Denver’s two best-known billionaires — Stan Kroenke and Phil Anschutz — appear to be headed toward an epic battle over who gets to build a new NFL-caliber stadium in the Los Angeles area.

Kroenke — who already owns the St. Louis Rams, which left the West Coast in 1995 — announced on Monday plans for an 80,000-seat complex in nearby Inglewood, Calif.

Anschutz’s Anschutz Entertainment Group for years has floated a massive expansion to its L.A. Live complex that sits adjacent to the Staples Center arena in the city’s downtown district. The $1.5 billion project would include Farmer’s Field to house an NFL team and a convention center.

Anschutz was a lead investor in the creation of Major League Soccer and at one time owned the Colorado Rapids. His stable of major-league sports teams includes the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings.

Along with the Rams, Kroenke has the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and the Rapids, as well as the venues in which they play, the Pepsi Center and Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. He also had a piece of the now-defunct Colorado Crush with Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and John Elway.

The complexities of acquiring or moving an existing NFL team aside, the fact that both men appear to be vying for the same prize makes for entertaining business, industry watchers say.

“It’s good for the NFL, since anytime a pair of billionaires are pressing for the same opportunity is a good thing,” mused Dan Price, president of Adrenalin, a Denver-based sports branding and marketing firm. “But I get more excited about what Anschutz has to offer since location is everything. Look what the NFL had to go through just to host the last Super Bowl at The Meadowlands (in New Jersey). It’s almost like an asterisk.”

Kroenke’s The Kroenke Group and Stockbridge Capital Group made the announcement of their joint venture, called Hollywood Park Land Co., fueling easy speculation that the Rams might be headed back to their former home. The project sits just a few miles east of Los Angeles International Airport

Anschutz had placed AEG on the sale block in 2012, but no one made a legitimate offer to buy it all, so he rescinded its availability a year later.

That followed support from the Los Angeles City Council, which granted AEG a six-month extension in October so it could pursue an NFL team and explore all its options.

The status of Anschutz’s offer remains unclear. Calls to his Denver offices were returned but without comment.

More is known about Kroenke’s plans.

The development, called the City of Champions Revitalization Project, would encompass 298 acres in the heart of Inglewood.

A 60-acre Kroenke-owned parcel, too small for the stadium and parking, is adjacent to the 238-acre Hollywood Park site acquired by Stockbridge in 2005 that has been approved for mixed-use development. The mixed-use project, consisting of more than 4 million square feet of retail, office, hotel and residential space, is under construction.

A ballot measure on the combined City of Champions project will be submitted to Inglewood voters. If they approve, Hollywood Park will be reconfigured for up to 890,000 square feet of retail, 780,000 square feet of office space, 2,500 new residential units, a 300-room hotel and 25 acres of public parks and playgrounds. The ballot measure says the combined site will include a stadium of up to 80,000 seats and a performance venue of up to 6,000 seats.

Dallas-based HKS Inc., which primarily designs sports and entertainment complexes and has an office in Denver, has been tapped to design the stadium.

The proposed stadium and entertainment complex would be built at no cost to taxpayers and generate tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the city, according to Hollywood Park Land Co.

In a statement, Stockbridge founder Terry Fancher said the City of Champions Revitalization Project is the result of nearly a decade of collaborating with Inglewood city leaders and residents on the redevelopment of Hollywood Park.

Stockbridge is committed to working with The Kroenke Group, he said, to “build a project that will put Inglewood back on the map as the home of truly great sports and entertainment venues.”