Rams football team to get new stadium at old Hollywood Park site

The NFL is returning to the Los Angeles area and has chosen the site of shuttered Hollywood Park to construct a stadium that could be home to two teams for the 2019 season.

On Tuesday, the league announced that the St. Louis Rams are returning to the Los Angeles area after a 20-year absence. League owners voted 30-2 to approve the move.

The Rams, previously based in Anaheim, Calif., are owned by Stan Kroenke, part of the family that controls Wal-Mart. Kroenke purchased part of the Hollywood Park property in January 2014, shortly after the racetrack closed on Dec. 22, 2013.

The new stadium, with an expected cost of more than $2 billion, will house the Rams and possibly the San Diego Chargers or Oakland Raiders, pending contract negotiations. The stadium footprint will largely be on the parking lot of the racetrack property, between the site of the old grandstand and the Forum arena.

The stadium is expected to be open for the 2019 NFL season. To make space, the racetrack’s grandstand and stable area were demolished in the last 18 months. The track sat on 298 acres of property. The portion not dedicated to the stadium will be developed for retail, housing, and office space.

The casino adjacent to the racetrack remains open and has an offtrack betting facility on its first floor. The casino is expected to be demolished and relocated to another spot on the property.

Stadium construction could begin in the coming months. The Rams are expected to play in the Los Angeles Coliseum beginning in September.

The Hollywood Park property was mentioned as a home for an NFL team in 1995. At that time, then-Hollywood Park chairman R.D. Hubbard held talks with the Oakland Raiders about a project that eventually fell apart.