Amy Trask, former Oakland Raiders CEO, isn’t convinced that if the Chargers move to Inglewood that the Raiders would, or should, replace them in San Diego because three NFL teams in Southern California may be one too many.

Yes, Southern California was once home to three NFL teams at the same time. Thirteen years in fact, until public subsidies in 1995 lured the Rams from Anaheim to St. Louis and the Raiders from new downtown Los Angeles back to Oakland.

Difference now would be, Trask told 1360-AM this week, all three teams would be occupying football palaces, where in the 1980s and 1990s, they lived in old venues.

So, as the three would look to pay down steep mortgages and max out revenues from the same terrain, three could be a crowd, albeit in a SoCal region that’s home to more than 20 million people.


If those stadiums are built, and there’s two of them, one in Inglewood, and even one of more modest size in San Diego, you’re looking to sell naming rights twice and sponsorships twice and cornerstone sponsorships and suites and club seats. That was the case in ’94 -- but you weren’t trying to market billion-dollar buildings and have your cash flow pencil.

And I think the Chargers, therefore, have to look to play a little defense in all of this. If you are the Chargers and you are deciding, ‘Do I move to Los Angeles or do I stay in San Diego?’ you’ve got to factor in, ‘Well, if I don’t move to Los Angeles, chances are the Raiders going to do that.’ So, then, am I willing to be one of three teams within this region?’ And if San Diego does move north, does the league really want the Raiders going to San Diego. I think it’s a tough question.

Chargers chairman Dean Spanos has until Jan. 15, 2017 to decide on a move to L.A. with the Rams. If he forgoes L.A., the Raiders would have the option of negotiating a move there. The Raiders, whose stadium lease expired after the past season, are to meet with Oakland on Monday to begin talks on a new lease, the Bay Arean News Group reported. The Chargers’ lease with San Diego ends in 2020.