the opportunity to build a world-class stadium in the entertainment capital of the world is a significant step toward achieving that greatness. I would like to thank Commissioner Goodell, the National Football League and my 31 partners. I would also like to thank Governor Brian Sandoval and the Nevada Legislature for their commitment. Finally, I would like to thank Sheldon Adelson for his vision and leadership, without which this project never would have become a reality. The Raiders were born in Oakland and Oakland will always be part of our DNA. We know that some fans will be disappointed and even angry, but we hope that they do no direct that frustration to the players, coaches and staff. We plan to play at the Coliseum in 2017 and 2018, and hope to stay there as the Oakland Raiders until the new stadium opens. We would love nothing more than to bring a championship back to the Bay Area,” a statement from Raiders owner Mark Davis read.

The move had been anticipated for months. The Raiders received about $750 million from Nevada taxpayers last year to build a stadium in Las Vegas, and team owner Mark Davis is putting up $500 million. Bank of America has committed to financing the rest.

The stadium, expected to cost $1.9 billion, is planned for 2020. The Raiders are expected to stay in Oakland in the meantime.

It’s the third NFL franchise to move in recent years. The Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles for the 2016 season, and the former San Diego Chargers will move to Los Angeles for the 2017 season.

The city of Oakland presented a last-minute proposal on Friday for a $1.3 billion stadium in hopes of keeping the team. But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was not impressed. He wrote back that the plan wasn’t “clear and specific” or “actionable in a reasonable timeframe.”

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf sent another letter Sunday to make the case.

“The NFL is more than a business,” the mayor wrote. “You have an obligation to recognize that professional football teams are the lifeblood, culture and identity of the places where they play.”

The Raiders needed to get 24 votes from league owners, a three-quarters majority, to move.

It originally looked like a long shot. The NFL is known for being conservative, especially on gambling, which is legal in Las Vegas. The league has refused to run Super Bowl ads from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

But with Oakland unable to secure taxpayer financing, relocation to Vegas has began to look more likely.

The move bolsters efforts by Las Vegas to become a destination for professional sports. An NHL expansion franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights, will begin play next season. And Vegas has long been a host of big-name boxing bouts and UFC matches. </s> PHOENIX — As expected, NFL owners gave Las Vegas its blessing to host one of the league’s most storied franchises on Monday.

The owners’ historic decision allows the Raiders and owner Mark Davis to uproot for the third time in 35 years — much to the dismay of diehard East Bay fans.

Davis scored a major victory at the NFL’s annual owners meetings in Arizona, some 300 miles from where he plans to erect a $1.9 billion domed-roof stadium near the famous Las Vegas Strip.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the vote was 31-1 in favor, with only Miami voting against relocation.
• Read: Open letter from Oakland Raiders fan groups to Mark Davis, all NFL owners
• Purdy: At long last, Mark Davis and the Raiders have the NFL’s full attention

Before the move can become official, Davis and his chief executives have much to do.

Owners stipulated that the Raiders still need to agree to terms for a lease with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority as well as secure a property where to build the proposed 65,000-seat stadium

Owners determined Las Vegas was the team’s best option after 25 years in Oakland in the now-outdated Coliseum that is shared with baseball’s Athletics. They supported Davis’ ambitions 14 months after rejecting a proposed joint move to Carson with the former San Diego Chargers.

For the third time in the past year, the league approved a relocation by bunching three teams in close proximity. The Rams and Chargers eventually will share a new stadium in Inglewood while the Raiders hope to turn America’s Playground into an NFL jewel.

Owners were willing to accept a smaller relocation fee — reported to be between $300 million and $375 million — than the $650 million tagged to the Rams and Chargers.

Las Vegas’ money and enthusiasm were enough to persuade owners to vacant the country’s sixth-largest media market for a desert metropolis of 2.2 million residents.

Owners cited the $750 million public investment in southern Nevada as one of the attractions to planting the NFL flag in a city once off limits because of its association with gambling.

But professional leagues no longer worry about such connections as the NHL awarded the city its first expansion team since 2000. The Las Vegas Golden Knights will make their debut next season. If all goes smoothly, the Raiders will join the pro sports agenda by 2020.

