Owner of St. Louis Rams buys land near Hollywood Park

The parking lot at defunct Hollywood Park could be home to an NFL team in the future.

According to reports published in the Los Angeles Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Stan Kroenke, owner of the St. Louis Rams, has acquired a 60-acre parcel of land between the closed racetrack and the Forum on the west side of the racetrack property.

The parcel of land is adjacent to Laffit Pincay Drive and was vacant space used for parking in recent years, mostly for events at the Forum.

The Los Angeles Times report quoted Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts saying that he was aware of a sale of land and welcomed a possible football stadium. The concept of a stadium is only in its infancy, according to the Los Angeles Times, and would face numerous regulatory and environmental issues.

An NFL team has not been based in Los Angeles since the end of the 1994 season, when the Raiders left for Oakland and the Rams left for St. Louis. In the late 1990s, then Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard held discussions with Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis about a potential NFL stadium on the same land that Kroenke has reportedly acquired. Hubbard’s proposal was eventually dropped.

Hollywood Park, which closed for racing Dec. 22, will be demolished for commercial and residential development. The track closed its barn area for training on Friday, leading horses to be transferred to Barretts Sales and Racing at the Los Angeles County Fair, Los Alamitos, and the San Luis Rey Downs training center.