The Los Angeles Rams will use California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks as their in-season training facility for the next two years, the team and the school announced Wednesday.
The Rams are moving back to Los Angeles after being based in St. Louis since 1995.
The National Football League franchise and Cal Lutheran entered an agreement to allow the team to base its training operations on the university’s Thousand Oaks campus for at least two years.
The Rams will pay for and put in two practice fields, a paved parking lot and temporary modular buildings containing offices, training areas and locker rooms on the northwest corner of the campus, the university said in a statement. They can use the area for the next two to five years while they wait for their permanent training facility to be built.
The Rams will play their home games at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum while a new stadium is being built in Inglewood.
The training facility at Cal Lutheran will be the home base for about 130 athletes, coaches, trainers and other staff members. Regular season practices will be held from September through January starting this year, and off-season activities will be based at the facility from March through July starting in 2017.
Their off-season training and mini-camp this season will be conducted at the River Ridge fields in Oxnard beginning April 18.
The city of Thousand Oaks has approved construction of the fields and parking lot as part of Cal Lutheran’s master plan, and the Rams will turn them over to the university after they depart. The Rams have applied to the city for permission to install the modular buildings and approval is pending.
“We are excited to partner with Cal Lutheran to use their exceptional campus as the temporary home for team facilities that will be outstanding for our players and football staff,” Los Angeles Rams Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President Kevin Demoff said in a statement. “The Rams look forward to becoming an integral part of the Cal Lutheran and Thousand Oaks communities as we establish our roots in Southern California.”
Cal Lutheran has a long history with the NFL. The school was the summer training home of the Dallas Cowboys from 1963 to 1989.
“We are thrilled to be part of the return of the Rams and NFL football to Los Angeles,” said Cal Lutheran President Chris Kimball. “The Rams are investing in a major remaining part of our plans for the north campus and providing internships in a variety of fields to our students. It will be a great partnership.”
The Rams franchise began in Cleveland in 1936 and relocated to Los Angeles in 1946. The club played at the L.A. Coliseum before moving into a reconstructed Anaheim Stadium in 1979. The team left Southern California for St. Louis after the 1994 season. At the end of the 2015 season, the Rams filed notice with the NFL of their intent to pursue a relocation back to L.A.
The NFL owners in January approved the move.