Long Beach Mayor Garcia Says Carson NFL Stadium (For SD Chargers/Oakland Raiders) Would Be Win For Long Beach, Looks Forward To Partnering With Carson and NFL

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(Feb. 20, 2015) -- Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia issued a statement this afternoon (Feb. 20) on a high visibility proposal floated by the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders to build a $1.7 billion NFL stadium in Carson: We publish its text below:

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[Garcia statement] An NFL stadium in the City of Carson would be a huge win for Long Beach. We have more than 4,000 hotel rooms, waterfront restaurants, and the closest airport in the region. It would be a huge economic boon for downtown Long Beach, with thousands of fans enjoying our four star hotels, shops and restaurants. We fully support the City of Carson and are looking forward to partnering with them and the NFL to welcome their football fans.

Long Beach is L.A. County's second largest city (roughly 450,000 population to L.A.'s roughly 4,000,000.) [Unlike Los Angeles, Long Beach's Mayor doesn't have executive or legal power to offer City support beyond his recommendations to the Long Beach City Council, which actually sets policy.]

In a Feb. 19 joint statement, the Chargers-Raiders said in pertinent part:

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. In short, for the remainder of 2015, we intend to move down two tracks simultaneously:
On track one, we will continue to work in our home markets to find permanent stadium solutions that are publicly acceptable. On track two, we will work in Carson to preserve our options, and the future economic viability of our franchises, in the event that our efforts in our local markets fail.

To view the Feb. 19 joint statement in full by the Chargers-Raiders, click here. A day later the San Diego Chargers website said (Feb. 20) it will join "with the Oakland Raiders and a broad-based coalition of Carson community, business and labor leaders "called 'Carson2gether'" to support a ballot measure that would entitle a 168-acre site in Carson for a new Los Angeles-area NFL stadium." (Details at this link.)

ESPN.com has its own coverage, including a press event earlier today (Feb. 20) in Carson click here..

The San Diego-Oakland teams' announcement comes after the St. Louis Rams owner announced in late 2014 a plan to build an 80,000 seat stadium in Inglewood. Developer Ed Roski has also proposed a stadium in the City of Industry and AEG's has a plan for a stadium in downtown Los Angeles adjacent to Staples Center.