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 The six-member panel's recommendation still requires approval by NFL
owners, who are in Houston to discuss bids by three teams to
relocate to a massive market that has been without an NFL team since
1995.
The recommendation of Carson over a rival proposal for a stadium in
Inglewood backed by the St. Louis Rams would appear to favor a plan
from the Chargers, who are interested in partnering with the Oakland
Raiders to share a facility.
The two-day special meeting in Houston of all 32 team owners began
with the teams presenting their cases for relocating to Los Angeles,
which could ultimately rearrange the landscape of the most popular
U.S. professional sports league.
Teams still need approval from 24 of 32 owners in order to relocate.
A compromise proposed by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to have
the Chargers and Rams share the new stadium, is also being
considered.
Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. market, has been without an NFL
team for 21 seasons, abandoned by both the St. Louis-bound Rams and
the Raiders, who returned to Oakland, frustrated by an inability to
get a new stadium.
While NFL owners tend to accept the suggestions of league
committees, the Los Angeles relocation is a complex and high-stakes
competition between three teams playing in antiquated home stadiums.
Walt Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger, who is helping to spearhead
the Carson proposal, told reporters during a break at Tuesday's
meeting that he thought shifting two teams to the area was the right
move.
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"If you're bringing the NFL back to Los Angeles two is better than
one," Iger said. "First of all there will be home games virtually
every week and secondly you give people in Los Angeles some choice
in terms of rooting interest. I think it makes sense economically as
well.”
The Chargers, who initiated the stadium project on the site of a
former landfill, later teamed up with the Raiders in proposing a
65,000-seat stadium about 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles
which could expand by 10,000 to host a Super Bowl.
It is estimated to cost about $1.7 billion.
The Rams proposed a $1.86 billion stadium roughly 10 miles south of
downtown Los Angeles with a 70,000-seat capacity expandable to
100,000, on the former site of the Hollywood Park racetrack.
(Writing by Dan Burns and Larry Fine; Editing by David Gregorio and
Frank Pingue)
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