The Chargers‘ and Raiders‘ joint stadium plan for Carson seems to have momentum at this point than the Rams‘ Inglewood proposal, writes Peter King of TheMMQB.com in today’s Monday Morning Quarterback column. As King explains, the reason is fairly simple: owners around the league want to support Chargers owner Dean Spanos, whom they feel has done all he can to try to make a stadium work in San Diego.
King’s piece includes plenty of interesting tidbits on the Los Angeles situation, so let’s dive in and round them up….
- The Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities will likely vote 4-2 or 5-1 in favor of the Carson project, a source tells King. However, that prediction hinges on how solid the St. Louis stadium proposal is — if any of the six owners on the committee are uncertain about St. Louis’ proposal, they could switch to the Inglewood plan.
- Looking ahead to the league-wide vote involving all 32 owners, neither side is close to having the 24 votes necessary to approve a relocation plan, according to King.
- Disney CEO Robert Iger has been a major boon to the Carson side, with one source suggesting to King that Iger “feels like a partner to people like Roger Goodell and Bob Kraft.” One ownership source believes that if the Carson plan just involved the Chargers, Spanos, and Iger, it would already have 24 votes from league owners — some owners, however, view the Raiders as a drag on the project.
- While the league would like to finalize its Los Angeles plan during the January meetings in Houston, that’s not a lock. It’s probable, but not certain, says King.
- If Kroenke’s Inglewood project doesn’t come to fruition, no one knows what he’ll do, writes King. If Kroenke doesn’t like St. Louis’ stadium plan, it could be “an ugly shotgun marriage,” perhaps with the Rams owner “refusing to go to the altar.”
- One more L.A. note from Daniel Kaplan of the SportsBusiness Journal (Twitter link): Oakland city leaders have talked to the NFL about developing a stadium in Oakland. While those discussions are ongoing, it’s hard to imagine the city putting together a concrete plan within the next few weeks.
Does there have to be a shared stadium situation to bring two teams? Is it really either-or with Carson and Inglewood?
Carson has been presented all along as a package deal that includes both the Chargers and Raiders, rather than just one of the two. Unless that changes, it has to be an either-or, since there’s obviously no way L.A. is getting three teams.