[BuiltRamTough]

http://www.insidestlaudio.com/ITD_Audio ... Farmer.mp3

[bluecoconuts]

I'll kind of recap what he says, some good stuff for the most part though. The most interesting bit I learned was that Jerry Jones owns the company that does the market studies that the NFL is using.

Sam Farmer interview:
First St Louis (Ryan Kelly?) talks about how he seems most informed… Then goes on and asks about the one team going to LA, (suggesting that it might just be thrown out there to see if it sticks).. Then asks what Sam thinks about it, and if he heard.

Sam says it’s certainly a possibility that there is only one team, agrees that a lot of things get thrown out there as trial balloons, but if we go to the one team/two team model, you have to look at why they brought up the 2 team proposal… Says it’s risky, especially in LA, and no other sports league has tried to drop two teams into a market at the same time, and asks why the NFL looks at LA as a two team market.

Says that it’s probably about how expensive stadiums are, and typically there’s not an owner like Kroenke who can afford that kind of payment, which is why they have G4 loans… Says he thinks that it’s an indication that the league is very nervous and uncertain about the LA market, for good reason. Says that now football has been a game mostly consumed on the couch, especially in LA for the past 20 years, it’s difficult to attract those fans to a stadium, since it’s a better game to watch on TV for a lot of reasons than it is live.

Continues to say that trying to sell the seats and the suites and all that for two teams, knowing that one of the team’s won’t be as good as the other is difficult. Finally says that he doesn’t think anybody knows right now, or what, if anything, is going to come out of New York (meetings) this next week, and anyone that says definitively that they know what’s going on, including Roger Goodell is probably either fooling us or themselves, because there’s still so much to do and figure out between now and December. He also says there’s a fairly good chance that nothing happens this year despite all the buildup and expectations, he still thinks there’s a chance the NFL pushes the pause button.

He then states his reasoning for that line of thought.
He says look at the committee, look at Art Rooney, do you think he’s more worried about LA or more worried about Bens knee? Look at Robert Kraft, he’s more worried about the Patriots right now, this time of year it’s almost like telling someone who is trying to land a plane to work out this calculus problem real fast, while knowing that there’s potentially billions of dollars at risk. Thus he thinks the default could be to push this off because they need to do more heavy lifting between now and December before they ever did before. He says it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to happen, especially because there is so much different with this situation than before, but he says he wouldn’t be shocked if they do end up pushing it off.


Ryan Kelly (?) then asks from a logic standpoint, if there’s only one team that moves to LA, one would think it’s more likely to be the Rams because Kroenke doesn’t need any help and can do it on his own, then asks if Sam agrees with that or sees it differently.

Sam says he absolutely agrees with that, he doesn’t think that either Spanos or Davis have the appitute or the wherewithal, certainly not Davis, to go at it alone, but Stan certainly does, plus he has the preferred site in the eyes of many people. He says that one can say we should address the California solution/problem, but he doesn’t think that many owners really think about that or wake up thinking about that. He says that owners in Florida think about the Florida problem, and after this there will be other stadium needs, so at the end of the day he doesn’t think that the California solution will really carry that much weight. He says that a lot of owners just prefer Stan’s site and he has the ability and interest in doing it alone, although he doesn’t think he absolutely needs to do it alone, and that makes the most sense. He says that odds are if there’s one team that goes to LA it’s the Rams.


Ryan Kelly then proposes the situation of Stan selling the Rams and buying the Raiders, and being able to move. He acknowledges that it might sound kind of conspiracy theory like, but asks what he’s heard or thinks about that, so the Rams can stay in St Louis and a team with heritage in LA can return there.

Sam says he wouldn’t take any scenario off the table, especially since the process has so many moving pieces, but to actually get things done that’s a lot of moving pieces. He says that it’s certainly one theory, but thinks there’s probable tax problems, and ultimately doesn’t really put a whole lot of credence into that scenario. Plus whoever tries to move the Raiders to LA will need to rebrand them from the Hells Angels to the Pirates of the Caribbean in order to get them back into the LA market, and while there is some heritage there, but there’s a lot of fence mending that needs to be done by the Raiders in order to be realistic for the LA market at large.


Kelly asks who has the largest fanbase of the three teams in the Southern California market.

Sam says you sort of have to go off of accendotal evidence. Says the Rams are certainly popular, and don’t necessarily leave the bad taste in the mouth of many fans when they left as Davis did, and have the deepest most nostalgist roots in LA. While the Raiders did win a Super Bowl in LA, that does carry some weight, but the best person to really know the LA market would be Jerry Jones, especially since his company does the market research that the league is relying on. Says it’s interesting that Jones is throwing all his support behind the Rams, and that must tell us something about what the numbers (which we haven’t seen) might indicate, especially because Jones really wants the LA team to be successful. He says that he probably has some statistical evidence to back that up, but Sam says he’s just trying to connect the dots.

He says that there certainly are some Raider fans in LA, but doesn’t think the Chargers move the needle much becacuse they were only here for a year.

Says his guess is the Rams have the biggest following, but nobody could really say for sure.



Kelly asks if there’s a hunger for the return of the NFL in LA.

Sam says that there is a big NFL following in LA, and pointed to some numbers where a MNF game had better ratings in LA than they did in NY with two teams in there. Says people in LA love the NFL, but they really like watching it on TV with all the new TV channels and he doesn’t know how a shitty franchise would do in LA, but regardless it would certainly be worth more in LA than it is in the other markets, and the NFL owners see dollar signs more. Regardless there are millions of people, they’ll be able to fill the stadium



Kelly then asks about another idea, one that you can’t really leave for LA without remedying the situations in the home market, because it can lose their leverage point with LA.

