SAN DIEGO – One of the disconnects with the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders teaming to build their own stadium in Carson – and it’s the same with the St. Louis Rams and their privately financed Inglewood project – is how all three can finance their own stadiums in Los Angeles but require public assistance to do it in their current cities.
In Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis, taxpayers angrily wonder why they should fork over as much as $500 million in tax money when it’s obvious all three can foot the bill themselves in L.A.
“It’s a fair question,” said Chargers vice president Mark Fabiani.
The explanation is fairly easy, albeit a harsh reminder of how different the Los Angeles market is compared to Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis.
In Los Angeles, the Chargers, Raiders and Rams can count on significant support through the sale of personal seat licenses – or PSL’s – up to four times more than they can in their current cities.
PSL’s are a one-time fee for the right to buy season tickets through the length of a team’s stadium lease, and the revenue raised helps finance the stadiums.
The San Francisco 49ers raised $530 million by selling PSL’s as high as $80,000 to help fund $1.3 billion Levi Stadium. The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants raised similar amounts to help finance their stadiums.
The Chargers and Raiders are counting on that kid of support in Los Angeles to help finance their proposed $1.7 billion stadium in Carson as are the Rams for their $1.8 billion stadium in Inglewood.
In their current cities, analysts project far less support through PSL’s. As a result, they need significant taxpayer contribution to help finance new homes.
“The hard answer – but the true answer – is the San Diego market will not support the level of PSL’s,” Fabiani said. “It will not support the level of naming rights sales and it will not support the other level of sales for luxury suites, for corporate sponsorships, for advertising that the L.A. market will support. That;s not a criticism of our San Diego market, because we love it, we want to be there and we’re not trying to dis it in any way. But at the same time that’s the reality of the situation.
“It’s a hard answer. People don’t like the hear it. But it’s the absolute truth. And it’s the same way Stan Kroenke is going to build – of he gets permission to build it from the NFL – he’s going to build a privately financed stadium in Inglewood that he’s not able to do in St. Louis. It’s the same exact situation.”
