[moklerman]

Big shocker. Policy lobbying against the Rams and to benefit the 49ers.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nfl- ... eague.html

July 25, 2015 Updated July 27, 2015 7:45 a.m.
BY SCOTT M. REID / STAFF WRITER

YOUNTVILLE – For the past six months, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have been racing to catch up to St. Louis Rams billionaire owner Stan Kroenke’s bid to build the world’s most expensive stadium on the former site of Hollywood Park.

A special meeting next month in Chicago will be pivotal in the National Football League’s likely return to the Los Angeles-Orange County region after a more than 20-year absence from the nation’s second-largest market and answering whether the Chargers and Raiders have closed the gap.

The likelihood of the NFL approving the Chargers and Raiders moving to Carson has increased because of the rapidly dwindling chances of San Diego and Oakland to keep the teams, say league executives, sports consultants and the man whose job it is to sell the league on the relocation.

It will be up to Carmen Policy, the former San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns executive, to convince the NFL’s 32 owners and league executives that the Chargers and Raiders’ efforts to build a $1.75 billion stadium in Carson have caught up to Kroenke’s project – and that the proposed open-air venue next to I-405 is the ideal landing spot for the NFL.

Policy, hired by the Raiders and Chargers to head the Carson project’s efforts in May, said in an interview with the Register that he sees a growing momentum within NFL ownership to give the Chargers and Raiders the green light to apply for relocation for the 2016 season as early as September or October. Policy said the league “without question” will approve the moves to Carson, perhaps before the end of the 2015 regular season.

“I see a strong attitude emerging from that room that says we’ve got to take care of the two California teams and then things will flow from that,” Policy said, referring to the Aug. 10-11 NFL meeting on the Los Angeles situation.

The momentum within the NFL behind the Carson site stems from a belief that the project solves the stadium issues for two franchises, Policy said. Also, there’s a feeling in the league that the task force appointed by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, and the man behind a proposed Oakland complex, real estate developer Floyd Kephart, will not be able to put together stadium deals.

“Let’s just say it appears that neither local market is going to be able to step up and do anything remotely close to getting a deal done,” Policy said at his home near Casa Piena, his Napa Valley winery.

Meanwhile there is a growing confidence within the NFL about the viability of a Missouri task force’s plans for a nearly $1-billion downtown, waterfront stadium in St. Louis, Policy and others familiar with the process said.

The NFL’s 20-year absence from the Los Angeles-Orange County area has been marked by false starts, missed opportunities and broken promises. But for the first time since the Rams left Anaheim and the Raiders returned to Oakland after the 1994 season, there are two fully entitled stadium sites in the region with secured financing and backed by NFL owners with apparent interest in relocating to Los Angeles.

The dilemma for the NFL is, which two teams does it allow to relocate?

Policy and others argue that Raiders and Chargers have more dire stadium situations in their current markets than the Rams with no viable options at the local level. Supporters of the Hollywood Park project insist that their location, which the NFL has eyed since the mid-1990s, is the best site for the league’s return.

“It’s the one, best chance for the NFL to come back here,” Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts said.

Kephart was not available for comment, according to a representative for the Metis Financial Network, where he is chairman of the board. Kephart has continued to maintain in recent weeks that his widely criticized financing plan for an Oakland stadium and real estate development is viable. The plan calls for Kephart’s New City Development group to purchase 20 percent of the Raiders for $200 million and 90 acres of public land around the O.co Coliseum for $116 million.

San Diego officials also dismiss criticism from Policy and others that their plans to build a $1-billion-plus stadium at Mission Valley are doomed.

Although the Chargers broke off negotiations with the task force in June, the San Diego City Council earlier this month approved the funding of an environmental impact report that Faulconer and task force officials said would enable the city to hold a special election on the stadium in January.

San Diego officials met league officials in New York last month and NFL senior vice president Eric Grubman, the league’s point person on the Los Angeles situation, is scheduled to meet with the group in San Diego on Tuesday.

“The message is clear: Despite the Chargers walking away from the table, the NFL wants San Diego to continue moving forward,” Faulconer said.

But sports business consultant Marc Ganis, who was involved in the Raiders’ and Rams’ relocations in the 1990s, said the NFL and its owners are getting a different message from San Diego officials.

“Their primary goal is for providing political protection for the political leadership there,” Ganis said. “That’s their first priority. If they get a stadium done for Chargers, great. But it’s not the first priority.”

That creates a scenario where the NFL settles in the early fall on the Raiders and Chargers’ Carson stadium as the site of the league’s return to Los Angeles, Policy said.