Sam says that every market that the NFL has left other than LA has gotten a team back over the past 20 years, longer than the other markets. He also said since the Rams and Raiders left LA 27 or 28 teams have gotten either new stadiums or a few hundred million dollars for renovations for their stadiums, and 18 teams were rumored to move to LA either by the team raising the prospect or the media. So you can connect the dots that LA is more valuable to the NFL without a team than with a team, which is why if it’s a one team solution and Stan builds his stadium in Inglewood the NFL would insist it would be a two team compliant stadium to maintain a leverage point (which it is)..



And that's about it.

[Hacksaw]

Thanks for the finger workout BC.

I listen to the whole thing too and it sounds to me as if he's telling Kelly that in most scenarios the Rams to Inglewood makes the most sense.
Things are looking good boys but lets all keep our collective thoughts on next week's meeting in New York. I don't know if they will actually make a decision then but I wouldn't be surprised if they do..

[OldSchool]

One thing that pisses me off to no end is people implying that the Raiders have a "heritage" in LA more than the Rams do.

[Hacksaw]

The pisses me off that they say they have a heritage at all but I don't think they ever say it's more than the Rams do. It's just that they won the only Super Bowl

[BuiltRamTough]

I've said this many times that there's no way in hell the NFL drops 2 teams in a market at the same time. It's too risky. It never made sense to me. One other big issue no one really seems to talk about is if you go with the Carson proposal you have to change divisions and mix everything up. I don't think that's logical either.

No matter how you look at it the Rams alone makes the most sense. It's a slam dunk. It meets the criteria of getting LA "right".

Tooooo many question marks with the Carson proposal. That is why I have faith the NFL will make the wise decision. They screw up everything else (Ray Rice, Brady) but when it comes to business decisions they usually never miss.

The big mistake they've made was putting a team in Jacksonville. I don't see how they could screw this up because they like Dean. This is LA, it's a unique situation, you only get one shot.

[moklerman]

Something that I've long considered to be the most important point, that Kroenke doesn't need the NFL or help to get his deal done, as the reason that the NFL would prefer his deal over all others, may actually be the opposite.

Look at what kind of precedent that would set. If Kroenke comes in and builds a successful venue without any public funding, would any future franchise get public funding? This line of thinking has me doubting Kroenke's palace for the first time in a while.

[SoCalRam78]

Sam Farmer just took a hit in credibility IMO when he said tha Rams leaving didn't leave a bad taste for many fans. WTF are you talking about, Sam? this guy is becoming more tone deaf by the second.

[Hacksaw_64]

but the best person to really know the LA market would be Jerry Jones, especially since his company does the market research that the league is relying on. Says it’s interesting that Jones is throwing all his support behind the Rams, and that must tell us something about what the numbers (which we haven’t seen) might indicate, especially because Jones really wants the LA team to be successful. He says that he probably has some statistical evidence to back that up

I didn't know this piece of the puzzle.

[Rams the Legends live on]

I think they had to float the 2 team theory and have had to push for San Diego and Oakland going even though in my opinion they for the most part decided it would be the Rams. I think they are looking down the road at the next expansion. Problem in the past has been any expansion team in LA was gonna have to do it with private money so it for 20 years closed reentry into that market. So Stan solves that problem, he also solves the problem of the next expansion. By Stan owning the stadium ya cut out public finance and also ya cut red tape of private financiers like Goldman.

If San Diego goes alone ya have the problem Goldman owns the stadium until it is paid off. The Chargers revenue will be paying the note. So the Chargers for one because they won't own the stadium outright they will be in no position to give any expansion team the most flexible of terms for the buy in and the monthly note, as Goldman since it will hold the title will be the one who ultimately decides how a second team will be added as a sub-lessee, well not really a true sub-lessee but for some reason my mind escapes me of the exact word I am looking for.....LOL So anyway if SD is there and a expansion team is added Goldman will be the deciding factor of how the expansion team is added as a joint owner along with SD because Goldman will hold the note from backing SD. So this process will not be determined by the NFL in such a scenario as well as no way Goldman adds a 2nd team joint owner and not charge a admin fee, along with shipping and handling............LOL Or basically charge for the privilege of being a joint debtor.

Stan will be different since he will own his stadium he will be able to work out flexible terms for the expansion team to be a joint owner and since Stan owns his stadium the NFL will be able to step in and work a friends and family type deal so Stan gets his money paid back. An all this will be kept in the family as to say so the process will go smoother and the NFL will have direct control over the LA situation so they can do it right not only now but in the future. Which this will also help the expansion owner be guaranteed a easier entry into the market so he don't face all the hard ships that startups have while looking to get some market share. So Stan solves the problem now for LA and he will also solve down the road problems, the cash problems specifically.

Now in my opinion I think a lot of the Chargers and Raiders to LA has been allowed to carry on as I believe the NFL sees the state of Cali being able to hold 5 teams and everyone make money. So I believe they have allowed this whole process to go on so they could run market research see the push back from Oakland and SD, so if by chance the Chargers and Raiders did go they would have some kind of working knowledge of what it would take to drop 2 future expansion teams right back in those markets who would already have a built desire for a team since they had lost their previous teams.