Semi-OT: Kraft in favor of moving Raiders to Vegas

[mgteich]

The wounds are pretty deep. His dad's filing an anti-trust suit against the league after moving his team to LA was the nuclear option, and he doubled-down by siding with the USFL when they filed an anti-trust suit against the NFL a few years later. Of course we now see why an owner could be driven to take such options, but we can also see how resented his son still is by the rest of the league.

If the league gives him the choice of losing money in Oakland or suing the league, what do you expect him to do? What should he do?

 

[Ivan]

If the league gives him the choice of losing money in Oakland or suing the league, what do you expect him to do? What should he do?

If Davis is "losing money" where did he come up with half a billion to build a stadium in Las Vegas?

The only way any NFL owner can lose money is through gross incompetence or a drug habit like Jim Irsay has.

 

[XLIX]

I've noticed it's very easy for people to tell other people what to do when they have no skin in the same.

If I owned an NFL team and played in the worst stadium in the league and could increase my team's value by about a half a billion dollars by relocating, I sure as hell would do it. And so would everyone in this thread.

 

[1960Pats]

Last we knew owners cannot sue the league.

Why does this keep coming up? The reason that the owners allowed Kroenke to get the opening in LA was because of their fear that he would sue the league. Apparently the owners don't know that the NYJFL can't be sued.

 

[IllegalContact]

I don't like any out the 31 but I believe fans who have supported their franchise for decades and decades deserve better than the money grabs these billionaire owners pull.

Sounds cute......but you have to be a billionaire to own one of these teams, and they don't become billionaires through dwelling on fans 'deserving better'

And to suppose that bob Kraft is any different is plain ole stupid

 

[IllegalContact]

Why does this keep coming up? The reason that the owners allowed Kroenke to get the opening in LA was because of their fear that he would sue the league. Apparently the owners don't know that the NYJFL can't be sued.

Depends on your reasons for suing.....too many ninnies here put the loss of draft picks in the same capacity as team relocation as a cause for suing.

It has already been proven that teams can move with relative ease and there's nothing the league can do to stop it. Pack up the vans and show up somewhere else. Once you're there, they're not going to send you back

 

[Bill Lee]

Every franchise in the NFL is printing money and the claim they aren't viable there is garbage.

Indeed. The TV money alone is enough to make your mind boggle, then add to that all the other revenue sources and it's tremendous.

But keep in mind this class of businessman doesn't think like the average Joe. There is never enough money for them.

I don't like any out the 31 but I believe fans who have supported their franchise for decades and decades deserve better than the money grabs these billionaire owners pull.

As Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, "Deserve's got nuttin' to do with it...", at least in the minds of the super-rich. In their minds the only deserving one is themselves.

 

[Bill Lee]

If the league gives him the choice of losing money in Oakland or suing the league, what do you expect him to do? What should he do?

Regarding Al Davis, I'm not sure what his options were. Currently the owners have signed agreements to not sue the NFL as a condition of them being owners. I don't know when that rule was put in, but I'm sure if it wasn't in before Al Davis sued the league it must have gone in shortly thereafter. It's clear the procedure to move a franchise was rigorously defined some point after Davis sued, in response to that suit. Note that all this happened in the pre-web days so not much of the detail is online, or at least I haven't been able to find a good on-line source about the early Al Davis vs NFL cases.

Why does this keep coming up?

See above.

The reason that the owners allowed Kroenke to get the opening in LA was because of their fear that he would sue the league.

I hadn't heard this line of reasoning before, do you have any references?

 

[1960Pats]

I hadn't heard this line of reasoning before, do you have any references?

I've posted that here a couple of times. It was in an article someone posted about the Rams move to LA. I'll see if I can dig it up.

 

[1960Pats]

Depends on your reasons for suing.....too many ninnies here put the loss of draft picks in the same capacity as team relocation as a cause for suing.

It has already been proven that teams can move with relative ease and there's nothing the league can do to stop it. Pack up the vans and show up somewhere else. Once you're there, they're not going to send you back

I agree that a law suit wasn't in the cards for Kraft and the draft picks, but something other than complete capitulation would have been better. His continued support of Fraudell at every turn hasn't helped either.

