Carson: Is It Legit or Just A Bluff?

The hearts of San Diego Charger fans sank in late February when the team announced that it will partner up with the Oakland Raiders in an effort to build a stadium in Carson, CA. The renderings and announcement came as a complete shock that got everybody panicked, including San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who immediately upped the time table for his then newly-appointed task to accomplish the task of coming up with a site and financing plan to build a new stadium.

More from LA Chargers News

A lot of people, especially in San Diego, think that the stadium plan in Carson is just a bluff by Dean Spanos. I completely understand why Spanos and Special Counsel to the team Mark Fabiani did what they did in order to close the gap between them and St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who’s Inglewood project rivals the Carson project. Ultimately, the NFL must pick either Inglewood or Carson. It’s kind of ironic how Fabiani’s opening message to the Citizens’ Stadium Advisory Group, otherwise known as CSAG, focused on how they must not come up with a “half-baked” idea for a new stadium, because that is exactly what Carson is.

February 19th was the day we all found out what was going on behind the scenes between the Chargers and Raiders and their future plans with Carson. Renderings were released of a new stadium that seemed awfully similar (in my opinion) to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. A few tweaks here and there were made and it was made fancy enough for the NFL and the city of Carson to buy in order to jump through all of the hurdles.

Fast forward to late last week. New renderings were released, as more collaborations were done between both teams on these new renderings. It included a brand new tower where fire would appear whenever the Raiders were to score a touchdown (however infrequently that might be), and that same tower would have lightning bolts appear when the Chargers were to score.

If you were to look at these new renderings, it’s almost a completely different design. This design didn’t look to be so last minute as the previous one was. Now it’s primarily silver and black, with almost no attempt to be neutral for both teams. This new design says something. It says that it’s almost like they are making it up as they go along, coming up with a “half-baked” idea to compete with Inglewood.

So the jury is out on whether or not Carson is a legitimate option for the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodall said that both projects look viable, for now at least. But he has to say that, otherwise the pressure comes off of Oakland and San Diego.

Something else to consider, back on February 19th, the Raiders were almost non-existent in all of the madness when the Chargers made the announcement about partnering up with them.

May 20th is the day we’re all waiting for, when CSAG turns in their financing plan on how to build a new stadium in San Diego. Let’s hope it’s something we can all buy into.

More from Bolt Beat

Home/LA Chargers News