California, Los Angeles (Reuters) - Seven years after they returned to Southern California, the Los Angeles Rams finally are set to break ground on a permanent practice facility and team headquarters in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles.
The Rams expect to begin practicing in their new facility for the 2024 season, but permanent buildings to house meeting space, offices for coaches and the front office headquarters are expected to take another 3-5 years to materialize.
The team will utilize portable trailers to make things work in the interim, which isn't much different than the team's current setup some 30 miles west of the new site at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.
When the Rams returned to Los Angeles, starting in the 2016, they played four seasons at the Los Angeles Coliseum. They moved into the state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium in Inglewood to begin the 2020 season. SoFi Stadium is located 28 miles from the new team headquarters site.
"... Making SoFi Stadium, the world's greatest sports and entertainment district and seeing that come to life, there was always a second mission, which was to build the world's greatest practice facility and sports and entertainment development around a practice facility," Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff said at a ceremony Tuesday.
Since 2022, Rams owner Stan Kroenke has purchased two shopping malls and an office complex with adjacent property in Woodland Hills, at the east end of the San Fernando Valley. The practice facility and team headquarters will be located at the office complex property.