Steelers President and NFL stadium committee Chair Art Rooney II's words "were measured" in his first public comments since Rams Owner Stan Kroenke unveiled his vision for an NFL stadium in L.A., but his message "was clear that the NFL is going to make the decisions on stadiums and relocation," according to Sam Farmer of the L.A. TIMES. Rooney last week said, "There's still a process that has to work its way out, and we don't know what the outcome's going to be yet. That's why we have league committees and approval processes." He added, "We're comfortable that we could stop a team legally from moving if it didn't go through the process." Rooney said that he "wanted to clarify the league's position after reading the comments" of Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones that Kroenke "would be able to unilaterally move the Rams without league approval." Rooney: "I don't agree with Jerry on that point. The majority view is that there's a process the teams are going to have to go through, and I think everybody understands that in terms of the teams that may be interested, I expect that the process will be observed, and hopefully it will be an orderly process." He also said that a team that moves to L.A. "must have a solid stadium plan in place, one that has cleared all the required political, environmental impact and financial hurdles" (L.A. TIMES, 1/17).
