Optimism for San Diego, Oakland lacking at meetings

IRVING, Texas — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell isn’t saying whether he’s optimistic that San Diego and Oakland can keep their teams, while Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay considers both franchises all but gone.

Dean Spanos of the Chargers and the Raiders’ Mark Davis weren’t talking at the NFL owners meeting Wednesday in the Dallas area. And no new specifics were revealed by Goodell a day after city and county officials in Oakland agreed to open negotiations with an investment group on a $1.3 billion plan for a new stadium.

“As you know, these issues have been going on for an awful long time,” Goodell said. “The challenges of getting stadiums built is something that we’ve worked very hard on. We have not made great progress in Oakland and San Diego. There is not a stadium proposal on the table that we think addresses the long-term issues of the clubs and the communities.”

The Chargers face a Jan. 15 deadline to decide whether to join the Rams in Los Angeles, part of a deal struck almost a year ago when owners agreed to let the Rams leave St. Louis. A Chargers-written ballot measure asking for $1.15 billion in increased hotel taxes to help fund a new downtown stadium was soundly defeated last month.

Earlier this year, Davis said he was committed to moving the Raiders to Las Vegas, where a $1.9 billion stadium project has been approved. He declined to comment Wednesday when asked by The Associated Press about the vote a day earlier in Oakland.

The Raiders will have from the end of their season, which will likely include their first trip to the playoffs since 2002, until Feb. 15 to apply for relocation. Irsay didn’t offer any encouraging words for San Diego or Oakland.

“I think that there is at this point really no reason for optimism in either market for the Chargers and Raiders right now,” Irsay said. “We’ll see what happens. That’s the way it appears to be going with the year ending here.”

Irsay said it would be “fruitless” to extend the deadline facing the Chargers on their Los Angeles decision. He suggested that Spanos and Rams owner Stan Kroenke would reach an agreement to share Kroenke’s new stadium in Inglewood.

“You know this process has been going on for a very, very long time in San Diego,” Irsay said. “Dean’s going to need to make a decision on what’s best for the Chargers and go forward. I know as owners we all felt two teams could be supported in Los Angeles, unquestionably.”