The Carson (Calif.) City Council rammed through approval for a $1.7 billion, two-team NFL stadium, despite not having finalized any NFL teams, or any details on how the stadium might be paid for. But at least there are now some pretty drawings of what the stadium might look like.
According to stadium designs presented to the NFL’s relocation committee, the signature feature of the stadium would be a 120-foot tower, which you can see dead-center in the rendering above. During Raiders games, the tower would be topped by a cauldron with a flame burning to the memory of late owner Al Davis.
Ah, but what happens when the co-tenant Chargers are playing? They’ll just turn off Davis’s flame and convert the tower into some sort of giant Van de Graaff generator that shoots lightning bolts when the Chargers score. No, really:
I’m quite taken with this sarcastic caveat from the Los Angeles Times’ write-up of the stadium plans:
The plan would not call for the flame to burst up from the tower in the event of a Raiders touchdown.
Opportunity: missed. If this relocation does happen, the Raiders will just have to content themselves with forever being watched by Davis’s Eye of Sauron.