L.A. is still key agenda item at NFL owners meetings, even though Rams are already in town

Reporting from IRVING, Texas —  NFL owners will meet Wednesday in the same luxury hotel where they staged their annual meetings a year ago to discuss the same problem.

In which cities can the league be most profitable?

Even after the Rams relocated from St. Louis to Los Angeles in January, the situation in the nation’s second-largest market remains only partially resolved.

The San Diego Chargers must decide by the middle of next month whether to stay where they are or exercise their option to join the Rams as tenants at Stan Kroenke’s $2.6-billion stadium in Inglewood that’s scheduled to open in 2019.

Adding to the complex situation, the Oakland Raiders want to move to Las Vegas, but will have a one-year option on the L.A. deal if the Chargers turn it down.

No decisions in the two-team, four-city puzzle are expected until next month. But the one-day gathering of the NFL’s 32 owners at the Four Seasons Resort at Las Colinas could lay the groundwork for a solution, which could include further incentivizing the Chargers to continue working on an answer in San Diego.

The meeting comes at a sensitive time for the league, which is grappling with sharply declining TV viewership and is mindful of the resentment involved when a team abandons a market. Including St. Louis, the league could be dealing simultaneously with three such markets. Some owners are wary of taking that risk.

After months of acrimonious debate, owners at the beginning of the year chose Kroenke’s Inglewood project by a 30-2 vote over the rival stadium in Carson proposed by the Chargers and Raiders.

The Chargers then pursued a combined stadium and convention center in downtown San Diego, predicated on an increased hotel tax. Voters rejected that ballot initiative last month.

Unable to secure public funding for a stadium in Oakland, Raiders owner Mark Davis turned his attention to Las Vegas. In October, Nevada’s legislature approved a plan to put $750 million in public money toward a stadium partly funded by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. There are media reports that Adelson and Davis are butting heads over a deal.

Asked if Las Vegas has engaged in talks with the Chargers, a spokesman for Mayor Carolyn Goodman said: “At this point the community is fully engaged with Mark Davis and the Raiders. The mayor remains a Chargers fan, but we continue to move forward with the Raiders.”

In the meantime, Oakland and Alameda County partnered with a group of developers led by Hall of Fame player Ronnie Lott that want to build a $1.3-billion stadium on the land that currently houses the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. While touted by civic leaders, the Raiders and the NFL aren’t believed to be enthusiastic about the plan because of its similarity to previous failed efforts.

But the biggest question still revolves around L.A.

As part of the NFL-brokered compromise that allowed the Rams to return to Southern California after a two-decade absence, the Chargers hold a one-year option to play in Inglewood. The Rams can’t sell personal seat licenses, suites or naming rights for the new stadium until the Chargers exercise the option or the Jan. 15 deadline passes.

The Chargers reached an agreement in principle in January to join the Rams, if they choose, and pay $1 a year as a tenant at the stadium and even filed to trademark “Los Angeles Chargers.” Owners could ratify the lease agreement at these meetings.

To address the increase in franchise value associated with moving from San Diego to L.A., the NFL would impose a $650-million relocation fee that the Chargers could pay over 10 years.

Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. said he hasn’t heard from the franchise.

The Chargers have discussed using the Coliseum as a temporary home in L.A. since at least 2014. While USC’s lease to operate the stadium allows only one NFL team to use it — the Rams currently play there — the lease is expected to be amended without much difficulty if the need arises.

Two days after NFL owners approved the Rams’ move, USC formally proposed the lease amendment to the Coliseum Commission, according to emails obtained by The Times. After the Chargers elected to play the 2016 season in San Diego, USC’s senior vice president for administration Todd Dickey wrote: “Well this takes the pressure off, we now have a year to get this done.”

A spokesman for Coliseum Commission President Mark Ridley-Thomas said the board “welcomes the opportunity to consider any proposals and is prepared to act quickly, depending on the situation.”

Despite reports the Chargers are investigating using the 27,000-seat StubHub Center in Carson, City Manager Ken Farfsing said the city has had no contact with AEG, which owns the stadium, or the team about the possibility.

In recent weeks, multiple news outlets have reported that “barring a miracle” the Chargers will move to L.A. Those reports didn’t identify a specific source, following the familiar pattern of leaks and counter-leaks in advance of owners gathering to discuss the relocation conundrum.

A spokesman for San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer didn’t respond to a request for comment.

After the ballot initiative failed, Chargers owner Dean Spanos said in a statement that the franchise will “diligently explore and weigh our options” regarding a future home, but that no decision would be announced until after the season.

Two home games remain for the Chargers.