After expensive stadium price tags chased away Los Angeles and Anaheim from their hunts for a professional football team, officials from another Southern California city say they are trying to lure the National Football League to their confines.
It’s not Pasadena, home of the Rose Bowl. Voters there overwhelmingly defeated a measure to reignite their pursuit of a team Nov. 7.
Rather, the L.A. Times reported today that Garden Grove, a city of 170,000 people, is willing to allow the NFL to build a stadium on a public golf course at a “steep discount.”
Farfetched? Perhaps. But Garden Grove has entertained such football Sunday thoughts before. The city sent a proposal to the Minnesota Vikings when team officials were considering a move to another city more than five years ago, (City Manager Mike) Fertal said. The golf course site, less than a mile from the city’s Harbor Boulevard downtown area, is currently being considered by city officials for a theme park.
“A stadium would tie in greatly to our entertainment district and link up to Disneyland,” he said. “If the NFL is interested and there’s an opportunity to have a conversation, we’d certainly welcome it.”
The news comes six weeks before the Chargers can begin talking to cities outside San Diego County about stadium proposals. Currently, the team is engaged in talks with Chula Vista and National City about possibly relocating to those South Bay cities.