[kayfabe]

Lee Hamilton-style...Here's my own quick list of winners/losers from today. Leaving
out the obvious ones (Kroenke, LA Rams fans who've waited years, etc) and focussing
instead on the underrated and overrated elements that got the Rams back to LA --

Winners:
ROGER GOODELL -- regardless of whether or not you believed Fred Roggin's comments
about this being Goodell's legacy, to herd that many multibillionaire cats
in one room and have consensus within a day is beyond impressive. Think LA fans
will cheer or boo the first time he shows up at a game?

JERRUH JONES -- He really didn't have to stick his neck out that much for ESK if you
think about it...but he did. And given the fact that the last time he was in the
LA area Dez Bryant was throwing haymakers, well, another guy who's likely to be
cheered wildly when he's in L.A. Runners-up winner: JERRUH's EGO and JERRUH's
IMAGE.

CAPITALISM -- Somewhere between the adage to "follow the money" and HL Mencken's
quote that "The Business of America is Business", capitalism won today bigtime,
and the one sports league in America that basically prints money proved once
again that there's plenty of ink left in the Mint.

MAYOR BUTTS -- He was quoted as a friend by Kroenke (He was even quoted by Mark Davis
as a friend too on the dais!). He's been as upfront a mayor of a small town as
I can remember. Stan sounded like he's rooting hard for Inglewood...how can
you not? Haven't heard a single soul with any reservations about partnering
with him.

SAM FARMER -- In a sea of partial, homer, agenda-driven journalists Farmer stood out
for his measured cautiousness. Sure he tended to write the same article over and
over but that's really because there was nothing new to say at times. And his
reward: the likely Times beat writer (if he wants it) for your Los Angeles Rams.

MARK DAVIS -- A winner? Really? Well he just got $100 Mill just for showing up,
and who knows what else he gets when the contract with Spanos was dissolved.
From the very first vote it was obvious that the owners didn't want the Raiders
in LA, but he ends up the day free of Spanos, free to move to somewhere like
San Antonio if he wants...and he's even got a bit of leverage over Spanos now,
since if Spanos moves to LA he'll have to renounce the San Diego market and
Davis could (maybe) move in. Plus the clock is ticking on Spanos, and Davis
could move to Inglewood then (i.e., so the owners DID leave an opening for the
Raiders to LA, despite their very first vote). So was Davis the boat anchor
for Spanos or was it really vice-versa?

SAN DIEGO FANS -- A last minute reprieve for a proud town that deserves way better.
Unlike St. Louis the SD talk show hosts and fans appeared wise enough to separate
their team from their city from their owner from their stadium situation (despite
the Chargers' attempts to conflate everything). Which is exactly what the NFL
owners did today too: broke the alliances, separated the parts, put everything
back together the way it logically fit best. And a simple act like firing
Fabiani immediately may just have the fans back with the team ASAP...

STAN KROENKE'S POCKETBOOK -- The "guy who everybody hated but with the site that
everybody loved" really could've been fleeced a lot worse, if you think about it.
But Goodell announced the (reasonable) $550 mill relocation fee days in advance,
and there appears to be no personal payouts to either Davis or Spanos, which I
thought Stan would have to do in order to play in the sandbox. And the NFL will
be potentially kicking in $100 Mill to Oakland/San Diego, that's not Kroenke's
deal either. Plus Kroenke can even finance the $550 Million, at $64M a year for
ten years. So no wonder he kept the card casino at Hollywood Park standing while
demolishing everything else for the stadium project: it's a symbolic reminder
for anyone who wanders by Inglewood that Stan's still got all the cards...

TWITTER -- And the twitter maniacs. It just never disappoints when there's big news.
Good information really can come from literally anyone and anywhere...

RFU -- Mature, adult, rational, smart, funny, fair-minded. And proved today that it's
cheaper than going to the therapist. Others have said it (and maybe its smallish
size belies what the future will hold) but I've never been part of a more
intelligent group of like-minded individuals in any Internet group I've even
been a part of...or any company, even.


Losers:
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM (CW) -- So many assumptions, still not sure whether Spanos ever
had 9 votes to block, still not sure that 25% of his market comes from outside
San Diego, and especially not sure why everybody thought that San Diego was the
odds-on favorite to move to L.A. Will anyone go back and see why/how all of this
became fact? But the biggest CW of all was likely broken today: that the owners
wouldn't be able to see past the games, or were too old, or were too detached to
make an informed and/or calculated decision that was good for the future of their
game. Can't we start assuming now that NFL owners -- especially the New Guard with
new money -- are a whole lot smarter than people have been giving them credit for?

ST. LOUIS' REPUTATION -- I know the mantra was to make sure everyone walked away with
something, but man, the NFL in so many words today intimated that not only are
the Rams OK to go but St. Louis isn't an NFL town. It's almost like they were
not just ignored, but penalized. For what, exactly? It took everything they
had to muster up enough to try to keep a team. So how in the world are they
going to be able to attract a new one?

PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS -- More than a few small market owners with aging
stadiums must've walked out of Houston feeling more than a bit nervous, or
looking to sell a part of their teams. The big blinds/small blinds and antes
just went up for everyone today, pots are now $2.6 Billion to play. So get ready
for your Goldman Sachs Jaguars vs. your Morgan Stanley Bills in the not-too-
distant future. Oh, the cities they're playing in: an afterthought.

