The Oakland Raiders on Thursday announced plans to share a stadium in Southern California with the San Diego Chargers if both NFL teams fail to find new stadium solutions in their hometowns.
In a joint statement by the two conference rivals in the AFC West, the teams said they are looking at a stadium site in Carson in Los Angeles County while still looking at options in their respective current cities.
"We have both been working in our home markets to find a stadium solution for many years, so far unsuccessfully," the teams said.
"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 teams said.
Earlier Thursday, the head of an investor group trying to build a massive development at the current O.co Coliseum complex in Oakland warned that the Raiders could leave Oakland if officials in Alameda County don't get involved in negotiations soon.
Speaking to the West Oakland Commerce Association, Floyd Kephart, the lead executive of New City Development LLC, said city of Oakland officials have been "very straightforward" in working on the Coliseum City project but he said, "We don't have that same thing from Alameda County."
Kephart, the chairman of the board of Renaissance Companies, a San Diego firm that advises hedge funds, private equity groups and financial
institutions, said a development plan for the Coliseum site "has to be done in the next few months or the Raiders will leave."
Kephart told the business group that Raiders owner Mark Davis called Alameda County Board of Supervisors President Scott Haggerty on Wednesday and "asked him to push this along."
But Haggerty said he's already talking to Davis on a weekly basis and county officials are committed to retaining all of Oakland's pro sports teams, which are the Raiders, the A's baseball team and the Golden State Warriors basketball team.
Alameda County's participation is a key component for the $2 billion-plus Coliseum City project because the county and the city own about two-thirds of the 200 acres at the Coliseum site where the development is proposed.
Plans call for at least one new sports stadium at the site plus housing, retail stores, hotels and housing.
