[Elvis]

http://www.insidesocal.com/nfl/2015/12/ ... -comments/

What to read into Bob McNair’s comments

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Vincent Bonsignore

Without actually coming out and saying he prefers the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers Carson stadium project over the St. Louis Rams’ Inglewood project, Houston Texans owner Bob McNair essentially threw his hat into the Carson ring on Wednesday during an interview with the Houston Chronicle.

According to McNair, a key factor working for the Chargers and Raiders and against the Rams is that St. Louis will deliver an attractive stadium plan sufficient enough to block the Rams relocation to Los Angeles.

“St. Louis, they have come up with a proposal that is getting pretty close, in my opinion, to being an attractive proposal,” McNair told the Chronicle. “And if they do come up with an attractive proposal, then in my view, my personal opinion, I don’t think the Rams will receive the approval to relocate. So that would mean then you’d have two teams, San Diego and Oakland, that would be going into Carson. They have a partnership to build a stadium.”

You can read the entire story here.

To anyone who has been closely following the twists and turns of the National Football League back to Los Angeles story, that isn’t much of a surprise. McNair, a member of the six-owner Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities, has long been considered a Carson lean. And that jives with the belief that the committee is heavily in favor of the Carson project.

And the fact he came out publicly with his support fits with what a league official told me last month: As we get closer to decision time – the NFL hopes to decide who ends up in Los Angeles when owners meet in Houston January 12 and 13 -more and more owners will show their support for one project or the other.

So, while McNair’s opinion counts, it’s still just one of 32 opinions that will ultimately decide who ends up in Los Angeles. And he carries no more weight than Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who came out in support of Inglewood last month, or Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who supports Carson.

Remember, the winning bid requires 24 votes.

That isn’t meant to lessen the significance of what McNair said – because he does have clout – just a reminder that he is one man with one vote. And that’s something to keep in mind as more and more owners begin stating their preference.

As someone with a dog in the hunt told me recently, both sides are keeping tabs of votes. And both are confident they know who supports them. And until someone speaks up and says something different than expected – or someone previously on the fence expresses support for one or the other project – there is no reason to over-react to what McNair, Richardson or Jones say. Their positions have been well established.

Meanwhile, as it relates to what McNair said about the St. Louis stadium effort, while McNair might be right the proposal may ultimately sway sufficient support to Carson, that doesn’t mean the Rams will automatically sign off on the St. Louis project.

Owners can block Kroenke’s move to Los Angeles, but they can’t force him to agree to the deal currently on the table in St. Louis. It will be interesting to see exactly how the league handles that situation, should it come to that.

But that is an issue for another time.

First, either the Carson or Inglewood project must achieve the 24 votes. Presently, neither side can confidently say they have the necessary support.

Maybe that will happen in January in Houston.

Any fallout from that – and there will be – will be dealt with afterward.

[Elvis]

It's not really my idea, but i think they should compromise by approving both projects: Nobody loses.

Stan can say: look i'm building Inglewood, i don't care what Spanos does. He can be my tenant, be my partner, do Carson, stay in SD, do whatever he wants. I'm good no matter what.

Spanos, on the other hand, can't say the same thing about Kroenke. He wants to control what Stan does.

At this point it doesn't really matter what our theories are or what our logic tells us, not if they don't match up with the facts of what's happening.

And it's happening, now. I have a hard time believing Stan doesn't have a seriously strong endgame, but we'll see, and soon...

[majik]

Is there some law about it being illegal to have two stadiums built in the LA area? If Deano doesn't want to partner with Stan, just build both and let them compete against each other.

[max]

Someone please explain to me how, at the end of the day, all these businessmen walk away from the meeting in Houston saying they are happy that they abandoned a market in Silicon Valley and a market in beautiful San Diego and they kept the market in rust belt STL.

[BuiltRamTough]

Someone please explain to me how, at the end of the day, all these businessmen walk away from the meeting in Houston saying they are happy that they abandoned a market in Silicon Valley and a market in beautiful San Diego and they kept the market in rust belt STL.

Stop talking man you're crazy. You make too much sense, stop it.

Listen, we hear that Dean has more support but we don't hear Carson and the Raiders have more support. We also here the league supports Inglewood. We also hear Stan has enough to block. What's enough? 8? 10? 20?

We hear who Stans supporters are. Didn't Jason Lacfronta say it in his article? He names like 7-8 owners.

Which owners support Spanos? Jerry,Bob and perhaps 3 more from the committee. Kraft is up in the air.

So from what we know or what was said to us, Stan has more votes.

But who knows bc all we know is what the media tells us.

[bubbaramfan]

Spanos would need to change his "depends" if the owners approve both Inglewood and Carson.

[den-the-coach]

Someone please explain to me how, at the end of the day, all these businessmen walk away from the meeting in Houston saying they are happy that they abandoned a market in Silicon Valley and a market in beautiful San Diego and they kept the market in rust belt STL.

Because they're getting kickbacks from Goldman Sachs...Apparently ESK has not greased enough palms.

[max]

The only thing the media says that I believe is that Spanos and Kroenke have enough votes to block each other.

I also believe the league wants a final decision that doesn't leave a fractured ownership situation. They want a decision that everyone supports. Try to imagine the visual of several owners like Kroenke, Jones, and a few others walking out of that meeting all pissed off. That will be the end of Goodell. And the NFL will look like Game of Thrones.

[max]

Someone please explain to me how, at the end of the day, all these businessmen walk away from the meeting in Houston saying they are happy that they abandoned a market in Silicon Valley and a market in beautiful San Diego and they kept the market in rust belt STL.

Because they're getting kickbacks from Goldman Sachs...Apparently ESK has not greased enough palms.

Where did you hear that?

[den-the-coach]

Where did you hear that?

Sorry Max, that's just me being upset with Jerry Richardson...Because somebody had posted that about him, but iMO, the St. Louis Stadium proposal allowed the "LA Committee" the ammunition to sway others and I don't get it. How can you force an owner to stay in a market that is secondary and trending downward plus a stadium they will not be considered top tier? I just don't get it, but oh well, guess everything we thought was right was wrong.