The Los Angeles Rams are currently engaging in one of the more aggressive construction builds in modern sports history, erecting a palatial tribute to west coast football out in Inglewood, California.
The NFL also recently announced it would be moving its NFL Media headquarters to the facility, and rumblings persist about the combine being shipped out of Indianapolis to Los Angeles. In short, this facility is not going to be just a stadium: it's going to a complex and headquarters for a billion-dollar industry.
The price tag for that HQ is skyrocketing, according to a report from Seth Wickersham of ESPN. Wickersham reported that the NFL owners are expected to vote at the owners meetings in Florida to raise the debt limit for the stadium, thanks in large part to the price tag having risen almost to an absurd $5 billion.
Today NFL team owners will vote to increase the debt limit for the Rams new stadium, which according to internal league documents is now projected to cost an amazing $4.963 billion.
— Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) March 27, 2018
That is a substantial amount of money. When you go to the NFL owners meetings you quickly realize just how much wealthier billionaires are than everyone else. Millionaires are rich, but billionaires live in a totally different stratosphere.
And the Rams are building something where they've got crank up the allowed debt level for a stadium because the stadium costs too much for several billionaires. It's really quite something.
Everyone involved in the project would love to get the stadium done quickly. Owner Stan Kroenke was lamenting the teams' lack of home-field advantage during their incredible 2017 season. And the NFL has to be a little concerned about pushing back the opening of the stadium into 2020 because of unforeseen construction delays.
But in the end, when this thing opens, it's going to be unlike anything we've ever seen. It better be, given that it's going to probably end up costing more than $5 billion once you start to factor in any additional costs.