Things have officially started to become weird as it relates to NFL teams looking to relocate to Southern California. In a joint statement, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have announced that they are working together to build a two-team stadium in Carson, California.
The news was first reported by the venerable Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. Farmer indicates in his piece that the two rivals are looking at building a $1.7 billion stadium in the Southern California city.
In a statement to the Times, San Diego had this to say…
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.
Then about a half hour later, the Chargers and Raiders released a joint statement that clarified the report.
We have both been working in our home markets to find a stadium solution for many years, so far unsuccessfully.
We remain committed to continuing to work in our home markets throughout 2015 to try to find publicly acceptable solutions to the long-term stadium issue.
We also both understand and respect the NFL’s relocation process, and we intend to adhere strictly to the relocation procedures that the League has set forth for Los Angeles.
In particular, we respect the right of the NFL’s owners to decide on all Los Angeles-related relocation issues and understand that any relocation application that is filed for Los Angeles must obtain the approval of three-fourths of the NFL’s owners.
Both teams have kept the NFL owners’ committee on Los Angeles, and the Commissioner, fully informed about our joint 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.
In short, for the remainder of 2015, we intend to move down two tracks simultaneously:
On track one, we will continue to work in our home markets to find permanent stadium solutions that are publicly acceptable.
On track two, we will work in Carson to preserve our options, and the future economic viability of our franchises, in the event that our efforts in our local markets fail.
Throughout this process we will respect the rules and procedures set forth by the League and defer completely to the ultimate decision of the NFL’s owners.
This comes as the St. Louis Rams have made it clear that they are looking to move back to the city that they called home up until two decades ago. It also comes with both the Chargers and Raiders dealing with prolonged stadium issues in their current cities .
It sure looks like if the two teams are unable to find a long-term resolution where they are currently playing that we will be looking at the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Raiders by 2016 or some time after that.
Unlike the Rams, these two teams are reportedly working with the National Football League and have set into motion what looks to be a solid plan.
In terms of two bitter division rivals sharing the same stadium. Well, that’s a completely different story. I am not too sure fans would be all for that.
We will have more information on this story as it breaks.
Photo: LA Times