The Chargers And Raiders Threaten To Move To Los Angeles Together

[RockaFowler]

http://deadspin.com/the-chargers-and-raiders-threaten-to-move-to-los-angele-1686955350

The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers have announced plans to build a shared $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, Calif., should their attempts to wring enough taxpayer money for new stadiums from their current hometowns come up short.

From the joint statement issued last night:

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.

[Auggie]

1. This must have been in the works for over a year to be this far along.

They have a partnership deal, location, drawings and financing already in place. So if Raiders owner Mark Davis said a year ago this month "that Oakland was on its 'last chance' to keep the Raiders" he was lying ... big time. He's been eying the L.A. market for a while.

[KamaAina]

2. I may soon be in the market for an AFC team

I am tempted to revert to my Connecticut upbringing with the now-Super Bowl champions.

[Iggo]

3. Rams in Inglewood? Raiders and Chargers in Carson?

Or better deals in their current markets?

We've been down this road before, kids.

[Auggie]

4. I believe this one

[JonLP24]

6. I know San Diego has been asking for a new stadium since 2008 at-the-very-least

Eventually, if one or neither team receives what they're asking for they'll move for sure. In any case, I went to the best site for this sort of thing for analysis.

Chargers, Raiders team up for $1.7B Carson stadium announcement (actual stadium not necessarily included)

There are two possibilities here: Either this is the biggest NFL stadium news in the history of ever, or Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis just issued a mindbendingly huge bluff. Let’s examine each of the possibilities:

It’s for real: $1.7 billion is an awful lot of money to spend out of your own pocket for a stadium, but if you squint, it just might possibly work with two teams sharing the load. The New York Jets and Giants owners managed to build a stadium that cost almost as much on their own dime (mostly), and if Spanos and Davis can piece together, say, $400 million from naming rights, and $800 million from seat license sales (about what the New York teams managed) to fans who don’t notice what lousy investments seat licenses are, and $400 million in NFL G-4 fund money, then that’s … still not quite enough to break even, but it’s in the ballpark, as it were.

It’s a bluff: Both Spanos and Davis are having a bad time of it in stadiums talks in San Diego and Oakland, though much of that is their own doing. What better time to announce that you’re moving to L.A., really you are, any day now, if you can’t get a deal done in your hometown, and if the other team also can’t get a deal done in theirs? (The team statements didn’t say what happens to this “stadium option” if one team decides to bail on it.) Actually moving to L.A. would require huge risks: Not only might the PSLs not sell like hotcakes, but the NFL could demand as much as $250 million in relocation fees per team (Spanos and Davis could try to fight it, but that would involve a lawsuit, which again means risk), plus the G-4 fund stipulates that “the project must not involve any relocation of or change in an affected club’s ‘home territory.’” Suddenly you could be looking at a $1 billion funding hole, which ain’t pretty.

There is one other likely reason for Spanos and Davis to announce this now, whether bluff or for real: What with St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke announcing his own maybe-a-bluff-maybe-not stadium in Inglewood last month, and the NFL unlikely to approve more than two teams in the L.A. market (not to mention the L.A. market not likely to support more than two teams at a level sufficient to pay off two stadiums), there’s a bit of a land rush going on now to be the first to stake a claim to the market just so no one else does. Spanos, in particular, really doesn’t want two teams that aren’t his on his Southern California doorstep, so this serves as a bit of a shot across Kroenke’s bow: We’re going to build a stadium but split the price, and we don’t have a stadium offer back home like you do, and do you really want to gamble that the league will approve your plan over ours?

That’s not the worst thing for California taxpayers, frankly, since it means the three owners are so busy trying to outmaneuver each other that they can’t spend as much time and energy trying to exact tribute from local governments. (Chargers and Raiders execs claim that the Carson stadium wouldn’t require any public funds, but we’ve heard that before.) Though the prospect of Spanos and Davis using this as leverage in San Diego and Oakland could be bad news for taxpayers there, of course.

http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2015/02/20/8538/chargers-raiders-team-up-for-1-7b-carson-stadium-announcement-actual-stadium-not-necessarily-included/

Links for "much of that is their own doing"

Chargers
Chargers exec, San Diego mayor yell at each other a lot about stadium plans
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2015/02/18/8532/chargers-exec-san-diego-mayor-yell-at-each-other-a-lot-about-stadium-plans/
Chargers, San Diego mayor exchange testy letters over stadium task force
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/stadium-651536-task-force.html
Faulconer Hits ‘Divisive Tone’ of Chargers’ Rep Mark Fabiani
http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2015/02/17/faulconer-hits-divisive-tone-of-chargers-rep-mark-fabiani/

Raiders
Davis tries to win over Oakland in Raiders lease talks by refusing to pay rent
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2015/02/12/8515/davis-tries-to-win-over-oakland-in-raiders-lease-talks-by-refusing-to-pay-rent/
Raiders withhold rent in stadium dispute
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27500198/raiders-withhold-rent-stadium-dispute

[El Supremo]

5. San Diego is pissed: