CARSON, Calif. – Community leaders and residents gathered Friday morning, Feb. 20, to voice and encourage support for a possible football stadium in the city that would be shared by the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers.
On Thursday, Feb. 19, the California-based NFL teams announced they are exploring a potential new home in the South Bay city.
“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 two teams said in a joint statement.
The stadium would cost $1.7 billion and hold 72,000 seats, and would be situated in an empty 168-acre lot near the 405 freeway.
During Friday’s news conference, held outside Carson City Hall, speakers, spectators and football fans cheered and applauded in support of the arena, giving off an energetic, rally-like feel.
“We want the Chargers to know, and we want the Raiders to know, if you can’t work it out with your cities, we welcome you with open arms here in Carson,” said Rep. Janice Hahn (D-Calif.). “We will give you a beautiful new stadium, we will give you fans like you have never had before.”
The city’s Filipino Mayor Pro-Tem, Elito Santarina, also encouraged community support in Tagalog.
“Mga kababayan, suportahan ang NFL, Chargers and Raiders!” he said.
But even with all overwhelming support from speakers at the conference, some expressed doubt and concern toward the proposed plan, including the outcome if the football teams end up not relocating to Los Angeles after Carson garners the backing it needs from the community.
Multiple speakers at the conference reiterated that financing for the arena would be done privately through revenues generated by both teams and other events held at the site: city residents would not be responsible for any of the costs through any new or existing taxes and money from the general fund would not be used.
Tim Romer, who runs the Western Region Infrastructure Group of Goldman Sachs, said the site of the stadium offers great freeway and local road access.
“The site is large enough to accommodate what could be really one of the best NFL experiences for fans,” he said.
Romer added that the financing of the project is doable and viable.
“We’re excited about this opportunity, we think it’s transformative and we’re excited to continue work with our clients and both teams to get financing done for the stadium,” he said.
More specific details regarding funding for the stadium were not discussed on Friday.
Before the stadium can be built in Carson, voters must approve it through a ballot measure.
Fred MacFarlane, a spokesman for Carson2gether, a community group advocating the arena in the city, said there are four guiding principles in relationship to efforts toward the new stadium: new jobs and tax revenue (thousands of construction and stadium jobs would be created), benefits throughout the community (a benefits program would ensure advantages of the effort are fairly distributed throughout the entire community), sustainability (from start to finish, the stadium would be designed and built with the latest in green technology) and taxpayers first (taxpayers would not be responsible for funding the arena).
“A proposed stadium project is an opportunity to be seized in this community,” MacFarlane said.
Talks of bringing professional football back to Los Angeles have been ongoing for years. Other sites that have been taken into consideration for the building of a stadium include Inglewood, Downtown LA and the City of Industry.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend February 21-24, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