“So in September I think that’s when they, the league, will come up with their evaluation as to where the current markets stand,” he said. “Can San Diego present a viable plan? Can Oakland present a viable plan? Can St. Louis? And those answers will then lead to the next step.

“Let’s say (the St. Louis task force) presents a credible deal, one they feel that can not only work but has guarantees with it. All of sudden, that could change the way the league looks at how the Rams will proceed with relocation. It may even change whether they think the Rams can proceed with relocation. I’m almost positive that they’re going to find that San Diego and Oakland are not able to present a viable deal.

“Then you go through the process of ‘OK, they can’t present a viable deal, now you apply for relocation’ and I think without question these two teams will get it.”

[Hacksaw]

Someone needs to put a hit on Carmen policy. So he forgets to mention the Rams Chargers LA possibility.
He fails to mention the relocation fee in Oakland possibility. He claims the NFL has some secret knowledge that no one else does when it comes to San Diego financing which hasn't been determined yet.
He forgets to mention the problems with the toxic Carson waste site.
Same crap different day and mark ganis is behind it. While there at it, put a hit on him too. lol
I'm really starting to dislike the Chargers.

[den-the-coach]

Someone needs to put a hit on Carmen policy.

I'd be up for assignment put him in Youngstown, Ohio right with Eddie DeBartolo's concrete company!

[moklerman]

Maybe I haven't been reading the right articles but it seems to me what rarely, if ever, gets mentioned is Stan doesn't have to buy into the St. Louis proposal regardless of what the NFL decides.

Let's say the league does agree that St. Louis has a viable plan in place. All they're going to accomplish is pissing off Kroenke(just like St. Louis already has). He has no obligation to help finance that project. He has a year-to-year lease that's good for another decade+.

And why does this writer think the St. Louis task force is viable but the San Diego and Oakland groups are just driven by political appearances? Those of us who've been following the St. Louis group have theorized the same thing about them. They're making lots of noise and spending other people's money but they haven't actually accomplished anything.

The bottom line is the Rams would be staying in St. Louis if A) the dome was kept in the top tier and B) if St. Louis had upgraded the dome after arbitration.

Which is something the fans in LA never got. A choice. If St. Louis had just taken it's medicine and agreed to the arbitration, then the Rams would be staying. Why is it they were willing to risk everything that is now happening for the same amount of money? Why didn't they jump through all of these hoops to meet the terms of the arbitration and keep the Rams? Because they have no real intention of spending that money and this task force is all a farce.

[bubbaramfan]

Policy makes it sound like if Oakland and San Diego don't get new stadiums they are out in the street. No, they still have stadiums to play in. "The likelihood of the NFL approving the moving of the Chargers and Raiders has increased because of the rapidly dwindling chances of San Diego and Oakland to keep the teams." What a crock. He thinks we're stupid. That's no reason. The same old crap spun another way. Get used to it guys. We're going to hear this till the seasons over. C'mon Carmon, we know you're trying to ignore real facts.

[snackdaddy]

I love it when a guy with a Bachelor's in bull shit starts giving those interviews. Of course he's gonna say those things. I mean, what else is he gonna say?

"We still don't have done deal with the funding plan and we still don't have EPA approvals to start building on a toxic waste site. That oughta cost another 50 mil and take a couple more years to get done".

Or maybe "I don't know what the owners will decide. The Rams have a pretty good plan in place".

He has to say the things he said because the ChaRaiders are paying him.

[Elvis]

The guy is paid to promote Carson. And here he is promoting Carson...

[TSFH Fan]

Maybe I'm in denial, but I still haven't heard anything from Policy or Ganis or anyone to make me think that Carson is real. I mean, Fred reported that Stan's had architects working for months on Inglewood plans, Butts stated that Stan had design books, not just the random drawings, to take to the owner's meetings, Butts has stated that the City has needed extra people to do plan review, and you've had the architects (I think they were from HKS) address the public in Inglewood. Also, Butts just sounds . . . competent and professional.

Nothing like that for Carson. For Carson, we've had a new drawing of the stadium with a Porsche, a pizza pep rally, and Carson City Hall has been a Clownatorium.
Recent: What's a City Hall without allegations of racism and other petty infighting?
http://www.dailybreeze.com/government-a ... adium-site

I mean, if Carson had to hire extra people to do plan check, I'd half expect them to screw it up -- and I don't think the NFL could take the risk of relying on that circus. Yeah, so Policy is doing what he's doing, but so does a fluff girl.