When the folks trying to build a stadium in which the Raiders and Chargers would play in Carson, California involved former 49ers and Browns executive Carmen Policy to help push the thing through, people took the effort more seriously. With the project now retaining Roger Iger, Chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, folks should be taking the project even more seriously.
Iger, according to a statement issued to multiple media outlets on Wednesday by Carson Holdings, LLC, will begin working on the project only if the NFL approves the Carson site as “the new home of the NFL in Los Angeles.”
“Should the owners approve the move, Los Angeles will proudly welcome two incredible teams to our community and build a stadium worthy of their fans,” Iger said in the press release. “LA football fans will enjoy unprecedented access to games during the season, in a state of the art stadium designed to deliver the most entertaining, exciting and enjoyable experience possible.”
Iger’s job, if the job ever begins, will entail hiring a president of Carson Holdings -- a president who will follow “Iger’s strategic direction and leadership” for the design and construction of the stadium, the game-day experience for fans, the marketing of the stadium, the branding of the venue, and the “successful re-entry of professional football into the Los Angeles marketplace.”
Iger will continue his work with Disney, and he will have the option to acquire a “minority, non-controlling equity ownership interest in one of either the Raiders or the Chargers” after he leaves Disney.
The arrangement with Iger could be the key to getting enough owners to support a move by two teams to L.A., especially if one of them is the Raiders. Previously, the mood among the folks who run the sport was that the Raiders should stay in Oakland -- unless owner Mark Davis sells the team or involves a partner with sufficient business acumen to help the franchise thrive in L.A. If Iger buys a piece of the Raiders, Iger could be the guy who helps Davis properly run the team in a more competitive market.
Until Iger leaves Disney and joins the Raiders, the president Iger hires to run the stadium presumably would, as a practical matter, assist the two teams who play there with the broader business challenges of operating in L.A.
With the ownership vote on L.A. looming, this could be the Hail Mary play by the folks in Carson that gets their attention, and that in turn makes the Christmas Eve meeting between the Chargers and Raiders in Oakland even more memorable. Possibly for all the wrong reasons.
