NFL: Oakland and San Diego to go in for new stadium in LA

Apparently these two California NFL teams are looking to merge in a new stadium, not in Northern California, nor in San Diego, but in the LA Basin of all places.  It has always attracted attention that LA, the second largest city of the US, has no NFL team.  Now it may have two of them, south of downtown LA.


http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:12353037

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders announced Thursday that they have collaborated on a proposal to build a privately financed, $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, California, that the two teams would share if they relocate to the Los Angeles market.

In a joint statement, the Chargers and Raiders said they have been working for many years in their home markets to find stadium solutions and that they remain committed throughout 2015 to try to seek publicly acceptable solutions to the stadium issues in their current cities.

However, according to the statement, the two teams also will continue to work in Carson to preserve their options in the event that efforts in their local markets fail.

Both teams have kept the NFL committee handling the possible relocation of teams to Los Angeles informed of their efforts.

"We are pursuing this stadium option in Carson for one straightforward reason: If we cannot find a permanent solution in our home markets, we have no alternative but to preserve other options to guarantee the future economic viability of our franchises," the teams said in the joint statement.

The agreement was earlier reported by the Los Angeles Times.

A source involved in the negotiations told ESPN.com's Arash Markazi that the Chargers came to Carson officials first with the stadium proposal nine months ago and that the Raiders later joined the talks, which intensified after St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke announced plans in January to build an 80,000-seat stadium in Inglewood.

The Chargers and Raiders are partnering with a local development group, and they will address the project Friday at a news conference near the site of the proposed stadium, a 168-acre parcel near the 405 freeway in Carson. The city is 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles and is home to Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy.

The group intends to start a petition drive for a ballot initiative to get voter approval to build the stadium.

This latest development comes a month and a half after an announcement in which a developer and a company operated by Kroenke unveiled plans to build a stadium on land he owns near Hollywood Park.

In addition, a plan for an NFL facility in downtown Los Angeles remains alive. The would-be stadium known as Farmers Field, until recently the leading candidate for the NFL's return, now becomes a long shot with multiple competitors and no clear team attached.

Los Angeles has not had an NFL team since the Rams and Raiders departed for St. Louis and Oakland in 1995.

The Chargers, the Raiders and the Rams are teams that could potentially relocate to the lucrative Los Angeles market in the near future. All three teams can terminate their leases at the end of the 2015 season.

If the Chargers and Raiders move to Los Angeles after the 2015 season, they would have to play in a temporary home for at least two seasons while the stadium in Carson is being built.

Both teams would prefer to play at the Rose Bowl because it is more NFL-ready than the Coliseum, a source told Markazi. The Rose Bowl recently underwent $182 million in improvements, including new suites, club seats and refurbished locker rooms, while USC, which took control of the Coliseum, is still unsure of renovation plans.

In addition, since both the Chargers and Raiders play in the AFC West, one team would have to move to the NFC, likely switching places with an NFC West team. That decision ultimately would be the NFL's, but a source told Markazi that a move to the NFC would not deter the Chargers or Raiders from making the move to Los Angeles.

In January, the Chargers denied speculation emanating from St. Louis that the team had an agreement in place for a new stadium in Los Angeles.

The Chargers have tried unsuccessfully for 14 years to build enough momentum to get a new stadium in their home city. San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer appointed a nine-member stadium advisory group to come up with a recommendation for a stadium site and a financing plan last month, but the team has viewed that effort as a futile, last-ditch attempt to keep the team in San Diego.

"It's now abundantly clear that while we have been working here in San Diego to create a plan for a new stadium, the Chargers have for some time been making their own plans for moving to Los Angeles," Faulconer said in a statement Thursday night. "This would amount to abandoning generations of loyal Chargers fans. Despite this news, we are going to continue our efforts to develop a viable stadium solution."

Adam Day, chairman of the volunteer stadium task force, said Thursday's announcement came as "a complete surprise."

"While it's disappointing to hear the Chargers are moving forward with plans in Los Angeles, we remain committed to finding a solution in San Diego," he said.

The Raiders currently play in the aging Oakland Coliseum. The rundown stadium has had sewage and electrical problems in the past year, and now is the only stadium in the U.S. used as the home for both an NFL and a Major League Baseball team, the Oakland Athletics. The team wants to build a new stadium at the site, but talks with the city have shown little progress.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said she spoke Thursday night with team president and CEO Marc Badain, "and he continued to assure me that the Raiders' first priority is to stay in Oakland in a new stadium."

