Now more than ever, NFL needs Los Angeles

PHOENIX – On the same day more than 15,000 signed petitions were delivered to Carson’s city hall in support of a stadium for the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders and fancy renditions of an extravagant stadium in Inglewood for the St. Louis Rams were released, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stood at a podium in Phoenix and said his league is not focused on Los Angeles for the 2016 season.
Well isn’t that just the darnedest thing you’ve ever heard.
Less then 400 miles from where Goodell stood, two Los Angeles stadium proposals were chugging along to full entitlement and being shovel ready.
Meanwhile, Oakland, San Diego and St. Louis stood considerably behind in the process, their stadium plans still all talk at the moment. They will remain so until financing is in place, and with all three markets facing unique challenges relative to paying for new venues, uncertainty and anxiety remain.
That represents an ironic twist in the 20-year-long battle to bring football back to Los Angeles.
For two decades L.A. struggled to figure out the complex problem of where to put a stadium, how to pay for it and who would play in it.
And for years the NFL beautifully played our dysfunction to it’s benefit, manipulating the threat of an open L.A. market to get new palaces built in Minnesota and Seattle among others.
Lo and behold, Los Angeles has finally connected all the necessary dots.
And while St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego scramble to come up with plans that make financial sense for their teams, it’s more apparent than ever the interesting role reversal that’s taken place.
Who needs who now, NFL?
So a word of warning to the commissioner. If you really aren’t focused on L.A. for 2016, you might want to start.
We’re about to save the day.
The threat of us will probably get another stadium built, maybe in St. Louis where strong state leadership and a more willing appetite to spend taxpayer money might keep pro football along the Mississippi River.
But it seems hopeless that all three cities will get deals done. The odds are stacked too high, the financing too complex and the public will too weak to hit the trifecta.
Someone – perhaps some two – will have to seek refuge in Los Angeles.
The power shift isn’t lost on Goodell, no matter how much water he threw on the thought of pro football back in Los Angeles by 2016.
It will be. And he knows it.
His focus now, and he admitted it, is the importance of getting it right in L.A.
“If we go back to the Los Angeles market, we want to succeed for the long-term,” Goodell said.
Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.
See, it’s no longer a question of if the NFL returns. And it’s growing increasingly clear it’s not a question of when, either.
It’s about the right teams and the right owners creating the best chance of not only returning to L.A., but seizing it, dominating it, owning it and flourishing in it.
That is the challenge Goodell and the owners he works for are now tasked with, and it’s not as easy as saying the Rams stay in St. Louis if Missouri steps up with a stadium plan and the Chargers and Raiders moving to Carson if San Diego and Oakland don’t.
The Rams, with all their history in Los Angeles, a proud fan base still intact, multi-billionaire owner Stan Kroenke and a brilliantly conceived stadium located in an easily accessible city makes too much sense to ignore.
Even with an existing stadium plan on the table in St. Louis and if San Diego and Oakland can’t come up with plans for new homes for the Chargers and Rams.
That would be an easy fix.
Demand a partnership between Kroenke and Chargers owner Dean Spanos in which they share the stadium in Inglewood.
Kroenke wants to be in L.A., no matter what it seems. Grant him his wish, but do it on your terms.
Move the Raiders to St. Louis, where a publicly financed stadium awaits the Silver and Black.
That might not make everyone completely happy. But it sure beats playing in revenue challenged old stadiums or in the case of St. Louis, not having pro football at all.
It’s a workable deal. More importantly, it sets Los Angles up beautifully for long-term success.
The NFL has manipulated L.A. to it’s benefit for years. Now it’s time Goodell and the owners manipulate the situation to appease us.
It’s the least they can do, seeing how badly then need us now.

Raiders owner Mark Davis shares thoughts at NFL owners meetings

WHERE ARE YOU GUYS RIGHT NOW IN HE BAY AREA?

We’re still working in Oakland trying to get something done.

DO YOU THINK IT WILL HAPPEN?

