Carson City Council Approves $1.7B NFL Stadium Near Los Angeles

The Carson City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved plan for a proposed $1.7 billion stadium that could one day welcome the NFL's San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders to the Los Angeles County. The decision comes hardly two months after the proposed project was publicly announced.

The 3-0 decision by the Carson City Council is considered as a significant move to bring the NFL back to the Los Angeles area after the league’s two-decade absence from the city in Southern California, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

“There are two things we need in California: rain … and football,” the Los Angeles Times quoted Carson Mayor Albert Robles as saying. “And football is coming to Carson.”

The Carson stadium -- planned on a 168-acre site of former landfill -- is one of two proposed NFL projects for the Los Angeles area this year. In February, Inglewood’s City Council adopted a ballot initiative for a $1.86 billion stadium with an 80,000 seating capacity. St. Louis Rams' owner Stan Kroenke is part of the group planning the Inglewood stadium, which would be built on the site of former horse track, the AP reported.

Officials at Raiders and Chargers had earlier declared their intention to jointly pursue the Carson project if they could not secure new stadiums in their current markets. “We are pursuing this stadium option in Carson for one straightforward reason: If we cannot find a permanent solution in our home markets, we have no alternative but to preserve other options to guarantee the future economic viability of our franchises,” the Raiders and the Chargers had said in a joint statement in February, according to ESPN.

The proposal to build the NFL stadium in Carson had received enough petition signatures last week to be included on the city ballot. Many Carson residents also reportedly expressed support for the plan.