The Raiders have secured a $650 million loan from Bank of America and plan to contribute $500 million that will come from personal seat license sales, naming rights and a $200 million loan from the NFL through its stadium upgrade program.

Although sports economists have questioned the soundness of the financing package, NFL owners are satisfied the deal will succeed. Now the Raiders must agree to a 30-year lease with the stadium authority, the public oversight group that would own but not operate the stadium.

The Raiders are steadfast they want to build on a 63-acre site across from the southern end of the Strip near McCarran International Airport. The area would need major roadwork, some part of a Nevada Department of Transportation plan for the next decade. But perhaps another $200 million would have to be spent specifically to accommodate a stadium. Davis and others also have talked about building a pedestrian bridge over Interstate 15 to connect the Strip to the stadium on Russell Road.

Furthermore, the Raiders will need to figure out where to play until the stadium and all the attendant roadwork is finished.

The current plan is to stay in Oakland for two years while figuring out a solution for 2019.

One possibility is sharing Levi’s Stadium with the 49ers. Another is playing at UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium on the outskirts of town. The austere facility would need to add about 5,000 more seats as well as other enhancements to come close to the NFL’s barest of standards.

Remaining in the Bay Area, however, could turn into a nightmare if the Black Hole faithful stop supporting the team as it leaves Oakland again. Al Davis moved the Raiders to Los Angeles in 1982 before returning 13 years later.

Davis and NFL executives have summarily dismissed a proposed solution in Oakland by Hall of Fame player Ronnie Lott and New York hedge fund Fortress Investment Group. The investors, working with Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf and East Bay lawmakers, offered a $1.3 billion stadium plan that included a mixed-use development on the current site of the Coliseum, the smallest and third-oldest permanent NFL facility.

Schaaf revealed last week that one of the plan’s sticking points involved the Athletics sharing the Coliseum for a few years while the new football stadium was built. Davis and the NFL didn’t want to continue the arrangement with Oakland’s baseball team even in the short term.

NFL executives were not moved by Oakland investors saying they could start building a new football stadium almost immediately.

Although the plan to stay in East Bay would have been far less expensive, the Raiders never engaged in serious discussions with the Lott group. By the time investors entered the scene Davis already had considered moves to Los Angeles and San Antonio before settling on Las Vegas. </s> Getty Images

With plenty of momentum building toward a vote that would allow the Raiders to move to Las Vegas, the league apparently plans to cram the proposal through quickly. Before anyone realizes that dropping a franchise into a city synonymous with gambling: (1) could create real temptations, problems, and consequences for players who find themselves living in and around casinos; (2) is inconsitent with the league’s opposition to sports betting; and (3) could — will — invite speculation about corruption when officiating and/or player and/or coaching errors occur.

Via Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Daily, the ballots are expected to be cast by 3:00 p.m. ET on Monday. The approval would be conditioned upon the Raiders getting a lease and finding a developer for the new stadium in Nevada.

Following the vote, Commissioner Roger Goodell, Raiders owner Mark Davis, Texans owner Bob McNair, the chairman of the league’s finance commitee, and Steelers President Art Rooney II, the chairman of the league’s stadium committee, will speak to the media. Which underscores the widespread expectation that there won’t be nine “no” votes in the room. </s> HOUSTON — The Oakland Raiders’ chances of returning to Los Angeles appeared to dwindle Monday as sources said that support was coalescing around a last-minute proposal to pair the St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers at a planned $1.86 billion stadium in Inglewood.

The proposal, submitted by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, is expected to be on the table when league owners meet Tuesday and Wednesday at a posh Houston hotel in hopes of finally deciding which team or teams move to Los Angeles.

Jones’ plan would appear to be a boon for local Raiders fans, even if the team might be opposed. It would likely keep the Raiders in Oakland next season and could provide them with additional league funding for a future stadium project either in Oakland or somewhere else if talks with Oakland break down.

Raiders owner Mark Davis, who has also flirted with a possible move to San Antonio, did not return a call seeking comment.

