OT: Owners upset Chargers moving???

[Joey007]

Eh. For all we know, this just might be a fluff up piece to help make the NFL owners not seem like the bad guys here.

 

[nabwong]

Hahahahahah!

Somehow Goddell and the owners have found a way to ruin the NFL--a can't miss cornerstone of American popular culture. It is incomprehensible.

Let me count the ways:
- blatant front office favoritis, lies and incompetence
- arbitrary and inconsistent enforcement of policy: DV, filming, tampering, cap, equipment, bounties, deflation
- changing game play to favor the offensive passing game (as a favor to Irsay and to rebuke the Pats for man handling the 2001 Rams), not realizing that they ruin Parity by devaluing the running game and making teams QB dependent
- Thursday Night Football, which everyone hates, the epitome of greed
- botched cover ups and media leaks, which erode public confidence and corrupt the media
- manipulative owners, who wield more power than their egos can handle
- teams jumping haphazardly between cities, alienating massive fan bases
- cover ups, denials and failure to address the effect of Concussions on their players over a period of decades

It's a story of greed, jealousy, corruption, cronyism and power. Someone should turn it into a screenplay. Call it "Killing the Golden Goose"

I actually like Thursday football for my own greedy self. I wish there was football everyday. Lol.

 

[Bill Lee]

I found an article ( Spanos: Mission Valley not an option for new stadium ) that makes it all pretty clear:

Spanos also explained that San Diego, as one of the smallest markets in the NFL, doesn’t have enough large corporations to make an unsubsidized stadium feasible.

"Take a Los Angeles or a New York or the San Francisco market, they can easily privately finance the stadiums because there's enough businesses to generate enough money and all your naming rights and sponsorships and corporate premium-type sales in the stadium," he said. "Here in this marketplace it's not big enough to do that and you need some sort of subsidy to get it done."

Spanos noted that in other NFL markets of similar size to San Diego, new stadiums built in recent years have received subsidies equal to at least half the total cost of the project.

I guess he's referring to the Vikings and the Cowboys, in terms of recent teams getting subsidies. The Rams and Giants (Jets) stadiums were largely privately funded.

The truth is that a lot of these owners can no longer afford their teams...think of it as a billionaire's version of being "House poor."

Successful owners are either very wealthy or have highly successful franchises that continuously generate cash and wealth (examples of the latter are Jerruh and Bob).

The Spanos family is just not rich enough to maintain an NFL Franchise into the 21st century. The Wilsons allowed the Bills to deteriorate over the years and it's anybody's guess whether they will really keep it in Northern New York.

The Salary Cap and the Revenue Sharing Arrangement is designed to keep owners like the Spanos' and Wilsons on life support. Sooner or later, other owners will get tired of subsidizing them and, while they won't want to lose the "32 markets," they will want owners with deeper pockets to own the teams in some of those markets.

I think we're going to see more owners like Paul Allen and Shahid Khan, with old line owners getting nudged out of the club. In other words, I don't think a guy who was at Bob Kraft's level of wealth when he bought the Patriots would be able to buy a Franchise today.

There are 540 billionaires in the US. Over half of them are worth over $5 billion.

Interesting premise that the richer owners will eventually get sick of subsidizing the poorer owners via revenue sharing. It's so sad that everyone is in it for themselves these days, but you are correct that in most cases everybody is in it for themselves these days, even if this means that eventually the whole thing will collapse.

On the other hand, one thing so many of us like about the NFL is that it did so many things to insure competitive balance. One thing that sucks about MLB and EPL is that you can predict to a great degree of accuracy which teams are going to be good and which teams are going to suck.

In short, the current regime is more than willing to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs because they want a nice roast goose dinner right now, damn it. It's a metaphor for the entire USA, IMHO.

In the context of the SD to LA deal, I have heard discussions that say the move to LA will double the value of the team, which means if/when the Spanos family sells the team they will get a much larger windfall. No one will admit this is the main reason, but as above, Spanos himself is talking about how much more money one can make in LA instead of SD, so it's obvious he understands the implications.

 

[convertedpatsfan]

Which is weird, because while I think the Raiders should stay in Oakland, they made more sense for LA than the Rams did. While they haven't been perennial winners in a long while, they at least had some sort of personality...other than that of a total loser like the Rams. Their merch would have sold better too because it's easier to be "stylish" with black than with the Rams high-school esque blue and gold. And style is important in LA (see Brooklyn Nets for an example).

Anyway...everyone knows Spanos will crawl back to San Diego with his tail between his legs...and also, still no stadium deal.

