In the search for a temporary home for a future Los Angeles franchise, the NFL may go small. Really small.
Among the stadiums under consideration if the NFL moves a team to Los Angeles next season is the StubHub Center in Carson, according to NFL.com. The StubHub Center, home of the L.A. Galaxy of Major League Soccer, seats 27,000 people.
That would mean the NFL’s Los Angeles team (whether it’s the Rams, Raiders or Chargers) would be playing in by far the smallest stadium in the NFL. The smallest current NFL seating capacity also belongs to a team in a temporary stadium, the Vikings, who are using the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium while they get their own stadium built. But while TCF Bank Stadium is tiny by NFL standards, its capacity of 52,525 is nearly double that of the StubHub Center.
Other temporary stadiums under consideration are the Rose Bowl (where UCLA plays), the L.A. Coliseum (where USC plays) and Major League Baseball’s Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium. All of those are much larger than the StubHub Center, but all of them might also have scheduling conflicts with an NFL team.
It seems hard to believe that the NFL would move into a stadium as tiny as the StubHub Center, even for one season. But at least they can be confident they’d sell out. That’s not the case in St. Louis, Oakland or San Diego.