Davis and Chargers owner Dean Spanos have been working together for nearly a year on a joint $1.7 billion stadium proposal in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson. On the surface, they have been competing with the Inglewood project proposed by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

But that doesn’t mean the league’s 32 owners can’t mix and match in order to secure the needed 24 votes to move a club. At this point, sources said that pairing the Rams and Chargers appears to offer the best chance of meeting the three-fourth’s threshold.

Spanos is seen as having the most support among owners sympathetic to many attempts to get a stadium built in San Diego, while Kroenke is the second-wealthiest man in the sport, and his Inglewood proposal is considered the more lucrative stadium opportunity.

Meanwhile, sources said last week that several owners continued to doubt whether the Raiders had the financial capital and organizational capacity to succeed in Los Angeles.

“If I were guessing right now, my supposition is that the Jerry Jones plan will be the compromise,” said Robert Boland, a professor of sports law and economics at Ohio University. “What this points toward is whether anything can be given … to the Raiders that could cushion the blow.”

Owners are expected to require the teams moving to Los Angeles to pay a $550 million relocation fee. They could decide to allocate some of that money to help the odd team out finance a new stadium.

With the owners meeting still not underway, former 49ers executive Carmen Policy, who has been representing the Carson project, cautioned that the situation remained fluid.

“I think anybody who says they know exactly what is going to happen is either not in tune with the facts or they’re making stuff up,” he told Bay Area News Group sports columnist Tim Kawakami on Friday, the same day that Jones submitted his plan to put the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood.

Before deliberations begin, the NFL’s six-member Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities is expected to make a recommendation to owners. Then it will be up to the owners, who could focus first on which teams they want in Los Angeles or on which of the two competing stadium options they prefer.

The competition to return to Los Angeles after the Rams and Raiders abandoned the city 21 years ago is being fueled by the three teams’ dissatisfaction with the revenue-generating potential of their current stadiums. With sweetheart public stadium subsidies harder to secure, especially in California, where the state won’t provide funding, Los Angeles has become more attractive to teams because its large corporate base can pay top dollar for sponsorships and high-end seating.

At first, it appeared that St. Louis had a good chance of keeping the Rams by offering to pay more than one-third the costs of a $1.1 billion riverfront stadium. But the league has soured on that plan because it anticipates an extra $100 million in NFL financial support and would likely still need government approval.

The league also found fault with San Diego’s $350 million offer toward a new stadium that is contingent on a public vote. Oakland hasn’t made a formal offer and is refusing to help pay for a new Raiders stadium.

Davis blasted city leaders and O.co Coliseum in recent communications to league officials, describing his home field as “the worst, most inadequate facility in the league,” the Orange County Register reported Monday. If NFL owners can’t reach a decision in Houston, the league is expected to quickly call a special meeting rather than let the process drag out as it did in 1995 when the Rams and Raiders both left Los Angeles in the spring.

Oakland Councilman and Raiders fan Larry Reid recalls the Raiders’ return fondly. He’ll be a lot more nervous on Tuesday.

“I’m going to be keeping my fingers crossed,” he said. “And saying a bunch of prayers.”

Staff writer Tim Kawakami contributed to this story via his podcast, The TK Show. Contact Matthew Artz at 510-208-6435.

Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles in 1982

Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis in 1984

St. Louis Cardinals to Phoenix in 1988

Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995

Los Angeles Raiders back to Oakland in 1995

Houston Oilers to Tennessee in 1997

Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996

Chargers and Rams to Los Angeles; Raiders stay in Oakland

Chargers and Raiders to Los Angeles; Rams stay in St. Louis

Chargers to Los Angeles; Raiders and Rams stay put

Rams to Los Angeles; Chargers and Raiders stay put

Rams and Raiders to Los Angeles; Chargers stay put

Q: What are the two Los Angeles area stadium plans?

A: The Raiders and San Diego Chargers have proposed a joint stadium in Carson; the St. Louis Rams have proposed a stadium in Inglewood that could hold two teams.

Q: How many votes are needed for approval?

A: Twenty four out of 32 owners.

Q: What if neither plan has enough votes?

A: A compromise could be worked, including the potential pairing of the Chargers and Rams.

Q: Which team is considered most likely to move to Los Angeles?

A: The Chargers.

Q: What happens if the Raiders don’t get approval for Los Angeles?

