NFL tells St. Louis to firm up stadium plan
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NFL tells St. Louis to firm up stadium plan
IRVING, Texas • In the National Football League’s great stadium race, deadlines emerged Wednesday, while league officials issued stern warnings and stadium backers squeezed their proposals to wring out sweeter deals.
A key member of the NFL’s Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities warned St. Louis stadium planners that the league cannot seriously consider any local proposal unless aldermen first approve a financing package now before a board committee.
Then news broke that Rams owner Stan Kroenke had sent a letter to the league’s LA committee agreeing to partner with another team in his proposed Los Angeles stadium, if owners allow him to move there.
By day’s end, NFL owners and officials had set a list of deadlines: Hometown stadium plans will be due to the NFL, in their most complete form possible, by Dec 28. Team owners can apply to relocate on Jan. 4.
And league owners scheduled their next meeting — which could include a relocation vote — for Jan. 12 in Houston.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York. “I really don’t. I think this is unchartered waters right now.”
NFL owners arrived here this week, at the Four Seasons hotel and resort in this golf-course-filled suburb of Dallas, with hopes of pinning down details on a string of stadium proposals from San Diego to St. Louis.
Kroenke has proposed building a nearly $2 billion stadium in Inglewood, Calif., and moving the Rams before next season starts. San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis have countered with a two-team proposal in Carson, Calif., just down the freeway.
The two sides have not always been amicable. But the LA committee urged Kroenke to make room for another team in Inglewood. Late last week, the enigmatic owner wrote to the committee promising a partnership.
Kroenke’s letter offered a 50/50 split of stadium construction costs and game-day revenue.
Non-NFL dollars, such as concerts and other events, would not be split, nor would those raised outside of a specified stadium footprint — such as income from the accompanying retail developments Kroenke plans to build around the Inglewood stadium, league sources said.
Owners were happy with Kroenke, several said. Still, they said that Kroenke didn’t now have the 24 of 32 votes he’d need to move his team.
But owners largely maintained on Wednesday that their first priority wasn’t LA — it was evaluating proposals to build new stadiums and keep football teams in home markets. If San Diego and St. Louis can nail down public financing, and secure the needed legislative approval, owners wouldn’t allow other owners to move their teams to Los Angeles, they suggested.
“St. Louis and San Diego are trying to push things forward at this point,” York said. “I want to make sure, first and foremost, I look at what happens in the home markets, and then we’ll get to if there’s an LA opportunity.”
NEW DEAL for St. Louis Stadium
At the same time, news leaked out in the vaulted hallways here that Kroenke wasn’t the only one working to sweeten his stadium proposal. St. Louis had pitched a new deal, too.
Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force had, a few weeks ago, proposed using a $158 million naming rights deal to pay for a portion of the construction cost on a potential St. Louis riverfront stadium.
But in recent private correspondence with the league, Nixon’s task force said it would give naming rights back to the team, a league source said. The task force suggested, instead, using anticipated game-day tax revenue to back construction. Those taxes were, in previous versions of the deal, supposed to reimburse the NFL team for the loss of naming rights dollars.
Neither city officials nor Nixon’s stadium task force commented on the subject. But owners said they generally thought it was a good move for St. Louis.
“They’ve restructured their deal somewhat,” said Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, a member of the league’s influential LA committee. “And so I think they’ve made some good progress. But there’s a lot that remains to be seen in their proposal.”
Still, McNair also warned that St. Louis was on the verge of trouble.
Nixon’s stadium task force, he said, must pin down all financing details and governmental approvals before the league can even consider St. Louis’ $1 billion stadium proposal.
“Until its certain, there’s no deal,” McNair said. “You really can’t consider it until it’s certain. So it’s in their best interest to firm it up.”
The St. Louis plan is now stuck in the Board of Aldermen’s Ways and Means committee. The committee has held three public hearings, but has yet to schedule a vote on the city financing package. The board goes on winter break in a week-and-a-half and returns Jan. 8.
McNair frowned at the potential January aldermanic vote. “Yeah, that’s not going to help them,” he said.
McNair is among those owners pushing for a relocation vote in January. The LA proposals, he said, are solid.
“I think they’re both in good shape,” he said. “They’ve got good proposals.”
St. Louis needs its plan nailed down, and fast, to assure league owners that the task force can produce the money and approvals it says it can, several owners have said.
“Is the local community putting up a proposal that’s a firm proposal — or is it just conversation?” McNair asked.
“In any of the three communities, we don’t have any proposal that is a firm deal in which they say we’ve gotten all the governmental approvals, and we have the money, and we have the sources, and everything’s ready to go,” he said.
“And that’s where we need to be in order to make a decision.”
If St. Louis can’t get a deal done by December, that might just be it, some owners said.
“It’s not like this deadline has snuck up on people,” York said. “We’ve been really clear when things need to get buttoned up. People know what the deadline is, and what they need to have done.”
