Odds improve for NFL's return to L.A. area with Carmen Policy trying to help the Chargers, Raiders reach Carson
PostPosted:9 years 2 months ago
Big shocker. Policy lobbying against the Rams and to benefit the 49ers.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/nfl- ... eague.html
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.”