Following almost the exact same path as the proposed NFL stadium in Inglewood, the joint NFL stadium planned in Carson qualified for a ballot measure, avoided a long environmental review process, and yesterday got approval from Carson City Council. The vote was unanimously in favor of the stadium that could house the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders, despite the slim details on project specifics, reports the LA Times. A few things to get sorted: finding 16,000 more parking spots and getting together some official site plans.
It's only been about two months since the plan to build a $1.7-billion, 70,000-seat stadium on a one-time landfill (still only 80 percent cleaned-up) was announced, and Carson officials admit there's a lot of negotiation to be done to move it forward. One big gray area of the project is how it's going to be financed. The petition for the stadium's ballot initiative states that no tax money will be used to build the venue, but the petition isn't really clear on where the money will come from, aside from establishing that Goldman Sachs will spearhead the investment campaign. A recently released report funded by Carson notes that "no official project design documents have been provided by the Stadium Developer," and that the small matter of finding 16,000 off-site parking spots and planning for noise mitigation measure for construction haven't really been addressed yet.
Carson also needs to find space to build the over 1,500 units of residential housing that were planned for the stadium site, or else they'll lose federal housing funds that amount to $1.4 million a year. Additionally, the Carson stadium plan is only profitable for the city if it hosts two teams, KPCC reports. If the stadium only hosts one football team, Carson's budget would be looking at "annual fiscal losses in most of the first 30 years."
Undeterred by all these hurdles, now that Carson's neck-and-neck with Inglewood's plan to bring just one team to LA, reps for both plans will be going to NY his week to meet with a group of NFL owners and update them on the status of both possible NFL venues. Meanwhile, the site's current owners, Starwood Capital, are working on closing the sale of the future stadium site to the Chargers. The sale is scheduled to close at the end of this month.
· Carson City Council gives unanimous approval to NFL stadium [LAT]
· Report: 2 teams needed to make Carson stadium profitable [SCPR]
· Inglewood Approves NFL Stadium; Work Can Start This Year [Curbed LA]
· The Raiders and Chargers Just Proposed a Joint NFL Stadium in the Los Angeles Suburbs [Curbed LA]
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