Hey, check it out, it’s some actual news about the proposed San Diego Chargers/Oakland Raiders stadium in Carson! Carson Mayor Albert Robles sat down with a local TV sports anchor on a local AM radio station, which was written up on the web, and … where was I? Oh, right, how that Carson stadium land deal is actually going to work. First off, the site is perfect for a stadium, says Robles, because it’s totally contaminated!
“Most of that site was a former landfill. It’s contaminated land,” said Robles. “There is a strip, about 11 acres, that was never a landfill.”
And that’s good because nobody was going to use it for anything else, I guess?
“We were on schedule to build a massive retail mixed-use commercial project on that site. That was already planned, whether the NFL was coming or not. That still is our backup plan.”
Okay, no, not that, then.
Anyway, the teams have bought, or are buying, or will buy as soon as it’s clear that they’re not going to get new stadiums in San Diego and Oakland, the land for about $20 million. Then, because buyers of contaminated land are responsible for cleanup costs under California law, they’ll transfer the land to a new Joint Powers Authority, which will pass it along to the Carson Remediation Authority. So the teams would get the land, but the city would get the responsibility for any cleanup — the CRA has reportedly already set aside funds for this, and would be doing it for the commercial project anyway, but it would still be nice to know exactly how much is being spent by the public to clean up private land being bought from private owners for a private project. [UPDATE: The L.A. Times has it: $120 million, of which $50 million in final bonds are expected to be approved by the Carson city council today.]
Robles also gives some hints about the possibility that the whole Carson thing is just a bluff to extract stadium subsidies from Oakland and San Diego, noting that one condition of the stadium deal was that “there would be no stadium built unless the city of Oakland and the city of San Diego were unable to build them a new stadium.” And asked if the whole thing is just a bluff, he answered:
“There is a shred of possibility to what you’re saying is true, we’ll leave it at that,” he said.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I just looked it up and, yes, in some dictionaries “shred” is a synonym for “Sh*tload.”
I knew it. I hope the Chargers & the Raiders continue to enjoy playing in their old stadiums.
A massive retail mixed-use commercial project brings money to the city. An NFL stadium does not. Can’t use that project plan as justification for paying for cleanup costs for the NFL. Carson – just say no!
Having visited the Chargers’ current stadium, the team would benefit from playing in the Carson landfill with no structure at all.
So the Raiders will be playing on **** and garbage instead of just **** when the plumbing backs up in Oakland?
@ Neil
Have you ever mentioned that the $1.6 billion Metlife stadium sits on a former landfill just as polluted as the Carson site? The Metlife stadium site has the same methane removal tanks. People who act like a stadium can’t be built on the Carson site don’t know what they are talking about.
Nothing is happening in San Diego or Oakland, Carson is more realistic than Inglewood. Read the report on the Metlife site.
“The majority of the exceedances of the NJDEP SCC detected within the Project Area are for compounds included in NJDEP’s definition of typical historic fill material including PAHs, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, lead, and zinc. The remaining compounds detected above the NJDEP SCC are not listed on NJDEP’s Historic Fill Database. These compounds include PCBs, benzene, chrysene, bis(2ethylhexyl)phthalate, phenol, pesticides (i.e., dieldrin), antimony, barium, copper, and mercury.”
http://www.nj.gov/dep/special/meadowlands/docs/eisvol1sect4.8-4.10.pdf
Carson is absolutely not more realistic than Inglewood. The former holds absolutely no advantages over the latter in terms of planning, construction logistics, or financing.
Carson is more realistic than Inglewood because the teams that would move to Carson are not even being approached by their respective home cities in terms the NFL appreciates (public dollars) in the same way that the team that wants to move to Inglewood is (The Rams). The feasibility of the St. Louis proposal is debatable at best, but it is something more concrete than Oakland or San Diego has put forward, by a lot, and since the NFL has made it clear(ish) that only one stadium in Los Angeles (though zero is still more likely), that means the two are in competition. Since the NFL (pretty much) has to approve a move, it would seem that St. Louis is less likely, RIGHT NOW, to get approved for a move since they are “trying” harder than San Diego and Oakland, therefore Carson is ahead of Inglewood. Now if Oakland and/or San Diego throw a bunch of cash on the table, and St. Louis’ offer collapses, then Inglewood goes back to the front.
OF course, if two of the three cities throw a lot of money on the table, then LA gets nothing. Which is still the likely outcome.
We’ve never bluffed so hard, lol. Why? Because you have to freshen up the con after 20 years of running the same old game–otherwise, the marks get wise. Of course, pols are cheap by the dozen and it doesn’t take much payola to get them falling all over themselves to give you public stadium cash. Some are so doe-eyed they do it for nothing… chumps!
I love the smell of public stadium cash in the morning, baby!
Two big issues to follow right now: 1) what the SD stadium task force’s proposal looks like when it’s presented on May 20, and 2) the outcome of the RSA’s lawsuit against the City of St. Louis.
The Carson stadium proposal isn’t any different from the Farmer’s Field proposal as both stadiums wanted Two franchise’s to occupy their stadiums . It’s hard enough to get a single franchise to commit on a relocation , but two … impossible . For Carson , this is the plan of outside influence’s not even connected to football. In the end , the only winner in Carson will be Starwood Capital , who will be walking away scot free from the remaining costs of the final clean-up , if there is such a thing , at the Carson toxic waste dump site and readily and willingly giving the bill to the Carson taxpayers. I guess you could call this ploy by Starwood ” Property Laundering ” … Starwood sells the site and the responibilities of clean up to the Chargers , who then transfers the site and the responibilities of clean up to a city-run stadium authority who then incurs all responibilities of the remaining clean up with the $50.0 million bond , if passed . Starwood Capital , the Chargers and the Raiders all walk away scot free leaving the remaining clean up costs to the naive Carson taxpayers , without a guarantee of a stadium ever being built .
In the past ,the department’s manager for the Carson project had claimed that all the costs so far had been funded by the landowners , the Starwood Capital Group , and would be in the future, he said.” The taxpayers don’t pay for these cleanups,” he said . But if the Carson City Council votes yes on this $50.5 million bond deal , then the taxpayers will be the ones paying for the remaining clean-up , whether a stadium or a shopping mall are built. Is anyone getting this ?
So if Carson buys the land for $1 and spends whatever to clean it up and the stadium deal doesn’t happen does Carson get to keep the land and resell it?
I don’t get it? What’s the big surprise? Anyone who has been in LA knows the site is a former landfill.You are acting as if something significant has been suddenly uncovered. Nobody is proposing to live there so the threshold is much lower to build at the site. Again everyone knows it’s been getting cleaned up for 50 years. Why is anyone concerned if the deal doesn’t go through. They go back to the original plan mega commercial plan. Sounds smart to me! The only valid reason for the Hate.. Rivalry.. lol The Harbor Hub Bulletin harbor-hub.com has the local perspectives.