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Faulconer gets big shot with NFL owners

Kevin Acee | 10:48 a.m. Nov. 3, 2015



Mayor Kevin Faulconer will get his next and best (and possibly last) chance to convince the NFL to give San Diego another year to keep the Chargers in San Diego.

Chargers stadium: Complete coverage

The Mayor will have the floor for 45 minutes on Nov. 11 at the NFL’s headquarters in New York in front of approximately half of the league’s 32 owners, ostensibly with the mission of convincing them of his genuineness and capability.

“It’s an opportunity to clearly communicate we have a viable plan and (help) the NFL clearly see we are ready to go,” Faulconer said.

Officials from St. Louis and Oakland, the other two cities with NFL teams looking to relocate to Los Angeles, will also make presentations to owners in a joint meeting of the Los Angeles, Finance and Stadium committees. It is expected owners will ask questions after each presentation.

In addition to the 17 members of those three important committees, Chargers chairman Dean Spanos, St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis are expected to be present. None of the three are on any those committees.

As we all know by now, the Chargers, Rams and Raiders are unhappy with their stadium situations and are trying to move to Los Angeles. The Chargers and Raiders have teamed on a stadium proposal in Carson, and the Rams are championing a proposal in Inglewood. The league is expected to decide by January which, if any teams, will relocate in 2016.

League sources have increasingly indicated in recent weeks that there is a growing sentiment toward Inglewood as the superior site and Spanos’ options could be limited to accepting a deal to team with Kroenke or get back to work with the NFL and San Diego on a proposal in either Mission Valley or downtown.

The city and county are moving forward with a proposal for a new stadium on the Qualcomm Stadium site. The team, which ceased talks with the city/county coalition in June, would favor downtown if it resumed efforts in San Diego.

It is against this backdrop of uncertainty and hope that we can take heart in the invitation extended to the home markets to make these pitches.

This is the first time owners will hear from a representative from Oakland. In August, officials from San Diego and St. Louis made presentations to the six-owner Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities.

Faulconer has met individually with four of the owners on the L.A. Committee.

The Nov. 11 gathering is significant because it gives more than half the league’s owners a chance to vet Faulconer about the reality San Diego can get a stadium built should the league decide to wait another year to fill its 20-year L.A. vacancy.

This is no small thing. Time is running ever shorter. A decision looms.

“They need to see clearly there is a plan that is ready to go,” Faulconer said of his mission.

While the NFL has said it expects ownership to vote on relocation in January, the plan/hope is to have the situation resolved before then.

All 32 owners will meet Dec. 2 in Dallas, and the league hopes by that time to at least be closing in on a relocation resolution. Some of that direction could be swayed by Faulconer’s sell job in New York.

The Chargers’ main objections to efforts in San Diego have centered around the uncertainty of going forward with a stadium proposal while risking losing their opportunity in Los Angeles.

The Mayor will have an opportunity to directly sell owners on San Diego’s ability to get a deal done if afforded more time. There is a deep belief by many in the league that San Diego should remain part of the NFL, but there is reluctance to force Spanos to chance being shut out in either city.

One NFL owner said Tuesday that he is looking forward to gauging Faulconer’s sincerity. That owner, who will be present Nov. 11, said from what he has heard “maybe they could have gotten this done if (Faulconer) had been in office before.”

Said Faulconer: “My sincerity in fighting for San Diego is going to be front and center. … The passion this city has for the Chargers, I’m taking that to New York.”

Most acknowledgements by people around the league of recent efforts by the city and county in recent months has always come with the caveat that it is probably too late.

But now, at almost the final hour, with neither Kroenke nor Spanos backing down, and with both appearing to have the nine votes to block the other but not the 24 votes to gain approval to move to L.A., the league is looking for alternatives.

It is up to Faulconer to convince the owners he has a plausible one.

Money quote:

League sources have increasingly indicated in recent weeks that there is a growing sentiment toward Inglewood as the superior site and Spanos’ options could be limited to accepting a deal to team with Kroenke or get back to work with the NFL and San Diego on a proposal in either Mission Valley or downtown.

