Carson’s elected officials flirted with the National Football League on Friday, gathering news reporters, regional politicians and select residents on a freeway off-ramp to unveil the city’s newest street name: Stadium Way.

• Video: Stadium Way sign is unveiled

The as-yet-unfinished street would wind through the 168-acre lot where the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have proposed to erect a $1.7 billion, 70,000-seat stadium. NFL owners are expected to choose early next year between Carson or Inglewood to host a pro football team in Los Angeles for the first time in 20 years.

“This is such an awesome day in the city of Carson,” Councilwoman Lula Davis-Holmes said. “It took a lot of work.”

• Video: Talking with Chargers fan Micah Farias

Council members touted letters of support for their plan from the cities of Compton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Montebello, Pico Rivera and Signal Hill.

“The support you see here today, from city officials from Long Beach … to Montebello, shows that the Carson stadium plan is hugely popular,” Mayor Albert Robles said. “Our stadium program is on fire.”

Two trucks now sit on the large dirt lot facing the 405 Freeway near Avalon Boulevard with colorful signs: “Future Home of Professional Football” and “Carson: All America City 2015.”

The newly christened Stadium Way had been named after former Mayor Jim Dear in 2013, but council members voted last month to remove Jim Dear Boulevard from the city’s map. Dear, who was elected to the clerk’s seat in March, is at odds with much of the city’s leadership over his aggressive political lobbying and power plays.

Neither Dear nor his political ally, Councilman Elito Santarina, attended Friday’s ceremony.

• Photos: More from the street renaming ceremony

If the stadium doesn’t materialize, city officials said, a developer has agreed to build a shopping mall instead, but didn’t say if they will again rename the street.

Robles and City Council members have been doing all they can to attract the teams since announcing the partnership in February. Earlier this month, former NFL executive Carmen Policy — hired by the Chargers and Raiders to promote the project — presented the Carson plan to Los Angeles business leaders and declared that it would attract visitors from all of Southern California because of its freeway accessibility and luxury features that include a VIP lounge.

Inglewood’s stadium initiative is funded by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who wants to build an open-air structure with a canopy on a 238-acre complex formerly occupied by Hollywood Park racetrack and adjacent to The Forum. The development also calls for a movie theater, performing arts center, housing, offices, commercial businesses and more.

• Video: Fans of both NFL teams whoop it up at the ceremony

Whichever town gets the stadium will be thrust onto the national stage and benefit from large streams of extra revenue.

Inglewood Mayor James Butts said he is confident his city will secure a deal because the site can be ready for construction earlier, while the Carson location is still undergoing environmental remediation from its former life as a landfill.

“Within 100 to 110 days, we can break ground on an NFL stadium,” Butts said. “We can host any type of event. We’re at the epicenter of four freeways. We’re 2.6 miles from Los Angeles International Airport, and we’ve been pulling crowds of 55,000 to 60,000 people to the area for decades.

“I don’t want to say anything about Carson. I wish them well. But the most effective thing we can do is to have a project ready to be built by 2018.”

State Sen. Isadore Hall and Assemblyman Mike Gipson, a former Carson councilman, attended Friday’s dedication of Stadium Way in Carson to show their support.

“The stadium will transform the economic outlay of this entire area with thousands of jobs,” Hall said. “Our property values will rise. Our economic status in this county will rise and, as a result, crime will decrease.”