In NFL's LA vote, it's Kroenke's billions in a landslide over Chargers, Raiders
In the NFL's push to get to LA, owners cast aside Dean Spanos' loyalty and Mark Davis' passion for the mountains of money Stan Kroenke's stadium complex promises.
•
6 min read
HOUSTON -- Follow the money. The big money.
It was the key to toppling Watergate and it was the critical element to the NFL finally solving the Los Angels labyrinth. Rams owner Stan Kroenke has the most of it and he was willing to contribute the most toward a project that stands to make the most.
And so, for as popular as Chargers owner Dean Spanos is, and for as many votes as he had for his Carson proposal with the Raiders, and for as much good will as he engenders among his peers, and for all of loyal years or service, he got, at best, to ride in the sidecar while Kroenke brings a tricked-out new toy to Los Angeles. And Mark Davis ends up the third wheel -- as he frankly always was in this project, without the economic means or industrial currency to execute a deal of this magnitude.
Money, and the opportunity to make much more of it, trumps all in the world of business, and make no mistake, this is business of the highest order. The Los Angeles market has always been about making all 32 pieces of the league's ownership pie more robust, and with Kroenke's state-of-the-art facility now under construction -- which means impressive new digs for NFL Media among others -- times are very good in the NFL. Anyone surprised at the fan bases left in limbo, or, like St. Louis, left in the lurch, somehow wasn't paying attention the last 30 years to what's occurred in Baltimore and Cleveland and Houston and St. Louis.
The endgame for the NFL owners was to somehow get a way to couple the savvy and easy-likeability of Spanos with the cunning and detached approach of Kroenke, one of the richest men on the planet and one who never even pretended to shed a tear over getting out of Missouri as quickly as possible. It seemed they might be running out of time to get these two together, in Inglewood, but where there is a will there is a way, and when we broke the bombshell Saturday of Jerry Jones (the ultimate facilitator) crafting a last-minute resolution to get the Rams and Chargers together on Stan's Land, well, the direction of this move changed once and for all.
The owners were willing to do it even if it meant being stuck at these meetings at the Houston Westin Memorial City several hours longer than they wished, and even if it meant discarding the recommendation of their own L.A. Relocation Committee (5-1 in favor of Carson) and foisting a final solution that left some of the central parties in the process -- Spanos and Davis, to say nothing of the chairman of their project, Disney CEO Bob Iger -- exasperated. Lest you think otherwise, disregarding a committee recommendation of this magnitude is far from the norm. This took some big-league cajoling, even by NFL standards, to concoct a deal to fit the long-desired outcome, and the bar is now set for Kroenke's entertainment compound to be a world-class destination.
"I think this is going to be one of the great complexes in the world," Roger Goodell said at the culmination of a long day of back-door arm-wrestling that might go down as a crowning achievement should this foray into L.A. actually stick this time around.
Weird thing is, he was among the few overtly happy people here. Davis was angry at times and Spanos seemed dazed and crestfallen and Kroenke was downright morose for a man who had just been granted the keys to the NFL's ultimate kingdom (think Mr. Burns, only with less energy). When Kroenke called today's developments "bittersweet" in full monotone, one had to wonder if this was deadpan or performance art, as this was totally sweet for him and bitter only for Rams fans who happen to reside in St. Louis.
In fact, the biggest smiles were on the faces of the other owners, who now get to trade in a road trip to St. Louis for a game in this new palace and who stand to see their revenues grow with future Super Bowls and huge events destined for Inglewood. Patriots owner Bob Kraft, nearly strutting as he headed to his limo, chirped, "This is a great solution," with a big thumbs up. Giants owner Steve Tisch raved about the Inglewood location and said, "Personally, I am very happy with the result; I've lived in Los Angeles for 45 years."
As part of the deal, the league worked, at least on the surface, to provide incentives for the Chargers and Raiders to remain in their current locales. That's nominal at best, however. I cannot imagine the Spanos family, having gone this far down the road as to agree to relocation terms, would now be swayed by an additional $100 million in future stadium subsidizing should they stay in San Diego. We've come too far for that.
Spanos has first dibs to join Kroenke in Inglewood. The league wants two teams there, and this wasn't negotiated for nothing. Spanos was expectedly non-committal about his plans and I'm told was shocked by the turn of events Tuesday. He'll need some time to sort it out, but if he goes to the Jan. 17, 2017, deadline without executing his option to move to L.A., then I will be 10 times more shocked than he was Tuesday.
"I'm going to look at all of our options," Spanos said when asked about the prospects of staying in San Diego. "It's very difficult to say, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that."
When his head stops spinning it will be clear that he still has a lifeline that never existed before the specter of having to compete with Kroenke's monolith a few hours down the road, which would be daunting, to say the least. And trust me, if Spanos passes on the option to go to Inglewood, Davis will pounce. Like he will literally morph into a cheetah and jump on someone at the league office.
So why would Spanos let that option slide? Maybe San Diego comes up with the deal of a lifetime (and, really, really fast), but everyone I spoke to about this at an ownership level viewed this as a break-up that's not able to be put back together. Consider, even as a tenant at Staples Center, the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers make far, far more than they could at the decrepit LA Sports Arena or The Forum or, gulp, San Diego Sports Arena before that.
That doesn't mean Spanos necessarily leaves San Diego in 2016 -- although permission was granted by USC for two NFL teams to play at the L.A. Coliseum as soon as next season, sources said -- but I'd put the odds of him being in that Inglewood stadium upon completion in 2019 as somewhere north of 98 percent right now. Again, that's barring San Diego coming up with a stadium deal infinitely more appealing than anything that's come along to this point.
And, what now for Davis?
Well, he's always looked like the stepchild in all of this and in the end he was. People who saw him just outside the meeting room after the final vote, 30-2 for Kroenke/Jerry Jones, said he was equal parts devastated and ticked off. He's still searching for a long-term home and he wanted, ever so badly, to be in Los Angeles and could barely hide his detest at his current plight. No one wanted to be in Los Angeles more than him (not even Kroenke, whose wealth isn't remotely as tied to his NFL team), and now he's virtually assured of never getting there.
Davis seemed disinterested in the $100M that had just been put in his back pocket to stay in Oakland -- even petulant in the face of it -- and he couldn't wait to begin flirting again with San Antonio, or Guadalajara or any other outpost that will give him a sweetheart deal to move the iconic franchise bequeathed to him.
"I don't know where we'll be," Davis said, lost amid a horde of reporters in a hallway of this hotel. "My lease at the Coliseum is expired. ... America, the world, is possibility."
Perhaps. But where he won't be, I can assure you, in L.A. Unless he is the road team. Or paying for a ticket.