NFL tells St. Louis to firm up stadium plan
IRVING, Texas • In the National Football League’s great stadium race, deadlines emerged Wednesday, while league officials issued stern warnings and stadium backers squeezed their proposals to wring out sweeter deals.
A key member of the NFL’s Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities warned St. Louis stadium planners that the league cannot seriously consider any local proposal unless aldermen first approve a financing package now before a board committee.
Then news broke that Rams owner Stan Kroenke had sent a letter to the league’s LA committee agreeing to partner with another team in his proposed Los Angeles stadium, if owners allow him to move there.
By day’s end, NFL owners and officials had set a list of deadlines: Hometown stadium plans will be due to the NFL, in their most complete form possible, by Dec 28. Team owners can apply to relocate on Jan. 4.
And league owners scheduled their next meeting — which could include a relocation vote — for Jan. 12 in Houston.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York. “I really don’t. I think this is unchartered waters right now.”
NFL owners arrived here this week, at the Four Seasons hotel and resort in this golf-course-filled suburb of Dallas, with hopes of pinning down details on a string of stadium proposals from San Diego to St. Louis.
Kroenke has proposed building a nearly $2 billion stadium in Inglewood, Calif., and moving the Rams before next season starts. San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis have countered with a two-team proposal in Carson, Calif., just down the freeway.
The two sides have not always been amicable. But the LA committee urged Kroenke to make room for another team in Inglewood. Late last week, the enigmatic owner wrote to the committee promising a partnership.
Kroenke’s letter offered a 50/50 split of stadium construction costs and game-day revenue.
Non-NFL dollars, such as concerts and other events, would not be split, nor would those raised outside of a specified stadium footprint — such as income from the accompanying retail developments Kroenke plans to build around the Inglewood stadium, league sources said.
Owners were happy with Kroenke, several said. Still, they said that Kroenke didn’t now have the 24 of 32 votes he’d need to move his team.
But owners largely maintained on Wednesday that their first priority wasn’t LA — it was evaluating proposals to build new stadiums and keep football teams in home markets. If San Diego and St. Louis can nail down public financing, and secure the needed legislative approval, owners wouldn’t allow other owners to move their teams to Los Angeles, they suggested.
“St. Louis and San Diego are trying to push things forward at this point,” York said. “I want to make sure, first and foremost, I look at what happens in the home markets, and then we’ll get to if there’s an LA opportunity.”
NEW DEAL for St. Louis Stadium
At the same time, news leaked out in the vaulted hallways here that Kroenke wasn’t the only one working to sweeten his stadium proposal. St. Louis had pitched a new deal, too.
Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force had, a few weeks ago, proposed using a $158 million naming rights deal to pay for a portion of the construction cost on a potential St. Louis riverfront stadium.
But in recent private correspondence with the league, Nixon’s task force said it would give naming rights back to the team, a league source said. The task force suggested, instead, using anticipated game-day tax revenue to back construction. Those taxes were, in previous versions of the deal, supposed to reimburse the NFL team for the loss of naming rights dollars.
Neither city officials nor Nixon’s stadium task force commented on the subject. But owners said they generally thought it was a good move for St. Louis.
“They’ve restructured their deal somewhat,” said Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, a member of the league’s influential LA committee. “And so I think they’ve made some good progress. But there’s a lot that remains to be seen in their proposal.”
Still, McNair also warned that St. Louis was on the verge of trouble.
Nixon’s stadium task force, he said, must pin down all financing details and governmental approvals before the league can even consider St. Louis’ $1 billion stadium proposal.
“Until its certain, there’s no deal,” McNair said. “You really can’t consider it until it’s certain. So it’s in their best interest to firm it up.”
The St. Louis plan is now stuck in the Board of Aldermen’s Ways and Means committee. The committee has held three public hearings, but has yet to schedule a vote on the city financing package. The board goes on winter break in a week-and-a-half and returns Jan. 8.
McNair frowned at the potential January aldermanic vote. “Yeah, that’s not going to help them,” he said.
McNair is among those owners pushing for a relocation vote in January. The LA proposals, he said, are solid.
“I think they’re both in good shape,” he said. “They’ve got good proposals.”
St. Louis needs its plan nailed down, and fast, to assure league owners that the task force can produce the money and approvals it says it can, several owners have said.
“Is the local community putting up a proposal that’s a firm proposal — or is it just conversation?” McNair asked.
“In any of the three communities, we don’t have any proposal that is a firm deal in which they say we’ve gotten all the governmental approvals, and we have the money, and we have the sources, and everything’s ready to go,” he said.
“And that’s where we need to be in order to make a decision.”
If St. Louis can’t get a deal done by December, that might just be it, some owners said.
“It’s not like this deadline has snuck up on people,” York said. “We’ve been really clear when things need to get buttoned up. People know what the deadline is, and what they need to have done.”