Go, go K-Faulc!!!
Get 'er Done!

Get this done and we'll get you a little Oscar-sized statue in front of new Oxnard High School.
Fail, and we'll say you were actually from Camarillo!

So there's supposedly going to be 17 owners next week meeting with the 3 owners and 3 cities? Nice.

At least one thing is certain and that's LA is going to happen this time. I can't take this another year. The Rams are an exciting young team. It's the perfect time to market them in LA RIGHT NOW.

I hope he makes the most of it.

We're down to crunch time boys and gals.

So it's basically a mini owners meeting.

Just ask yourself one simple question. Which stadium plan can have funding, land and city officials ready to go by December 2? That's when the meeting to essentially decide the outcome for the January "Vote". Inglewood here we come...

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football ... 24e55.html

Stadium task force 'ready to present' to NFL

By Jim Thomas, David Hunn

Representatives of the St. Louis stadium task force will present their plan to a joint meeting of three National Football League committees next week in New York City, the league confirmed Tuesday.

San Diego and Oakland representatives also will present their proposals on Nov. 11 to the Los Angeles stadium and finance committees. St. Louis and San Diego previously discussed their proposed stadium projects with league officials in New York. This will be the first time Oakland will make a presentation.

The St. Louis task force did not field interviews on Tuesday, but sent a statement saying its members are “ready to represent St. Louis next week and present our stadium and riverfront development project.”

“St. Louis is a spectacular NFL market, with loyal and passionate fans,” the statement continued, “yet our best days as a football town are still ahead of us with a new stadium anchoring a revitalized north downtown riverfront.”

New: Preview of National Car Rental Field in St. Louis

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen is scheduled to hold public hearings on the proposed stadium financing package next week, too.

The board will not have time to pass the legislation before the task force speaks to the joint committee. But, if fast-tracked by aldermen, it could be passed into law a short time later.

St. Louis’ previous presentation to the NFL came about six months ago, on April 23. Former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock served as the main speaker for the task force in the pitch that featured a multimedia presentation and a question-and-answer period.

But that session, held at league headquarters in New York, included only members of the NFL’s Los Angeles opportunities committee as well as league officials. Next week’s presentation could involve as many as 17 team owners over the three committees, if all 17 are able to attend. The committee members are as follows:

Finance Committee • Chairman Bob McNair (Houston), Arthur Blank (Atlanta), Joel Glazer (Tampa Bay), Clark Hunt (Kansas City), Shahid Kahn (Jacksonville), Robert Kraft (New England), Jeffrey Lurie (Philadelphia), Steve Ross (Miami).

Stadium Committee • Chairman Art Rooney (Pittsburgh), Michael Bidwill (Arizona), Woody Johnson (New York Jets), Stephen Jones (Dallas), George H. McCaskey (Chicago), Jed York (San Francisco).

Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities • Hunt, Kraft, McNair, Rooney, John Mara (New York Giants), Jerry Richardson (Carolina).

Each city will get 45 minutes to make a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer period. It will be up to each city to decide who will attend. At the April meetings, St. Louis was represented by Peacock, task force co-chair Bob Blitz, developer’s representative John Loyd, and HOK vice president and design principal Eli Hoisington.

Team reps also are allowed to be present, so in the case of the Rams it would most likely be Executive Vice President Kevin Demoff.

No votes or other decisions will be made at the meeting.

The task force said in Tuesday’s statement that it would not reveal who will speak on its behalf, nor will it make members available for interviews this week or in New York City.

You know the if the Alderman pass whatever stadium package through that it will be Appealed immediately. This isn't an,
'"ok we signed it so here's the money" type deal. They wish it was that easy to give away taxpayer money. They just waited 2 years too long to get this ball rolling.

Each city will get 45 minutes to make a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer period.

Nothing to do with K-Faulc, BUT:

The Task Force plans on confiscating endorsement money that belongs to Stan and taking tax money that belongs to Stan to pay for the endorsement money that they confiscated.

This is totally a case of robbing Peter to pay Peter. I'd love to hear the league Q&A session on this.