The city will get some money but no replacement team.
It appears that the chatter that National Football League owners were thinking of adding four franchises to get up to 36 teams with San Antonio, St. Louis, London, England, and Toronto, Canada, as candidates for the four expansion slots has evaporated. The NFL cut a deal with St. Louis attorneys by paying the local municipality $790 million to make a lawsuit involving Stan Kroenke moving his Rams business from St. Louis to Inglewood, California go away. St. Louis is not getting an expansion franchise out of the settlement. For now, there is no expansion plan but the NFL seems to be committed to placing a permanent franchise in London with the constant rumors that Shad Khan would eventually move his Jacksonville business there. But there is no evidence of that happening although Khan’s team does play an annual game or two in London. Khan is also trying to build an entertainment zone in Jacksonville and eventually wants a new stadium. San Antonio, and Toronto lack NFL state-of-the-art stadiums.
The NFL has a Buffalo stadium issue which could slow down any expansion talk. Western New York politicians want a new Buffalo Bills stadium but aren’t sure if the proposed facility should be in downtown Buffalo or at the Bills’ present home in Orchard Park. There seems to be a consensus that the Bills’ franchise needs a new home but how to pay for the stadium and where it should be located are problems. Toronto is a world financial capital. The city has a Canadian Football League team and it is a world class city and there is NFL interest in the country. Toronto is a major league city with the Blue Jays, Maple Leafs, Raptors and the MLS. There is no rush to add teams, especially now that the NFL’s St. Louis problem is solved.
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