THE CHARGERS BRAINTRUST -- In one of my very first posts on this board
http://www.ramsfansunited/viewtopic.php ... 1679#p1679 I went after the Chargers' braintrust
for botching the Prisoner's Dilemma about as badly as you can play it. What
did entrusting Fabiani and his scorched earth strategy do again? Why ball-and-
chain yourselves to the cash-poor Raiders, again? Sure it's easy to play
Tuesday Morning quarterback, but were they really after leverage over a
stadium...or has the leverage been over Kroenke this whole time? The question
of what the Chargers really want is still out there, and I'll argue that --
just like the stock market -- what the NFL owners wanted today was certainty.
The Chargers provided no direction there, the owners smelled it, and once the
secret ballot was done away with the gig was up. They can recover -- and I
do think San Diego fans will be forgiving -- but the clock is definitely not on
their side now. Options limited, leverage all but gone, tail-between-legs
if they do make it to LA, what a disaster!!

DOUBT -- Despite RFU skewing older, despite its members having seen this movie play
out badly so many times and so many years prior, doubt lost today and trust
prevailed. You can go left three straight times, or just go right once and
you'll end up in the exact same place: so kudos to the RFU faithful who cut
thru the signal-to-noise ratios and propped up those who never thought they'd
see this day happen in their lifetimes.

TBD:
DEAN SPANOS -- Not a loser? Really? He didn't exactly get taken care of, but
he's got a $2 Billion team that he'll pay exactly $1 a year in rent for if he
wants it. Any of us would take that deal in a heartbeat. Much like Stan
Kroenke's pocketbook, this could've been SOOO much worse. He lost 30-2,
that's pretty much a complete repudiation of every one of his talking points...
but all he may need to do to remedy the situation is to check his ego at the
door. And/or play nice with Falcouner...but that clock is really ticking fast --
he's really only got until May 1st to get a lease agreement done with the City
of San Diego. Bonus time though is available: per Darren Smith (XTRA 1090)
that yearlong window will be extended by the NFL past Jan 2017 if somehow
San Diego gets a ballot initiative on next November's (presidential) ballot.
And plenty of San Diegans will go to the polls then, at least...

KEVIN FAULCONER -- He's essentially running unopposed as mayor of San Diego in
the next election, so the pressure's on. So he could do anything. And since the
bar for San Diego mayor appears to be "stay out of jail", he'll likely clear
that. He'll have to probably ditch Mission Valley immediately though if he
wants any chance to work with the Chargers. But I'm not finding his statement
today too encouraging -- "Today NFL owners rejected the Chargers bid to move to
Carson. If Mr. Spanos has a sincere interest in reaching a fair agreement in
San Diego, we remain committed to negotiating in good faith. We are not interested
in a charade by the Chargers if they continue to pursue Los Angeles"

[TSFH Fan]

Wow, simply a "Wow!" post / Great post

I hope not to sully anything, but to me, during this process, I came to very much dislike Jerry Richardson -- not that I have a 100 million reasons to or anything. Reports were that the Carson project was his baby and, also, he got Iger. Pseudo-deductive reasoning placed him as the mouth saying that Goodell would catch "holy hell" for allowing Stan to walk away from public money. I don't know if he was trying to raise his standing in the league or trying to leverage Davis/Spanos new stadia in their home markets or what, but I'd like to add him.

I'd like to stamp the big L on Jerry R's forehead.
Even if he's not, can I at least stamp his forehead with something?

[Stranger]

This is a HOF Post. It needs to get published somewhere extremely prominent. Thank you.

RFU -- Mature, adult, rational, smart, funny, fair-minded. And proved today that it's
cheaper than going to the therapist. Others have said it (and maybe its smallish
size belies what the future will hold) but I've never been part of a more
intelligent group of like-minded individuals in any Internet group I've even
been a part of...or any company, even.

Yes, RFU has been phenominal. It's been everything I've been looking for for over 15 years. Finally, a mature and passionate group of fans that are knowledgeable and love this team, no matter what city it is based in.

[max]

Outstanding post. Well thought out, and much effort put into it.

I would add that many media people were winners and losers as well, but Farmer certainly stood out and confirmed the late great Bryan Burwell's endorsement. But I just have to add how pathetic LaCanfora and Clayton were, huge losers in reputation.

[Elvis]

Great post:

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM (CW) -- So many assumptions, still not sure whether Spanos ever
had 9 votes to block, still not sure that 25% of his market comes from outside
San Diego, and especially not sure why everybody thought that San Diego was the
odds-on favorite to move to L.A. Will anyone go back and see why/how all of this
became fact? But the biggest CW of all was likely broken today: that the owners
wouldn't be able to see past the games, or were too old, or were too detached to
make an informed and/or calculated decision that was good for the future of their
game. Can't we start assuming now that NFL owners -- especially the New Guard with
new money -- are a whole lot smarter than people have been giving them credit for?

This and we still don't know what Spanos really wants.

He balked at Farmers' Field and he's balking at Inglewood. Maybe he just can't pull the trigger? And now Falcouner is playing a little hard ball, interesting times for SD and the Chargers...

[aeneas1]

great post! altho i would add, under losers: nfl and team owner power... from where i'm sitting it seems clear that stan was moving forward with inglewood and the move to l.a. with or without the league's blessing, which was most likely hammered home in houston, for the benefit of those owners who naively may have thought otherwise... at the end of the day the nfl continues to be vulnerable to antitrust litigation when it comes to attempting to block owners hell-bent on moving, especially when an owner is as rich as stan.