ST. LOUIS - A company tied to St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has purchased a prime piece of land in the Los Angeles area amid speculation the NFL franchise is considering a return to the city it left for the Midwest nearly two decades ago. Team officials on Friday provided a written statement confirming the recent purchase of a 60-acre site in Inglewood, Calif., adjacent to the shuttered Hollywood Park racetrack. The Los Angeles Times first reported the purchase. "As real estate developers, the Kroenke Organizations are involved in numerous real estate deals across the country and North America," the statement said. "While we can confirm media reports that we recently purchased land in Inglewood, as a private company we dont typically discuss our plans for commercial or residential investments. We have yet to decide what we are going to do with the property but we will look at all options, as we do with all of our properties." The property is three miles east of Los Angeles International Airport runways and sprawls between the newly renovated Forum concert venue, former home of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Hollywood Park, which closed Dec. 22 after 75 years of horse racing. The latter 260-acre site is slated for development of 3,000 housing units, commercial space and parks. The land was previously owned by Wal-Mart, which hoped to build a superstore there but could not win local voter approval for the project. Kroenke is a former Wal-Mart board member who is married to the daughter of company co-founder Bud Walton and continues to build shopping centres for the retailer. Los Angeles has lacked an NFL team since both the Rams and Raiders left in 1994. The Rams can break their 30-year lease in St. Louis after the 2014 season — a decade early — but have said little about their plans. The Rams lease requires the Edward Jones Dome to remain among the top quarter of the 32 NFL stadiums, based on various criteria. The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, which manages the dome, last year offered a $124 million improvement plan that included a bigger scoreboard and better club seating, with the Rams paying slightly more half those costs. The team countered with a far more ambitious proposal that called for a new roof with a sliding panel and a bevy of improvements that would keep the city convention centre in the dome closed for three years. City leaders rejected $700 million in publicly funded upgrades sought by the team. Speaking in New York before Sundays Super Bowl, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was informed of the Kroenke purchase and noted that any stadium development plan would require approval from two-thirds of the NFLs 32 owners. "Were aware of it," Goodell said. "There are no plans, to my knowledge, of a stadium development. Anything that would require a stadium development would require multiple votes of the membership." Goodell cautioned against "overreacting" to the Kroenke land purchase, saying "we should make sure we do whats necessary to continue to support the team locally, which the fans have done in St. Louis. And make sure we can do whatever we can to make sure that team is successful in the St. Louis market." Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he thinks "its unfortunate that a generation of fans have grown up without" a team in Los Angeles. "We definitely want a team in L.A. ... We need to make sure we have the right owner and the right facility, and until at least 24 owners feel that, we wont have it," Kraft said in New York. "Just personally, I would like to see a team in L.A. as soon as possible." Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has taken over negotiations with the Rams and Kroenke after arbitration between the team, the commission and the stadium authority failed. James Shrewsbury, chairman of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, which owns the downtown dome, referred questions about the Los Angeles purchase to the governor. "Its hard to comment on it since we dont know what his purpose is," Shrewsbury said, referring to Kroenke, who could not be reached for comment. "He hasnt said what he plans to do with it." The football St. Louis Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1987, and the city went nearly a decade without a franchise until the Los Angeles Rams arrived in 1995. AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this report from New York. Nike Air Max 270 Sale Outlet . Marie rink got back in the win column at the Olympic mens curling tournament with a 7-4 win over the host Russian squad on Wednesday. Air Max 270 Mens Clearance . Ferrer, the two-time defending champion in Buenos Aires, is aiming to win his 21st ATP tournament. 