Two longtime rivals, the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers, are teaming up to propose a shared stadium in Carson, Calif., near Los Angeles.

The teams continue to seek publicly funded stadiums in their current cities, but as a backup plan, they are considering building a $1.7 billion, privately funded stadium in Carson.

A joint statement released by the Chargers and Raiders on Thursday night read, in part: “We are pursuing this stadium option in Carson for one straightforward reason: If we cannot find a permanent solution in our home markets, we have no alternative but to preserve other options to guarantee the future economic viability of our franchises.

“In short, for the remainder of 2015, we intend to move down two tracks simultaneously: On track one, we will continue to work in our home markets to find permanent stadium solutions that are publicly acceptable. On track two, we will work in Carson to preserve our options, and the future economic viability of our franchises, in the event that our efforts in our local markets fail.

“Throughout this process we will respect the rules and procedures set forth by the league and defer completely to the ultimate decision of the NFL’s owners.”

The Los Angeles area last had an NFL team in the 1994 season, after which the Rams moved to St. Louis and the Raiders moved back to their original home in Oakland.

In January, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke announced that he planned to build an 80,000-seat stadium in Inglewood, Calif., at the former Hollywood Park site.

The Carson site would have a capacity of 68,000 to 72,000, according to the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper reported that business and labor leaders spearheading the Carson stadium project will announce detailed plans Friday.