A: They would likely stay in Oakland at least temporarily while stadium talks resume. </s> Chargers fans will see their franchise leave after nearly six decades

ESPN NFL senior writer Adam Schefter is reporting that the San Diego Chargers will officially relocate to Los Angeles for the 2017 season and beyond.

An official announcement from the team and the league is expected as early as Thursday, and will cause a major shakeup across the league.

Last offseason the league came to an agreement that the St. Louis Rams would immediately relocate to Los Angeles, while the Chargers had the option to join them. San Diego was given one year to make their decision, and that choice came at the 11th hour.

A major ripple effect is expected from this move, including the future of the Oakland Raiders. Had San Diego declined the option to relocate to Los Angeles, the Raiders were next in line. With no stadium plan in Oakland, the Raiders are expected to file for relocation to Las Vegas in the near future.

The Chargers inaugural season began in Los Angeles in 1960, but the franchise was relocated to San Diego the following season.

With a coaching change underway, the Chargers job becomes incredibly more appealing to potential candidates. Half of the six vacant head coach jobs have been filed, and several strong candidates are still available.

The future of quarterback Philip Rivers is also a question, as he has reportedly been against moving to Los Angeles. Rivers, who turned 35 this season, attended North Carolina State and reportedly prefers the suburban environment.

We will have more on this major news regarding the Los Angeles Chargers as it becomes available </s> LAS VEGAS -- Five months after being awarded an NHL franchise, Las Vegas' expansion team finally has a name. The Vegas Golden Knights will be the city's first major professional sports team when they begin play in the 2017-18 season.

Golden Knights owner Bill Foley made the announcement, alongside NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and team general manager George McPhee, in front of a raucous crowd outside the recently constructed T-Mobile Arena, the team's new home, located just off the Las Vegas Strip.

"We now have an identity," Foley told ESPN.com just before the announcement. "My whole idea was to create a logo and a name that was powerful that would epitomize the warrior class. The Knights are the epitome of the warrior class, the top of the line in terms of defending the realm, defending the unprotected. This is all part of the culture we want to create with the hockey team."

The NHL announced that Las Vegas would be home to the league's 31st team after a board of governors meeting in the city on June 22. Not only will the Golden Knights be the NHL's first expansion team since the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild during the 2000-01 season, but they also will become the first of the four major North American professional sports leagues to have a team in Las Vegas.

Foley said he went with "Vegas" instead of "Las Vegas" for the NHL team name because that is how most locals refer to the city.

"We now have an identity," Golden Knights owner Bill Foley told ESPN. AP Photo/John Locher

Jerseys for the Golden Knights will not be for sale until mid-February, at the earliest, Foley said. But other items, such as T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, polo shirts, shorts and gym bags, were sold outside the arena shortly after the announcement was made on Tuesday night.

"I think the day upon which you begin to create the identity of a franchise is the day that fans can begin to have their emotional connection to the club," Bettman told ESPN.com. "And while five months ago to the day we announced that the expansion was going to be a reality, I think today will mark it feeling real ... if you're a fan and you can get a T-shirt or a hat, this then begins to signify the beginning of fandom."

Shortly after the name and logo for the Golden Knights was revealed outside of T-Mobile Arena, which rests just behind the Monte Carlo and New York-New York Hotel and Casino, hotels up and down the Strip were scheduled to reveal signs welcoming the Golden Knights to Las Vegas.

The team has already sold more than 14,000 season tickets and most of the luxury seats inside the 17,500-seat T-Mobile Arena for next season. While Foley expects games to be popular destinations for traveling fans, he also believes that 85 percent to 90 percent of the crowds during the regular season will be made up of season-ticket holders.

Foley, a graduate of the United States Military Academy, had originally wanted to call the team the Black Knights, after Army's athletic nickname, but he encountered some resistance. Foley was already the chairman of the board for Black Knight Financial Services and the lead investor in Black Knight Sports & Entertainment, the consortium he started along with the Maloof family, which owns the team. He settled on three finalists: Golden Knights, Silver Knights and Desert Knights, before going with Golden Knights in August and working with Adidas on the logo, which was completed in late October.

