Raiders, Chargers Stadium Proposal Sends Message to Respective Cities

If there was still any lingering doubt about the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers' sincerity about pursuing a future in Los Angeles, the teams put an emphatic end to that on Thursday night.

In a joint statement, the AFC West rivals revealed a proposal to build and share what the Los Angeles Times' Sam Farmer reported to be a $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, California. Here's a glimpse of what the new stadium would look like, via the Times' Shelby Grad:

In the words of Monica, it just got interesting.

To be clear, this is just the first step in a very long process. There will be many, many more twists and turns to this story, and a proposal is just that. It's not a plan. The teams admit they are still working in their own cities to find a solution, so it's probably a little too early to break out that Los Angeles Raiders snapback just yet.

But this is a deafening message to Oakland and San Diego: Figure something out or lose your teams to Los Angeles.

We are beginning to see the effects of Stan Kroenke's power play. In January, the St. Louis Rams owner revealed a plan to build an 80,000-seat stadium in Inglewood, California, and that has significantly sped up the timetable.

In a statement last week, Mark Fabiani, the point person for the Chargers stadium issue, made it clear that the Chargers, who get 25 percent of their ticket base from the Los Angeles/Orange County market, weren't just going to sit back and let it happen:

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It would not be fair to the Chargers – a team that has worked for 14 years to find a stadium solution in San Diego County – to allow other teams that themselves abandoned the LA market to now return and gut the Chargers’ local revenue stream.

We are keeping a close eye on developments in LA. We do not have a choice but to also monitor and evaluate our options there. Simply put, it would be irresponsible for the Chargers not to be taking every possible step to protect the future of the franchise.

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As the Mercury News' Tim Kawakami noted, the Raiders are putting similar pressure on Oakland:

It has essentially turned into a race for Los Angeles, and neither the Chargers nor the Raiders—which have both been unsuccessful in their attempts to build new local stadiums—can afford to keep waiting around.

Again, we are still early in the process, but both teams are now firmly in the middle of the Los Angeles picture. And they are serious enough that they are willing to partner—and share a home—with a longtime rival to make it happen.

The newest proposal is just more proof that the teams mean business. And if their respective cities aren't able to put together a plan in the next year, they could very well be doing their business somewhere else.

This isn't going to be pretty.