As originally designed, the proposed NFL stadium in Carson, California that would be shared by the Chargers and Raiders would have included a permanent flame that honors the late Al Davis. As currently designed, the flame has been extinguished.
Via Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal, current Raiders owner Mark Davis agreed to remove the tribute to the team patriarch, who also was a pariah of sorts in league circles. As Kaplan explains it, “many in the league . . . were not pleased” by the decision to commemorate a man who had a habit of suing his partners.
Kaplan writes that the former 49ers and Browns exec Carmen Policy recently joined the project in part to address “the apparent tone deafness” of Mark Davis to the importance of abandoning the tribute.
Carson and Inglewood currently are competing for the privilege of building an NFL stadium; the Chargers and Raiders would play in Carson, and the Rams (and possibly one other team) would play in Inglewood. While dumping the flame may not be enough to seal the deal in Carson, it apparently would have been harder for the Chargers-Raiders effort to prevail if Mark Davis hadn’t decided to relent.