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Earlier this year, it rained a lot. For those that don’t live in southern California, I don’t think I can overstate just how rare this is.
In fact, 2017 started out as the wettest year in 122 years, and before then the records aren’t quite as good as they are now. Probably because of the great flood.
Anyway, those rains came right after the construction project to build a gigantic NFL stadium in Inglewood, California had finished digging a rather large hole. After the rain, the water in the big hole was 12+ feet deep. This was unplanned.
Due to the delays associated with pumping the water out and the lost time (ever try to build something in the rain?), opening before the 2019 NFL season started to seem like a more difficult deadline. Stan Kroenke isn’t about to cut corners on what is going to be the NFL’s crown jewel, so instead the opening has been delayed a year.
The Los Angeles Rams already have a deal to play the 2019 NFL season at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, and the Los Angeles Chargers already have a deal to play the 2019 NFL season at the StubHub Center in Carson, so there’s no concern there.
NFL rules stipulate that Super Bowls can not be played in a stadium the year that it is opened, and the 2020 Super Bowl is set to be played in Inglewood, but the league granted a waiver to MetLife Stadium less than a decade ago and will likely do the same here.
If you’re looking for the news in this article, here it is:
The Chargers will play three years at StubHub Center. The Rams will play four years at the L.A. Coliseum. For both teams, this is a year more than they expected but not a year more than they had planned for.
Oh, and the drought is over.