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.
Here’s a video showing the artist renderings of the proposed shared stadium in Carson:
According to the official site of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, San Diego Chargers founder Barron Hilton came up with the nickname for his franchise thusly:
His general manager, Frank Leahy, picked the Chargers name when he purchased an AFL franchise for Los Angeles:
“I liked it because they were yelling ‘charge’ and sounding the bugle at Dodgers Stadium and at USC games.”
The Chargers played in Los Angeles in 1960 and moved to San Diego in 1961.
There is a major reason Los Angeles is such a “poor* sports* town*,” and it isn’t related to weather and beaches (and all the other similar cliches applied to Miami every time poor attendance at a sporting event in South Beach becomes headline news).
Los Angeles is a town composed mostly of transplants. The San Diego Chargers, more than many other pro sports franchises, should 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.
“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.
“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.”
Have a listen to our podcast below:
So it will be really interesting to see what the San Diego Chargers do, given their history.
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
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)