San Diego Chargers stadium czar Mark Fabiani is mad about who Mayor Kevin Faulconer has on his Chargers stadium task force, and Faulconer is mad that Fabiani is being “divisive,” and you can go read it all if you really want, but all you need to understand is that the two sides are bickering angrily in public, so they’re probably not arranging a stadium deal in the immediate future. If you want to use this to jump to conclusions that the Chargers really want to move to L.A. before everyone else does, go for it, everyone else will anyway. Or you can just take the opportunity to make some Simpsons jokes, which is more entertaining and at least as enlightening.
And speaking of L.A., I just noticed the Los Angeles Times had a mention that Stan Kroenke’s proposed stadium in Inglewood would cost $1.5 billion and “a clear, retractable roof … and open-air sides.” Accompanied by a rendering that shows a roof that has no machinery for retracting, and no open-air sides. Stadium planners will just say anything, man.
With Kroenke moving the Rams to the L.A. area all the other stadiums plan are now irrelevant. This means that any other team owner wanting a new stadium using the threat to move to L.A. has just lost some leverage. What other city can give an owner a new stadium now? San Antonio, Birmingham AL, Orlando? The Spano’s know they only have a short time to use the L.A. option before they get called on it.
There’s always St. Louis…
There’s always London
Portland maybe. But, they would probably be too scared to build the stadium. A mosquito or a frog might die.
This is gonna be great!
San Diego is probably the last city that ‘needs’ an NFL team, along with my Tampa town. Spanos – don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!
Portland had an opportunity to build an NFL stadium in the early ’70s to get a team, decided against it, and never looked back.
Figure Kroenke can double the naming rights deal with a tenant. Surely he’d skim some parking and ad revenue too. It’ll be worth his while if he lets the Chargers in. Also, taking on the Chargers instead of the Raiders means two teams would be in SoCal, not three. As long as the Rams are in L.A., I don’t really care who else comes though.
What the heck do you need a clear retractable roof for in Los Angeles?
“keep Portland weird”
Neil., thanks so much for the vice link. I’ve been following stadium shakedowns for decades now and I’ve never seen one more accurately portrayed than that.
“Figure Kroenke can double the naming rights deal with a tenant.”
Please explain the rationale behind this proposition?
Did the naming rights for the AEG controlled Staples centre double because the Clippers share the building? No.
Did the naming rights double for new Giants stadium because the Jets also play there? No.
If this suggestion were true, the Yankees would buy the Mets and the Rays and schedule 243 home games per season in new Yankee stadium…. yet they haven’t done that…. curious…
Neil, I think its safe to assume Portland had a much, much higher concentration of hippies in the early 70’s than it does today. lol I imagine contact sports were a tough sell back then… Plus, if they had build an NFL stadium then – they probably would’ve relocated by now after going through the whole “you’re gonna need a new stadium to keep the team” ploy.
If the Chargers leave San Diego, they won’t have enough fans to fill a stadium. Los Angeles is a Rams and Raiders town.
We don’t need a retractable roof in LA. How many “indoor” events are we talking about? A Final Four every 20 years? Super Bowl, soccer friendlies and such require no roof and could also be held at the Coliseum or Rose Bowl.
“keep Portland weird”
Is actually pilfered from Austin. The local anti-litter campaign in the late 70s or early 80s was called “Keep Austin Beautiful.” Someone changed it to “Keep Austin Weird” (maybe around the “Slacker” era) and made some bumper stickers or something. Anyway, someone form the Pac Northwest appropriated it, and because it’s on the mural at the start at Portlandia, people think it originated in Portland.
Okay, I’m done being that guy for today.
As I recall it, “Keep Austin Weird” was part of an anti-chain-store campaign.
Pre-dates that. Gets co-opted for uses that fit the leitmotif of the city. Hell there was even a “Keep Austin Weird” 5K for a few years (might still have it… even though there is nothing weird or unique about a city having a fun run).
Not trying to start a pissing contest. I don’t think anyone in either city has fought over ownership of it but the genesis was basically a municipal anti-litter group.
Ha, okay. I would correct whatever source I saw that cited it to the anti-chain campaign, if I remembered what it was.
Did not see this coming. ..
http://www.chargers.com/news/2015/02/19/joint-statement-raiders-and-chargers
Didn’t see this coming.
Chargers and Raiders just flopped Aces on Kroenke
A fourth team. L.A. needs a fourth team.
Michael:
Don’t worry about being ‘that guy’.
I didn’t intend to suggest that Portland originated the phrase, or even invented the concept of being weird. I did know that this slogan was used in Austin, but did not know that they did it first (or just before… for all I know, Sarajevo was once festooned with a similar slogan before it was destroyed a few years after the 1984 WinterOlympics for reasons that still escape everyone…)
I would only point out that both cities can be weird at the same time.
TFF:
Can you expand on how an announcement about a plan B for their respective local stadium challenges is “flopping aces” on Kroenke?
LA is an open (yet NFL controlled) market. If it comes to a competition between franchises wanting to move there, then a competition it will be. I don’t see the Chargers or Raiders having more “natural rights” to LA than the Rams do.
I can’t imagine Roger Goodell, Jerry Jones or the Maras do either.