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With Jimmo leading the way, Canadian fighters went 5-1 on the undercard. English middleweight Michael Bisping faced former Green Beret Tim Kennedy in the main event of the televised mixed martial arts card. The main card also featured the all-Canadian welterweight and middleweight finals of "The Ultimate Fighter Nations" reality TV show as well as a welterweight matchup of the shows coaches: Montreals Patrick (The Predator) Cote and Australian Kyle Noke. A native of Saint John, N.B., who fights out of Edmonton, Jimmo survived a kick to the cup en route to the violent win over OConnell (15-5). The KO punch, after five straight decisions to open the card, had the small crowd at the Colisee Pepsi roaring. Jimmo, who like OConnell fought in the Edmonton-based Maximum Fighting Championship, opened his UFC account in 2012 with a seven-second KO of Anthony (The Hippo) Perosh. He is now 2-2 in the UFC. Former Strikeforce champion Sarah Kaufman of Victoria registered her first UFC win, earning a unanimous 30-27 decision over Leslie (The Peacemaker) Smith in a high-octane slugfest that saw the Canadian land 205 strikes to 111 for Smith. The margin was closer in significant strikes, with Kaufman leading 136-100. Kaufman, ranked No. 5 among UFC bantamweight contenders, won a split decision when the two met in April 2013 on an Invicta FC card. Kaufman (17-2 with one no contest) lost a decision to Jessica (Evil) Eye in her UFC debut in October but the decision was changed to a no contest when Eye tested positive for marijuana. Another fight last summer fell through when her opponent was injured. Smith (6-5-1) took this fight on 10 days notice. Veteran lightweight Mark Bocek of Woodbridge, Ont., returning to the cage for the first time since November 2012 after injury, won a slender 28-29, 20-27, 29-28 split decision over newcomer Mike (El Cucuy) de la Torre. Bocek (12-6 including 8-5 in the UFC) was perhaps fortunate to earn the decision and he exited the cage the more battered of the two. The gritty De la Torre (12-4), who trains with former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, wass a late injury replacement for Evan Dunham.dddddddddddd "I felt a little rusty in there but Im back, and I will go onwards from here," said Bocek. "Ive fought top guys like Ben Henderson before and I can get back to that level." K.J. Noons needed just 30 seconds to knock out Sam (Hands of Stone) Stout of London, Ont., with a huge overhand right to the chin. Noons (12-6) did more damage before the refree could get to him to stop the action. Stout (21-10-1) was so dazed that he tried to grapple with the referee after being knocked out and then fell backwards. But he was smiling soon after. The fight was scheduled for lightweight (155 pounds) but was switched to welterweight at the request of both fighters. They weighed in at 168-169 pounds. Bantamweight Mitch Gagnon of Sudbury, Ont., opened the card with a unanimous 30-27 decision over Tim (The Psycho) Gorman, whose stint on Season 18 of "The Ultimate Fighter" ended early through injury. Gagnon (11-2) won his third straight in the UFC, punishing Gorman (9-3) for his offence-at-all-costs approach in his UFC debut. "Im happy with the win, but I can be more exciting than that, and I will show that next time," said Gagon. In a battle of bearded Australia TUF Nations teammates, welterweight (Filthy) Rich Walsh (8-2) showed a better all-round game in earning a unanimous 30-27 decision over Chris (The Savage) Indich. The durable Indich (5-2) becomes the first indigenous Australian to fight in the UFC. Montreal middleweight Nordine Taleb (9-2) used his superior grappling skills to score a one-sided 30-27 decision over Australian Vik (The Spartan) Grujic (6-4) in another matchup of TUF Nations cast members. Lanky bantamweight George Roop (15-11-1) won a 29-28, 30-27, 29-26 decision over Dustin (The Diamond) Kimura (12-2). The card marked the UFCs first in Quebec City, which became the sixth Canadian city to host an event after Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg. Halifax is scheduled to join the UFC club in October with a televised card The UFC has held 14 pay-per-view shows in Canada: six in Montreal, four in Toronto, two in Vancouver and one in each of Calgary and Winnipeg. Pay-per-views are slated later this year in Vancouver (UFC 174, June 14), Toronto (UFC 178, Sept. 27) and Montreal (UFC 181, Dec. 6). Wednesdays show also marked the debut of Canadas own Octagon. The UFC had been using American cages but this Octagon is dedicated for Canada. ' ' '