The Proposed Chargers-Raiders Los Angeles Stadium Might Shoot Lightning Bolts After Touchdowns

The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders continue to use the threat of moving to Los Angeles as leverage toward getting new stadiums. Their most-recent plan is a joint, $1.7 billion stadium which the teams presented to the Roger Goodell and the “Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities.” Yes the NFL came up with a name for the committee of six owners who oversee the Holy Grail that is the Los Angeles market and its potential expansion fee.

No, Philip Rivers is not on said committee.

In typical NFL hubris/insanity the stadium proposal includes plans for a tower that would shoot (simulated?) lightning bolts when the Chargers score. If you’re going to spend almost $2 billion on a stadium, why not pay tribute to Nikola Tesla while you’re at it, right?

From the Los Angeles Times:

"A signature element of the design is a 115- to 120-foot tower that rises through and extends above the main concourse. It would serve as a pedestal for a cauldron that would change depending on the team. When the Chargers play, simulated lightning bolts would swirl behind glass encasing the tower and, if the team were to score a touchdown, a bolt would shoot out of the top. For Raiders games, a flame would burn in the cauldron in honor of legendary team owner Al Davis."

This picture screams NFL football, doesn’t it?

Oh, but it gets better:

"If the venue were to play host to a Super Bowl, the tower would be transformed into a giant Lombardi Trophy."

Truly nothing honors the legacy of Vince Lombardi than a tower that shoots lightning bolts covered into a trophy that bears his name. You almost have to wonder how Lombardi managed to coach football in a world without stadiums featuring pirate ships, lightning bolt towers and endless seas of luxury boxes.

The NFL, as we know, operates unto its own logic so in the twisted world of Goodell and his cronies a stadium that shoots lightning bolts probably seems a perfectly reasonable idea on paper.

[H/T LBS]