Oakland and San Diego Change Designs For Proposed Shared Stadium in Los Angeles

Two NFL teams have presented revamped designs for their proposed football stadium in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times reports that representatives from the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders presented their designs this week to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and six NFL team owners. The $1.7 billion project is noticeably different than the original plans from February, which only had input from the Chargers.

The proposed stadium has a sleek, futuristic look with open-air seating, natural grass turf, and a 120-foot tower that rises through the main concourse. The tower will have a cauldron on top that can indicate when a team scores. For Chargers games, the tower would be surrounded by simulated lightening bolts with a bolt shooting out of the top when the Raiders score. For Oakland, a giant flame would burn in the cauldron in honor of team owner Al Davis.

It the stadium ever hosts the Super Bowl, the tower could be transformed into a gigantic Lombardi Trophy, team officials claim.

“We wanted the building to be iconic and sleek, like a luxury sports car,” said David Manica, president of Manica Architecture, the designers of the stadium. “Very aerodynamic, in motion, flowing lines from every angle.”

If built, the stadium would reside over a currently vacant landfill in Carson, a municipality in southern Los Angeles west of Long Beach. Carson’s City Council unanimously approved of the construction proposal on April 21st.

The 168-acre stadium will be privately funded through several commercial real estate investors. Commercial real estate has improved over the last few years, spawning investments and promoting construction work. One reason for the re-emergence of commercial real estate is the interest rates, which are relatively low. Today, five-year terms can have a rate as low as 3.50% and 20-year terms as low as 4.50%.

Manica has had many high-profile clients over the years. Before starting his own firm, Manica led design efforts for the Houston Texans’ stadium, the Miami Dolphins’ stadium, and part of the Wembley Stadium in London. He and his team of architects hope to complete more detailed plans for the stadium within four to six months.

Meanwhile, the Charges and Raiders will present the stadium’s design to the rest of the 32 NFL teams in a meeting in San Francisco next month. The California teams face a challenge by the St. Louis Rams, who are also presenting plans for a new stadium at the meeting. The NFL will eventually decide which project to support, which will require 75% of the owners to approve.