While the Golden Knights are about 11 months away from playing their first game, the team is slowly beginning to take shape. Foley hired McPhee to be the team's first general manager in July. McPhee was the Washington Capitals general manager from 1997 to 2014. Kerry Bubolz was hired as team president in October after 13 years with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Quicken Loans Arena organization. And last month, the team broke ground on a state-of-the-art practice facility in Summerlin, Nevada -- a suburb located about 15 miles from the Las Vegas Strip and where the team's offices are located.

The Golden Knights, which will be the eighth team in the Pacific Division and the 15th team in the Western Conference, will acquire their first players on June 21, when their selections from the expansion draft are announced. Las Vegas must select one player from each of the 30 existing teams. Two days later, the team will select their first rookies in the NHL draft. They are guaranteed to have no lower than the sixth overall pick in the draft and will own the third pick in each subsequent round.

"This whole process has really been a whirlwind," Foley said. "We'll be playing games before you know it."

ESPN.com senior writer Scott Burnside contributed to this report. </s> A video meant to build up to the unveiling failed to run properly at the Toshiba Plaza outside their new T-Mobile Arena, leaving owner Bill Foley and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stalling for time as technicians tried to fix the problem.

When that failed, they abandoned the video and did a countdown to presenting the team name and logo.

When the name was revealed above the logo of a knight's helmet with a "V" formed in the face of it, fireworks were set off and confetti fell on the cheering crowd.

"I guarantee you we will be better in the rink," shouted majority owner Foley, making light of the video problems.

Five months ago, the National Hockey League decided to roll the dice on expanding to Las Vegas as its 31st franchise, and the first expansion team since 2000 when Columbus and Minnesota were added.

The Golden Knights will begin play in the 2017-18 season.

"We believe in this market," said Commissioner Bettman. "This is a great town. We know everybody here has been hoping for a professional sports team. We're thrilled it's hockey.

"We think by having Las Vegas in the league, it makes the league and hockey stronger. Las Vegas has great visibility."

Foley, chairman of U.S. title insurance services provider Fidelity National Financial , gambled a $500 million franchise fee that Las Vegas will support an NHL team.

The team will play out of the T-Mobile Arena, a new multipurpose building on the south end of the famous Las Vegas Strip that can seat 17,500 for ice hockey. </s> Jim Trotter talks about the Chargers' plan to move the franchise to Los Angeles, how it will be received in the market and the reaction of the other team owners. (2:05)

Chargers chairman Dean Spanos was in no mood to reflect Thursday morning after officially announcing his plans to move the franchise to Los Angeles after 56 seasons as San Diego's pro football team.

"I'm looking forward, not backward," he told ESPN in a brief phone conversation. "I spent half my life here. I leave behind a lot of friends and lot of great memories, but life goes on. There are always a lot of changes in life, and we know this is not going to be easy. But we made a decision, we're committed to it, and our family is 100 percent behind it. What's happened has happened."

The Chargers quickly changed their Twitter name and showed off a new Dodgers-like logo, although the team is continuing to use its traditional lightning logo for now.

A source told ESPN's Darren Rovell that the mark appearing on the Chargers' social media accounts is a working logo and has not been approved by the NFL.

Spanos had until Jan. 17 to exercise the option to move to Los Angeles, where the franchise was founded and played one season in 1960. Sources say he vacillated between staying in San Diego and relocating after a ballot measure for a new downtown stadium, coupled with an expansion of the convention center, was voted down 57 percent to 43 percent.

The Chargers understood that the NFL's stadium and finance committees meetings Wednesday were focused on Las Vegas and the Raiders and that San Diego was unlikely to be discussed. Spanos did not expect the meetings to change the playing field, and once the committee meetings ended and fellow owners expressed no appetite for making a contribution beyond the $300 million it had promised, Spanos decided it was best to end the 15-year stadium dance he and local officials had been doing and be the second team in the $2.66 billion stadium that Rams owner Stan Kroenke is building in Inglewood, California.

"For more than a decade, the San Diego Chargers have worked diligently toward finding a local stadium solution, which all sides agreed was required," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Thursday, pointing out that the Chargers delayed exercising the option to move to Los Angeles that was granted a year ago.

