 The two-decade span in which Los Angeles lacked an NFL team was brought on in part by the obsolescence of Los Angeles's existing stadiums, the unwillingness of the league to add expansion teams after 2002 (when the Houston Texans were founded) or relocate any other teams, and an inability to agree on a plan to build a new stadium, despite several proposals that received full regulatory approval but never landed a team willing to relocate under the developers' terms.The threat of a relocation to Los Angeles was, in that span, used as an effective bargaining chip for teams in other, smaller markets; a team could pressure their home city into contributing more toward constructing or renovating a stadium by raising the specter of leaving for Los Angeles if their demands were not met.The league's absence from Los Angeles ended in early 2016, when the Rams received league approval to return to the area beginning at the start of the 2016 season.