Both the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders plan a shared stadium near L.A. in case their hometown venue deals don’t end up working out. If they can’t get their new stadiums, then the Chargers and Raiders will move forward on this plan to build a privately financed, $1.7-billion stadium in Carson, California, near Los Angeles.
This was all precipitated by the St. Louis Rams owner’s plan. And it puts the discussion back on the table. As we’re in NFL talking season, with NFL football season a very long ways off, it’s time to re-examine the arguments and debate as to why Los Angeles is such a “poor* sports* town*”, and it isn’t related to weather and beaches (and all the other similar cliches, also applied to Miami every time very poor attendance at a major sporting event in South Beach becomes headline news).
Here’s a video showing the artist renderings of the proposed shared stadium in Carson:
The Associated Press summed it up thusly:
It’s the latest in years of proposals to bring the NFL back to the Los Angeles area, where a string of announcement events and architectural renderings have thus far failed to produce a team and a playing field. The plan creates the odd prospect of divisional rivals suddenly sharing a home field, and of Los Angeles having two NFL teams after going two decades with none.
Los Angeles is a town composed mostly of transplants. The Raiders, of all people, know this. Why do you think Las Vegas has no sports teams?
We spoke with a high profile Angelino and NFL pundit, NFL Network’s Curtis Conway, about this idea. Conway grew up in L.A., played his college ball at USC (in the same venue where the Raiders played). We had an exclusive with him on the eve of the NFL Draft, as he was in town to cover the NFL Draft for NFLN.
“New York and L.A. to me is more celebrity-driven,” the former Bears/Jets/Chargers/49ers wideout said.
“You’re going to get the real down and dirty sports fans, the die-hard football fans here in Chicago. It’s not I made a movie, or a song, and I’m going to pop up here because I’m promoting an album. To me that’s the real difference between New York, Chicago and L.A. Nothing against those cities because I’m an L.A. guy, I’m born and raised in L.A. I love L.A. but it’s just real organic sports here.”
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Conway believes the best thing is to get a team in southern California who has a fan base there already. He believes that bringing in Jacksonville, or a team with no ties to the area, would be a huge mistake for the NFL.
“The fact is, you do have your die-hard L.A. fans, but it’s a melting pot. We’re more Raiders, Rams, Chargers,” Conway said.
“You have a better chance of selling out a bad team’s stadium with the Raiders and Rams than you would with Jacksonville or someone we can’t relate. So sharing a stadium with the Chargers and the Raiders, Raiders and Rams, Rams and Chargers, any of those three would be a good idea, it’s the best scenario, if you’re going to have a stadium there.”
“New York does it, so it’s definitely doable, but you want to have the right teams in there. You don’t want to have a sellout crowd in there one week and then the next week no one is there,” Conway concluded.
Follow Curtis Conway on Twitter @CurtisConway80 and at Curtis Conway .com
Go here for Conway’s Oakland Raiders’ Draft analysis
Go here for Conway’s San Diego Chargers Draft analysis
Conway on the L.A. stadium share from the Oakland Raiders perspective
Conway on the L.A. stadium share from the San Diego Chargers perspective
“Downtown, Hollywood, West L.A., a lot of people that live in those areas are not even from L.A. They’re people who come there for job opportunities, and they won’t support that team (that would be relocated to Los Angeles) because they have their allegiances already,” Conway said.
“Versus the outskirts, where you have die hard Raiders fans, Rams fans, you’ll have some Chargers coming down from San Diego. So you definitely have to have a team come there that already has a built in fan base,” he concluded.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Instagram (@paulmbanks)