Trying.

HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THE CITY AND COUNTY MUTUALLY SIGNING OFF ON COLISEUM LAND USE?

Hopefully that should make a difference. Now that there’s going to be one voice there, it will be interesting to see how the project progresses.

ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC?

I don’t know. I’m not optimistic. I’m not pessimistic. I’m a realist. We’l just see how it goes.

WHAT SENSE DO YOU GET FLOYD KEPHART CAN PUT THIS DEAL TOGETHER?

I don’t know Floyd that well.

BUT NOW THAT IT LOOKS LIKE CITY AND COUNTY ARE ON ONE PAGE YOU CAN MOVE FORWARD?

The city, the county, Floyd Kephart. It doesn’t necessarily have to entail Floyd. As long as the city and county are talking in one voice it gives us the opportunity to do something.

WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR A NEW HOME IN OAKLAND?

In Oakland we just need something that makes our fans proud, make out team proud and give us an opportunity to be successful.

YOUR VIEW ON CARSON?

It’s a great project. It’s a good opportunity and a good option.

HOW DID THE PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CHARGERS COME ABOUT?

I guess it’s all part of this long process. Dean (Spanos) and I sat down for the first time and really got to know each other a little bit. And saw that we had like-minded business views and thought that it would work out.

By splitting it with two teams in makes it much easier to finance it and recoup the revenues as well.

THERE IS TALK AN NFL TEAM WIN BE IN L.A. BY 2016. DO YOU SHARE THAT FEELING?

I’ve heard that for the last 20 years. You never know. You really never know. But we’re working hard towards getting something done in our own market. If all three of us are successful in our own markets, maybe there won’t.

DO YOU THINK RAMS OWNER STAN KROENKE HAS A PREFERRED END GAME?

You’d have to ask Stan. I think that’s the most fair way to go about these questions. I don’t even have a guess.

DID RAMS PLAY ON INGLEWOOD FORCE YOUR HAND?

For me there’s no time frames or time lines or anyone kick starting anything that I’m going to do. I’m going to do what’s right and I want to do it right. I’ve seen certain situations and certain stadiums rushed and it didn’t quite come out the way they planned. I don;t want that to happen. I want to make sure whatever we do, we do it right.

DO YOU WORRY ABOUT BEING THE ODD MAN OUT IN L.A.?

No, again there’s three teams right now and two sites. But three teams looking for homes in their current markets and there are two spots in Los Angeles. We’ll just see what happens. It won’t be the end of the world.

 

 

 

NFL official: Los Angeles situation is “High tension”