Knowing the cluster**** of the NFL, I wonder if this was an old grudge against the late Al Davis, who sued the league for the right to move to LA, then sued them when he went back to Oakland. Because logically, you're right. But there's no logic it seems with the latest LA moves.

I also read that some gangs in LA wore Raiders gear, but that seems like a stupid reason to send San Diego down the road and the Raiders to Vegas.

I'm sure if anyone explained the whole thing from start to finish, it would be utterly ridiculous.

 

[Bill Lee]

Eh. For all we know, this just might be a fluff up piece to help make the NFL owners not seem like the bad guys here.

Good point. It is 'bad optics' for SD to move to LA and screw over their fan base, just like it was 'bad optics' for STL to move to LA and play football in front of so many empty seats at the Coliseum, but when push comes to shove, money talks and ******** walks.

They will get a chance to show how they really feel when they vote to approve or reject the move. I just read it takes 24 votes to approve the move. I bet the move will be approved. I think there might be legal implications if they vote it down (i.e. SD can sue the league) and the move was already telegraphed last year when the NFL insisted that the Rams offer to rent their new stadium to the Chargers as a part of approving that deal. It'd now look really stupid if the NFL says the Chargers can't take advantage of something the NFL insisted be a part of the Rams deal.

So, yeah, this is a fluff piece. The fix is in.

 

[TomPatriot]

I'm so confused.

So are they. But you and I are at the very least "generally aware," they are clueless.

 

[Bill Lee]

Knowing the cluster**** of the NFL, I wonder if this was an old grudge against the late Al Davis, who sued the league for the right to move to LA, then sued them when he went back to Oakland. Because logically, you're right. But there's no logic it seems with the latest LA moves.

I also read that some gangs in LA wore Raiders gear, but that seems like a stupid reason to send San Diego down the road and the Raiders to Vegas.

I'm sure if anyone explained the whole thing from start to finish, it would be utterly ridiculous.

I don't think the NFL is concerned with what makes sense from a fan's point of view. They clearly feel LA has a strong enough market to support any old team that gets moved into that mega-development in Inglewood. And given that, I think screwing over Al Davis is a part of why the Chargers were given the option to move to Inglewood while the Raiders were not.

From what I hear the NFL owners are moderately surprised that Davis was able to get the LV legislature to approve so much money for a stadium in LV. Given how they want to continue to stick the public for the bill for new stadiums, and given that public acceptance for gambling (err, gaming) is on the rise, it's pretty clear that the Raiders move to LV will be approved.

So, in the end, the other 29 teams are going to get a windfall from the $1.95B in stadium relocation fees without having to spend a dime, and the only fallout is the bad optics of it all, but in the great scheme of things, that's minor. Another advantage is that three of the lowest valued franchises will double in value, which will make the remaining franchises even more valuable in the future. It's all turning up roses for the greedy NFL owners, and all turning to sh!t for the STL, SD and OAK fans who've supported them all these years.

I guess it isn't so much about how rich the owners are, it's more about how much richer LA and LV is compared to STL, SD and OAK. Those cities have a lot greater ability to sell luxury boxes, PSLs and naming rights, so they're gonna get the teams. In the case of LV, they're also more willing to steer public funds to get the stadium built so they're in and OAK is out.

 

[Dr Pain]

My guess is the Rams will fail in LA as will the Chargers. I love that NFL viewership in LA has declined since the Rams moved there. I think the Raiders will be fine in Las Vegas
After arrival of Rams, TV ratings decline in Los Angeles

 

[Wheelman]

Sounds like another PR job by the NYJFL* to try to reel back in the Chargers fans.

But if it's true. San Diego has all the leverage. That means making Spanos pay for 100% of the stadium, including all infrastructure connecting to the stadium.

Stand strong San Diegans! Say NO to handouts to the billionaire. Don't give them a single cent!

 

[Wheelman]

Goodell is absolutely ****ing useless. You could replace him with a fake plant and the league would be run better.

That's what the owners wanted. Goodell is just the whipping boy. The greedy corrupt owners are the ones who f***ed this up. They're behind this.

 

[patfanken]

He IS a fake plant. A fake "commissioner" who is a plant for the Jets and Giants.

I'd be fine with him as a "fake plant" just vegitating and doing nothing. THAT would be a vast improvement over his growing list of pro-active blunders, misteps and lies that started right from the day he weaseled his way into the job.

 

[BTTA]

If I'm Spanos, I get the team moved and then sell it for twice what I could have gotten in SD (according to reports in this thread), and be done with the NFL. This is the right time to "sell high" with the NFL.