 

[1960Pats]

Sounds cute......but you have to be a billionaire to own one of these teams, and they don't become billionaires through dwelling on fans 'deserving better'

And to suppose that bob Kraft is any different is plain ole stupid

Kraft wanted to be treated differently because of his own claims that he's a fan just like everyone else. Then again, maybe his claim was that he was a fan.

Since Fraudell has arrived Kraft has been trying to play on both sides of the fence. All he has done is get caught on the top. Maybe he should have bought one of these first...

 

[Bill Lee]

I've posted that here a couple of times. It was in an article someone posted about the Rams move to LA. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Thanks!

In the mean time, you may or may not find this article by Andrew Brandt interesting:

MMQB: Overcoming the NFL’s Fear and Loathing of Las Vegas

He's a former agent, and a former VP of player finance and chief counsel at Green Bay, and IMHO he's pretty well plugged in. I find it interesting he's never mentioned the fear of a law suit by Kronke in all his coverage of the LA saga.

 

[Triumph]

Kraft wants a casino across from Pats Place so of course he supports the the NFL moving to Vegas.

 

[1960Pats]

Thanks!

In the mean time, you may or may not find this article by Andrew Brandt interesting:

MMQB: Overcoming the NFL’s Fear and Loathing of Las Vegas

He's a former agent, and a former VP of player finance and chief counsel at Green Bay, and IMHO he's pretty well plugged in. I find it interesting he's never mentioned the fear of a law suit by Kronke in all his coverage of the LA saga.

I found it. Unfortunately it was an article from BSPN and I posted the link at the bottom. Here's the section of the article that talks of Kroenke's threat.

But Kroenke, who was well-versed in relocation politics after he had helped move the Rams to St. Louis as a minority owner after the 1994 season, told a few owners that he would play one more season in St. Louis but would exercise his right to relocate in 2015 -- "when the window is open," he told associates. Some took Kroenke's declaration as a veiled threat to sue if anyone tried to block him; others understood that he had paid a fortune for the land and wanted to move forward. Jerry Jones, who once played himself on an episode of Entourage brokering the NFL's return to LA, implored Kroenke to "just go" and not wait for the league's sluggish bureaucracy.​

Inside the NFL's wild return to LA

 

[Bill Lee]

Here's the section of the article that talks of Kroenke's threat.

Very interesting. It very well could be that he had some leverage via a threat to sue.

If you google ( nfl relocation policy - Google Search ) you can see there is a very well developed official NFL policy on relocation. The 2nd article ( The NFL's Los Angeles relocation process, explained ) talks about how that was put in place after Al Davis's infamous move to LA.

But of course, with the NFL, their official policies seem to be all for show, and what they end up doing is whatever the hell they feel like doing.

 

[IllegalContact]

Kraft wanted to be treated differently because of his own claims that he's a fan just like everyone else. Then again, maybe his claim was that he was a fan.
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I figured out what most of you are only now realizing during his stadium escapades in Boston and CT

he had the Foxboro plan from the get go and manipulated things to get as much $$ out of the state as possible.......I simply leave him as a rich guy who happened to invest in something I was interested in......I give him credit for turning the Pats organization into a good one.

I guess realizing this during things like Deflategate casts more negativity than being disingenuous during a process that happened to work out for me..........I think he's the same douche in both and has been concerned with the same thing all along

 

[IllegalContact]

Kraft wants a casino across from Pats Place so of course he supports the the NFL moving to Vegas.

Sure.....come to think of it, why wouldn't you?

 

[Triumph]

Sure.....come to think of it, why wouldn't you?

I would not want a casino across from the stadium.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

Regarding Al Davis, I'm not sure what his options were. Currently the owners have signed agreements to not sue the NFL as a condition of them being owners. I don't know when that rule was put in, but I'm sure if it wasn't in before Al Davis sued the league it must have gone in shortly thereafter.

According to McCann and other lawyers, federal law does not allow you to waive your right to sue on antitrust grounds. In other words, courts will not enforce a "no sue" clause in a contract when an antitrust lawsuit is involved.

 

[Kontradiction]

Not surprising. Kraft would probably support public executions by way of guillotine at the 50 yard line during halftime of every home game if it put money in his pocket.

Relax, you three. I'm only half joking.