PHOENIX – The lush, manicured landscape and desert oasis ambiance of the luxurious Arizona hotel the National Football League has gathered this week seems like a curious place to stage a game of demolition derby.
On the other hand, considering the hundreds of millions of dollars resting in the outcome, the opulence and indulgence offers the ideal setting for such a greedy, high-stakes competition to decide what NFL will land the golden goose known formally as the vacant Los Angeles market.
“High tension,” is how NFL vice president Eric Grubman described situation.
He should know. As the league point man on relocation to Los Angeles and retaining teams in their current markets, Grubman will stand before league owners tomorrow to deliver updates on the quagmire that Los Angeles is becoming.
That means bringing owners up to date on what’s going on with the Raiders and Chargers fights to get new stadiums in Oakland and San Diego – the league seems skeptical of either getting it done – and their partnership in a shared stadium in Carson.
In addition to giving updates on the Rams situation in St. Louis and owner Stan Kroenke’s plan to build a stadium on the old Hollywood Park race track in Inglewood.
Presumably to be the new home for the Rams.
Unless Missouri steps up with a plan to keep them in St. Louis – something the NFL has a noticeable level of confidence in, despite the uphill climb squeezing public money out of cities and states these days.
Or maybe in spite of that plan, if Kroenke’s wish is to simply move to Los Angeles.
“Stan will turn his card over when he has to,” Grubman said, not sure himself what Kroenke’s end game is.
Grubman doesn’t believe owners would OK Kroenke walking away from $500 million in public assistance. And he doesn’t think Kroenke would disobey them by going rogue.
Although he isn’t 100 percent certain.
No one is.
Kroenke holds all the cards at the moment.
What we do know is, St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego essentially have until the end of 2015 to put together approved stadium plans.
If not, their teams are fee to file for relocation to Los Angeles beginning January 1.
All of which should make for an interesting Monday for Grubman, who will tell owners Kroenke’s Inglewood project is entitled and ready to be built and that the Chargers and Raiders are on target for an approved Carson project by May.
But that St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego remain quite a distance from figuring out their situations.
“I’ll be on the hot seat,” he said, wearing a wry smile.
It doesn’t have to be this way. With just a little bit of common sense and a tad bit of decency we can pave a much smoother road back to Los Angeles.
And in the process, avoid the ugly bloodletting we’ll witness over the next six or seven months in which the Rams, Raiders and Chargers are pitted against each other while far too much time, energy, rhetoric and money will be spent deciding an outcome.
But then, that would mean the NFL actually being in front of the process rather than playing catch up.
As one league official told me on Sunday, that would contradict just about everything that’s happened during the league’s feeble two-decade long march back to the City of Angels.
Culminating with the ugly situation we now face in which three of the league’s 32 teams – or roughly 10 percent of the NFL – have become lame ducks in their home markets and all three are officially attached to a pair of competing stadium plans in the Los Angeles area.
With one owner – Kroenke – essentially a step ahead of everyone, including the league.
“It’s been 20 years of pretty much unrelenting incompetence by the NFL in the LA market,” the league official said.
Unless the league takes control between now and the end of the calendar year, it’s likely to get much worse.
“The question is, who really believes the NFL knows what it’s doing at this point regarding L.A?,” a league official asked.
Grubman will stand before the owners Monday hoping to shed some light on things.
The reality is, the 20-year mess the NFL has made of Los Angeles is headed to a fascinating finish.
And maybe even an ugly one.

Raiders stadium hopes take a step forward

The Raiders hopes of remaining in Oakland, specifically on the land they currently call home in the East Bay, took a step forward Friday when the Oakland City Council unanimously approved an exclusive negotiating agreement between the city, the County of Alameda and the developer of a project that could include a new stadium for the Raiders.

The ENA now goes to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, who will consider the matter on Tuesday.

If approval is granted – as expected – New City Development LLC can approach the Raiders about a stadium deal with full confidence Oakland and Alameda are on board with plans for the 120 acres of land they both own that surrounds both the O,co Coliseum and Oracle Arena.

That won’t mean the Raiders are staying put in Oakland, and the developer and county and city must still resolve the $100 million dept still tied to the Coliseum dating back to the Raiders return to Oakland 20 years ago.

But it will mean the county and city, which have been at odds for years, are finally working together on the jointly owned land and helps paves the way for the Raiders to remain in Oakland.

 

Garcetti says downtown L.A. stadium plan not dead; AEG not taking it up again

By Vincent Bonsignore
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a radio interview Thursday that a proposal to build an NFL Stadium downtown is not dead.
The apparent demise of the development was “overreported,” Garcetti told KNX Radio during a regular “Ask the Mayor” segment.
He said environmental work is complete and a downtown plan is ready, should someone want to take the city up on it.
A source close to AEG said Garcetti’s comment is no indication that the Farmer’s Field project is being revived in any way.
The company last week, pulled the plug on its involvement with the project and did not seek an extension on rights they’d secured. AEG spent more than $55 million on the project, which was fully entitled, and landed a lucrative naming rights deal with Farmers Insurance. It had all the elements in place, except a team that was committed to it.
As for possible plans to build a stadium in Inglewood or Carson, the mayor said he would embrace that as well.
“We’re all one city,” Garcetti said.
– The Associated Press contributed to this post