Yeah, the Carson city council went and done did it:
A local City Council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to clear the path for a proposed $1.7 billion stadium near Los Angeles that could become the shared home to the NFL’s San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders…
Council members could have opted to put the issue before Carson voters, but instead chose to approve it outright themselves as state law allows.
As covered here yesterday, most of the project details still fall into the “reply hazy, ask again later” category; what the Carson council approved yesterday was the ballot language approved earlier in a petition drive, which voters now won’tget to vote on because the council did it on their behalf. From the looks of it — it’s 309 pages, which makes you wonder how many petitioners actually read the whole thing, let alone city council members — it mostly approves a bunch of rezoning of land targeted for the stadium, plus some “stadiums are cool” language to make clear the intent of the initiative. Everything else will get worked out later, though it’s been promised that the city will only be on the hook for police and traffic costs, which the teams (the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, under the current plan) would reimburse them for.
There is one cost that isn’t being mentioned, and that’s foregone property taxes: Under the plan, the entire 157-acre site that would be home to the stadium — and parking, and presumably some other development, since a stadium don’t need no 157 acres — would be transferred to a public authority, which pretty much always means exempting it from property taxes. As we’ve seen before, property tax exemptions can add up to a whole lot of money, so it’s worth asking questions about how much this would amount to for Carson — in fact, that would have been a good question to ask before voting to move ahead with this deal, but meh, there’s always time to figure stuff out later, right?
Will it be 2 stadiums/3 teams, 2 stadiums/2 teams, or 2 teams in 1 stadium? Inglewood seems like the sure thing, and that most likely involves the Rams. I’d love to know when we reach the tipping point where this goes from potential bluff to actually happening (meaning we know the Raiders & Chargers are really leaving.)
Cheers this morning to all the folks who continue to say you can’t pass anything in California without a public vote.
If you changed that to “can’t pass anything in California WHEN you have a public vote,” you’d be far closer to the truth.
Doesn’t really matter. That stadium isn’t going to get built anyway.
Hi Neil,
You state:
“There is one cost that isn’t being mentioned, and that’s foregone property taxes: Under the plan, the entire 157-acre site that would be home to the stadium — and parking, and presumably some other development, since a stadium don’t need no 157 acres —”
How much is being realized currently in property taxes?
This relocation threats sure feels like the last hand of poker with your friends where everybody is bluffing except for one guy. And that one guy is Kroenke. St. Louis would appear to have an actual financial plan except they have not approved or voted on anything. Until Kroenke gives a nod, I don’t believe the Governor is going to stick his neck out. Moreover, it sure looks like Kroenke is in an Inglewood state of mind.
I also see two of the relatively poorer owners playing up the part of actually moving, but I just don’t see even if they even get the stadium built, that the Chargers will be successful in Carson. It doubtful the San Diego faithful will follow them. They moved to San Diego to get away from L.A. I don’t believe 20% of their fans came from L.A. If they did, they were fans of the opposing teams. It would be amusing to find the Chargers playing in front of 30K fans rooting against them in their new home stadium.
I could see the Raiders doing better, but their brand repels corporate sponsorship so unless Mark Davis agrees to rebrand, the NFL probably would not like to see one of their poorest teams represent the second largest market in the U.S. I just don’t see the NFL approving the move or Mark Davis rebranding.
In the end, I can see the Chargers as a renter to Kroenke if a stadium can’t be built in San Diego and the Raiders relocating to St. Louis. Mark Davis would wink at anybody who would build him a stadium gratis.
@ Todd
The Chargers know where there season ticket holders come from because it’s very easy to track zip codes for billing and shipping. “25 percent of the Team’s season ticket members now come from LA and Orange Counties”
chargers.com/news/2015/02/20/chargers-and-raiders-join-forces-carson-community-group-support-new-los-angeles-nfl
Goldman Sachs will finance the Carson stadium and revenues from PSLs, naming rights, G4 grant/loans, luxury suites will pay for the stadium. The Chargers and Raiders are following the Metlife financing plan and the Levis stadium tax avoidance plan.
The NFL isn’t doing the landlord tenant thing again. The 2 team share stadium partnership will be the stadium approved by the owners. Carson is ahead of Inglewood now.
@Todd: Missouri went ahead and did something pretty crazy today though. The state legislature backed off banning public funding for a stadium but switched the funding to annual appropriations. That means the funding for a StL stadium would be subject to negotiation in the legislature every year and wouldn’t be guaranteed.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/article_c3f3fc17-42ef-5e07-a536-729bb396c419.html#.VTlnaLlTk8g.twitter
I doubt the league or the team is okay with that.
I don’t know how much of a wild card this is, but didn’t Al Davis’ shares in the team mostly go to his ailing wife? When she passes, I can easily see a big chunk of the team being sold for inheritance taxes. So, I would think there’s somewhat of a timetable for the Raiders to get a stadium done. I don’t know the current status of the Widow Davis’ health, but she’s been very ill in the past.