Schaaf said she wants to be "a responsible steward of the public dollar, to keep my sports teams" and to redevelop the neighborhood around the Coliseum. She added: "I am committed to not putting public dollars into stadium construction."

The Rams have been in a similar struggle with St. Louis but have made progress with a burgeoning plan for a 64,000-seat stadium on the city's north riverfront.

"Our focus is 100 percent committed to keeping the Rams here in their home of St. Louis and ensuring that we remain an NFL city for generations to come," said former Anheuser-Busch president Dave Peacock, who is heading the effort to keep the Rams in St. Louis. "We are very encouraged and thrilled with the progress we've made."

All three teams have Los Angeles ties. The Rams called the area home from 1946 to 1994, the Raiders were there from 1982 to 1994 and the Chargers played their inaugural 1960 season in L.A.

ESPN.com's Arash Markazi and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Bad idea!

It's an alternative.  The Raiders can and should reclaim an American Conference slot in LA, anyway...it's a much better market.  The only reason they returned to Oakland was over lack of a stadium, and if Carson is offering they should be taking.

You are too young to remember Ben, but San Diego started out in LA as the American League team, before the Leagues merged (and the KC Chiefs were the Dallas Texans).  Oakland is not a small-market franchise when you consider the entire nine-county Bay Area (4th largest media market in the country).  However, it must share its market with the Niners.  The Chargers have always been a small-market team, and it behooves them to link up with another team for the huge LA market...LA is that much bigger than anything but New York.

But as the article mentions, the Rams are likely coming back to the LA Basin, albeit down in Orange County.  That would mean a three-team city...but if the two American Conference teams can manage to get along and share the region, it could work. I mean, after all the Rams are way over in the other conference.

Original Quill wrote:It's an alternative.  The Raiders can and should reclaim an American Conference slot in LA, anyway...it's a much better market.  The only reason they returned to Oakland was over lack of a stadium, and if Carson is offering they should be taking.

You are too young to remember Ben, but San Diego started out in LA as the American League team, before the Leagues merged (and the KC Chiefs were the Dallas Texans).  Oakland is not a small-market franchise when you consider the entire nine-county Bay Area (4th largest media market in the country).  However, it must share its market with the Niners.  The Chargers have always been a small-market team, and it behooves them to link up with another team for the huge LA market...LA is that much bigger than anything but New York.

But as the article mentions, the Rams are likely coming back to the LA Basin, albeit down in Orange County.  That would mean a three-team city...but if the two American Conference teams can manage to get along and share the region, it could work.  I mean, after all the Rams are way over in the other conference.

I'm just saying that L.A. never supported any of these teams (especially the Chargers, who were never even *there*) for them to stay -- now they're going to try to jam three teams into that market?

Maybe I'm just ignorant about the thirst L.A. really has for an NFL team now, but that town already has a lot of teams in other sports and it seems to me that the Dodgers and Lakers have everything besides the Kings and Galaxy fandom.

And that's not even including the Angels, the Ducks, or for that matter, USC and UCLA

What is highly relevant is what you said: USC and UCLA.  In fact, leave out UCLA.  USC has always been LA's football team, just as ASU has always been Phoenix's team.  Those are two markets in which almost any NFL team is  going to have a struggle.

The other sports are other sports, and not really competition.  You either like them or you don't, but they are not cross-elastic with the NFL.

The LA Basin is huge, and it even extends (or is getting there) right down to include San Diego.  And, as we've heard so often, it's just a collection of cities run together anyway.  

So why not three teams, from Point Arguello to the Border??

new stadium regardless.....they'll still Suck

Cass wrote:new stadium regardless.....they'll still Suck

The Chargers, Raiders or the Rams? I believe the Chargers had a new coach last year. The Raiders have Jack Del Rio as their new coach this next year; it remains to be seen if the NFL continues to burden them with excessive penalties due to the Al Davis/Paul Tagliabue feud. The Rams have a good coaching staff, if they ever had a good year with that QB (Bradford) healthy.

Or do you mean ASU or USC? USC does not suck..they have one of the best college coaches in Steve Sarkisian, and they beat Notre Dame this past year. ASU used to be the cream of the Western Athletic Conference, or WAC. Since they have joined the PAC-10 (now PAC-12) they have been not bad, but other PAC-12 teams have been superb, with Oregon playing in the National Championship game. ASU has had two Rose Bowls and I believe they won against Michigan.

the first three.....I don't follow NCAA hardly at all