EA might not be releasing any updates for Madden 17 yet, but the NFL made a big change yesterday that will affect the upcoming sports game.
ESPN reports that the Saint Louis Rams have officially moved the franchise to Los Angeles effective immediately which means they will play out of LA for the 2016-2017 season. This comes 21 years after the Rams left LA to head to Saint Louis back in 1995.
Even though it’s expected that EA will update the Rams uniforms and logos to reflect the new team, not much is known yet on how the developer will handle the stadium for the team. Currently the team plans on renovating the old Hollywood Park racetrack in Inglewood, CA, but the stadium will not be finished for the upcoming season and the Rams will likely play in the Los Angeles Coliseum until the stadium is finished in 2019.
The Rams aren’t the only NFL team that might make the move to Los Angeles as the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders still have the opportunity to move as well. The Chargers are in negotiations to move to LA and the NFL team has a year long option to change location. If they decide not to move to Los Angeles by January 16, 2017 then the Raiders have the option to move to the Inglewood Stadium with the Rams.
The Chargers also have a second date to make a move to Los Angeles, March 23rd, 2016, and if they announce to move before this date they’ll participate in the 2016-2017 season from Los Angeles with the Rams. So there might be two team changes coming to Madden 17, but we’ll have to wait and see. If the Chargers wait until next year for the move or if they stay in San Diego and the Raiders end up moving, we’ll see a new team debuted in Madden 18.