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Jones tight-lipped? Thought it might be from The Onion...

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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones tight-lipped about NFL’s return to L.A.


Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was conspicuously tight-lipped this weekend about the NFL’s looming return to Los Angeles as three teams and two stadium plans will force the ownerws to make some tough decisions. (Gus Ruelas/The Associated Press)

By Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News
POSTED: 08/03/15, 1:18 PM PDT | UPDATED: 1 MIN AGO 0 COMMENTS

OXNARD — For a guy who underwent hip replacement surgery less than two weeks ago, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was moving around pretty well as he left the Cowboys training camp practice field early Saturday evening.

And as he climbed into a waiting golf cart, one eye was on the Cowboys, the other 62 miles away in Los Angeles.

“We have some important decisions to make,” Jones said.

He wasn’t talking about naming a running back to replace departed star DeMarco Murray.

Jones was referring to the looming decision he and his fellow NFL owners face on which team or teams will relocate to Los Angeles and where they will play.

It’s a decision that could arrive by the end of 2015 and put a team or teams in Los Angeles in time for the 2016 season.

“I see a team, imminently, in Los Angeles,” Jones declared.

He would not, however, guarantee a timeline that brings the NFL back to L.A. by next season — even though for the past few years Jones has consistently pointed to 2016.

Instead, Jones said he expects a decision to happen quickly.

“We’ve got people moving the ball down the field,” he said.

And he would not elaborate on the specifics of what the NFL will focus on when they finally sit down to decide who ends up in the second-biggest market in the country.

Jones is a longtime supporter of the NFL returning to Los Angeles, and has often called it’s prolonged absence a huge mistake. Along with New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, no one among the 32 owners has championed a march back to Los Angeles more passionately than Jones.

So for him to be a bit tight-lipped Saturday seemed a bit curious.

And it can be read a couple different ways.

The NFL is applying the brakes on a return in 2016.

Or, it is entering such a crucial stage in the process it is being careful with the information flow.

I’m betting on the latter.

Or, as a high-ranking team official told me last week, the high-stakes game to bring the NFL back to Los Angeles will end in time for a 2016 return.

While adding: “The two-minute drill will be fast and furious.”

And right now, everyone is staking their position.

On one side is the St. Louis Rams and their dreams of returning to Los Angeles to play in owner Stan Kroenke’s proposed stadium in Inglewood.

On the other, the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders and their joint stadium in Carson.



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The NFL will support one Los Angeles stadium and, at most, two teams. Simple math suggests at least one team will get left out in the cold.

Soon, it will decide between Carson and Inglewood.

Complicating matters is what’s going on in the home markets.

Missouri leaders are working toward finalizing a stadium plan they hope persuades the Rams to stay in St. Louis, although it looks like Kroenke is more interested in the big-market possibilities of Los Angeles than remaining in the Midwest.

No matter what materializes in St. Louis, expect the Rams to continue to push for L.A.

In San Diego, leaders are working against the clock trying to condense an Environmental Impact Report for a new Chargers stadium from the normal 12-to-18 months process to three weeks. If they do — and the Chargers have expressed deep concerns — next up is a special election to approve public funds for the proposed $1 billion project in Mission Valley and a potential countywide vote soon after.

While the NFL came away from a recent meeting with San Diego with a good idea of the game plan in place, it also understands the obstacles ahead. Potential lawsuits challenging the validity of the EIR – which could delay the project for years – and local taxpayers rejecting public assistance in a vote are two possible snags.

And with a decision on Los Angeles looming, the Chargers are wary of signing off on a project that could face significant delays — if not a complete collapse — and in the process lose their spot in L.A.

Things are even more dire in Oakland, where the NFL left a meeting with local leaders last week believing efforts to help the Raiders build a stadium are moving backward, not forward.

In fact, Oakland leaders were not invited to update the NFL’s six-owner Los Angeles committee Aug. 10 in Chicago. To put that in perspective, St. Louis and San Diego leaders will be present to provide status reports on their stadium efforts.

To sum up, three teams either want or need Los Angeles as a new home. And two approved, entitled stadium plans are in place.

All three teams are are positioning themselves for relocation in time for the 2016 season. A process that, for all intents and purposes, is already underway.

The NFL’s challenge: Create as strong a return to Los Angeles as possible, give the existing local markets every opportunity to prove they can keep their teams, and ensure all three teams walk away from the outcome satisfied.

Easy, right?

Right.

“It could get messy,” a high ranking league executive said.

Meanwhile, Jones and his fellow owners are entrusted with guiding this over the goal line.

Next week, Jones will break off from the Cowboys to attend a special owners meeting in the Chicago burbs of Schaumburg, at which time all 32 owners will get the latest on what’s going on in Carson and Inglewood and the home markets.

No final decision is expected.

But Jones and his colleagues will leave Chicago with much to ponder.

While Missouri might be closing in on a St. Louis stadium deal in an effort to keep the Rams, would owners force a colleague to remain in a market he no longer wishes to stay?

On the other hand, what is the sense green-lighting Kroenke’s wish for Los Angeles if it impairs two California teams who can’t nail down stadium plans in their home markets?

And even if Kroenke is willing to make deals with the Chargers and Raiders to help appease his L.A. dreams — and there is reason to believe he is — what dynamics are involved and will the league sign off on it?

Lastly, do fellow owners have a preference between the Carson or Inglewood proposals?

“We’ve got some important meetings coming up,” Jones said. “And we’ll know a whole lot more after that.”

[Hacksaw]

On one side is the St. Louis Rams and their dreams of returning to Los Angeles

Missouri leaders are working toward finalizing a stadium plan they hope persuades the Rams to stay in St. Louis, although it looks like Kroenke is more interested in the big-market possibilities of Los Angeles than remaining in the Midwest.

While Missouri might be closing in on a St. Louis stadium deal in an effort to keep the Rams, would owners force a colleague to remain in a market he no longer wishes to stay?

On the other hand, what is the sense green-lighting Kroenke’s wish for Los Angeles if it impairs two California teams who can’t nail down stadium plans in their home markets ?


I like some of the language. The only scenario that gives the league flexibility in this is exactly what ESK wants except for the room mate.
Spanos would be better off in SD (where he claims to prefer) rather than sharing LA, and that is a given if he moves here.

StL, the term Vinny used, "persuades" sheds a different light on their position as opposed to the 'making it to difficult to leave' line of rhetoric.

And forcing an owner to stay where he doesn't want to be doesn't sound realistic. Another could be in the same boat and ESK is one of their own, popular or not.

The ChaRaiders charade in Carson might be flawed but the 2 of them need a cash infusion and LA affords them that,, somewhere. StL putting up the good fight all creates a story line that is plausible.

Anything could happen. Watch my a-ho Chargers fan buddy who seems to always roll in high circles and knows things be correct when he told me months ago that Kroenke is building it for his Chargers to play in.