Surprise, disappointment and, in some cases, silence greeted news Thursday night that the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders plan to build a stadium in Carson.<\/p>\n
In San Diego, which appointed a nine-member committee last month to recommend a new stadium site for the Chargers, civic leaders were particularly dismayed.<\/p>\n
“It’s now abundantly clear that while we have been working here in San Diego to create a plan for a new stadium, the Chargers have for some time been making their own plans for moving to Los Angeles,” San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer said. “This would amount to abandoning generations of loyal Chargers fans.”<\/p>\n
However, the mayor promised to continue pushing for a stadium solution.<\/p>\n
George Mitrovich, president of the City Club of San Diego, the city’s major public forum, said that the Chargers “engaged in blatant hypocrisy and untruth.” City Councilman Todd Gloria called the development “beyond unfortunate.” And Adam Day, chairman of the city’s stadium committee, termed the news “a complete surprise.”<\/p>\n
A more hopeful response followed in Oakland, where the Raiders moved from Los Angeles in 1995.<\/p>\n
Mayor Libby Schaaf said Raiders President Marc Badain assured her Thursday that the team’s “No. 1 priority” is to build a new stadium in the city. Schaaf, who doesn’t believe Oakland should subsidize a stadium, “respects” the Raiders’ need to explore other options for a new home.<\/p>\n
“They have done it before and they will do it again,” she said.<\/p>\n