The Seahawks’ preseason debut Sunday night will also serve as a grand opening for the Chargers’ in their new home of Los Angeles as well as their temporary residence of the StubHub Center in Carson.
The Chargers will play in the venue for three seasons while a new stadium the team will share with the Rams is built in Inglewood.
It projects to be an interesting stay with the StubHub Center seating just 27,000, which as the Los Angeles Times notes is the smallest stadium to host an NFL team since 1965.
A couple of prominent Seahawks — quarterback Russell Wilson and cornerback Richard Sherman — are already well familiar with the stadium.
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Sherman noted this week that he played his final high school game there in 2005 when Dominguez High of Compton beat Notre Dame-Sherman Oaks 41-14 (former Seahawk Jeron Johnson was also part of that team).
“It was Home Depot Center then,” Sherman said. “It’s a fun stadium to play in. Pretty small for a league stadium. I’m sure that they’re going to jack up the prices – supply and demand.”
Asked if he thinks the size of the stadium makes it adequate for the NFL, Sherman said: “Well the field is great. They take care of the ground so if you’ve got 100 (yards long) and 53-1/3 (yards wide) you’re going to be good out there. Yeah. I don’t know. What is it – 35,000 now? Not even that? Yeah. I mean, you couldn’t get Dallas Cowboys fans. Our fans are in there. They pack it out. They’ll be standing outside, standing on the roof or something. But I think for what they’re looking to do, they’re only going to be there a short term. I think it’ll be fine.”
Wilson, meanwhile, noted he has used the stadium for some of his offseason workouts, having spent the last few offseasons in the Los Angeles area.
“I don’t care where we play at,” Wilson said. “As long as there’s some white lines and telling me what’s a first down, what’s the end zone, I’m good. I’ve actually trained there at StubHub, it used to be Home Depot Center, right? I used to train there all the time, so yeah, it’s exciting.”