NFL Wants Players to Pay for Los Angeles Stadium
- Players could contribute about $300 million, sources say
- Rams, Chargers and Raiders looking at No. 2 U.S. media market
Raider and Chargers fans gathered for a 'tail gate' party and rally before marching to Carson City Hall to support the building of a stadium that would house the two NFL franchises, on April 21, 2015.
Photographer: Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe 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.