"The Chargers worked tirelessly this past year with local officials and community leaders on a ballot initiative that fell short on election day. That work -- and the years of effort that preceded it -- reflects our strongly held belief we always should do everything we can to keep a franchise in its community. That's why we have a deliberate and thoughtful process for making these decisions.

"Relocation is painful for teams and communities. It is especially painful for fans, and the fans in San Diego have given the Chargers strong and loyal support for more than 50 years, which makes it even more disappointing that we could not solve the stadium issue. As difficult as the news is for Charger fans, I know Dean Spanos and his family did everything they could to try to find a viable solution in San Diego."

Arizona Cardinals president Michael Bidwill, who is a close friend of Spanos, said it was a tough decision for Spanos and his family.

"He's spent most of his adult life in San Diego and was part of the community. He really worked hard to get a deal done in San Diego, but I think this is the best decision for him and a great opportunity," Bidwill said. "These new stadiums are really important. This was the best decision for them and for where the franchise will be three years from now, five years from now and in the long term."

Spanos is expected to pay the $550 million relocation fee over 10 years, rather than extend the payments beyond that for an additional $100 million. The club will pay roughly $12 million to buy out its Qualcomm Stadium lease in San Diego, according to one team source, then relocate its training facility to Orange County sometime before July 1, when the lease on its training complex expires.

"Today, we turn the page and begin an exciting new era as the Los Angeles Chargers," Spanos wrote in a letter on the Chargers website.

"L.A. is a remarkable place, and while we played our first season there in 1960 and have had fans there ever since, our entire organization knows that we have a tremendous amount of work to do. We must earn the respect and support of L.A. football fans. We must get back to winning. And, we must make a meaningful contribution, not just on the field, but off the field as a leader and champion for the community."

Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa reacted on social media, thanking the fans:

S/O to the loyal fans willing to make this move with us. Thank you for the best year of my life... https://t.co/G9zVCNWzRd — Joey Bosa (@jbbigbear) January 12, 2017

In a statement, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti welcomed the Chargers.

"L.A. already has more visitors than ever before. The Chargers will make our NFL tradition even richer, and give sports fans everywhere one more reason to be in Los Angeles," Garcetti said. "I congratulate Dean Spanos and the entire Chargers organization, and look forward to the extraordinary contributions they will make to our entire region."

The Chargers will play their home games the next two seasons at the 30,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, California. They are promoting it as a "one-of-a-kind product" that gives fans an opportunity to be "up close and personal" with players. There is also the belief that it helps differentiate them from the Rams, who often appeared to be playing before a half-empty stadium at cavernous Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The move is considered a financial boon for the Chargers, but perhaps it was fitting that rain fell over the city on the morning of the announcement. In virtually every poll of Angelenos -- official and informal -- the Chargers were ranked as the least desirable of the three teams seeking to relocate to the market last year, trailing the Rams and Raiders. Management knows it will be a challenge to establish its roots in the community, which speaks to its planned marketing slogan: Fight for L.A.

Spanos is intrigued by the idea of rebranding the team in Los Angeles but currently has no plans to do so. In the meantime, the organization will seek to reach out to fans in San Diego as well as Los Angeles.

"You have people that have been fans of this team for 55 years, and they now will be able to go into a stadium worthy of the support that they've given," said New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, another close friend of Spanos. "The team is still within the geography that will allow the fan base to attend games. I personally wish [the stadium] had been in downtown San Diego, but the powers that be didn't want to cooperate. Dean's family was willing to commit nine figures of capital and just couldn't get the cooperation.

"In one sense it's sad, but in the other it's nice that it's still close by and true fans will be able to support the Chargers."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The National Football League (NFL) owners approve, by a 31–1 vote, the move of the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas, Nevada, for the 2019 or 2020 season. The Las Vegas Raiders will become the second top-level professional sports franchise in the city, following the National Hockey League's Vegas Golden Knights, which will begin play in October 2017. The move now awaits completion of a new Raiders stadium, until which time the Raiders will continue playing home games in Oakland. Bank of America has issued the Raiders $650 million in credit to purchase land and build the new stadium in Clark County.