Chargers, Raiders Announce Plan to Share Stadium Outside of LA

By Cheri Cheng - 20 Feb '15 09:41AM

The San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders have teamed up to bring the NFL to Los Angeles.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Chargers and Raiders will officially announce their plans to build a $1.7 billion NFL stadium on a 168-acre site in Carson, which is 15 miles south of downtown LA, in a news conference on Friday. The Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team plays in Carson.

The teams are working with "Carson2gether," which is a group of business and labor leaders. They will be launching a petition drive to get a ballot initiative and voter approval for the stadium.

"We respect the right of the NFL's owners to decide on all Los Angeles-related relocation issues," the Raiders and Chargers said in the statement. "[We] understand that any relocation application that is filed for Los Angeles must obtain the approval of three-fourths of the NFL's owners."

The teams will reportedly still seek public subsidies for new stadiums in their own home markets. They are drafting a detailed proposal for this new stadium location, which will be privately financed, in case their own deals in San Diego and Oakland fall through by the end of the year.

The Chargers and the Raiders released this statement: "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."

If the new stadium is built, the teams would have equal ownership and neither one would act as the landlord. The New York Giants and the Jets are the only NFL teams that share a stadium.

There are currently three teams that want to relocate to LA and four stadium proposals in the city. Earlier in January, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke reveled his plans to build an 80,000-seat stadium on the former Hollywood Park horse track. There is also a plan - Farmers Field - to bring the NFL to downtown LA.

All three teams have ties to the city. The Rams played in LA from 1946 to 1994. The Raiders were in LA from 1982 to 1994 and the Chargers played in the city in their inaugural season in 1960.