Players asked to help

NEW YORK — The National Football League is asking its players to help finance any new stadium in Los Angeles, a prerequisite to putting a team in the No. 2 U.S. media market for the first time since the Raiders and Rams bolted in 1994.

The NFL players union, which confirmed the talks, typically assumes some of the cost of stadium financing through what are called stadium credits, negotiated in the collective bargaining agreement. However, team owners have exhausted the credits approved in the existing contract, which runs through 2020. Any additional money from players — as for a proposed stadium in L.A. — must be approved on a one-off basis.

Both the NFL and the city are eager to bring a team back to L.A. Officials in Carson, Calif., about 17 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, approved a $1.65 billion stadium project earlier this year to lure the San Diego Chargers, owned by billionaire real estate developer Alex Spanos, and the Oakland Raiders, owned by Mark Davis. The city council voted 3-0 to authorize the stadium without a vote of the people.

As Carson courts those two teams, Inglewood, a city about 13 miles to the northwest, is wooing the St. Louis Rams, which are owned by billionaire Stan Kroenke. He bought the team in 2010 for about $750 million, and has bought land for an 80,000-seat stadium, the plans for which were approved by the Inglewood city council.

How much the players would pay for either stadium is unclear. The ultimate amount of a stadium credit is affected by several things, including how much projected revenue the proposed facility would generate.

If the players decline to approve a stadium credit, any new facility would have to be financed with public and private money, or with a loan from the NFL.

Former Raiders Chief Executive Officer Amy Trask said the players have a good incentive to approve the credit. New facilities generate more revenue, which in turn raises the league-wide team salary cap, she said.