Hey, Rob Manfred, you want some pointers in how to shake down cities for stadium deals? You might want to talk to NFL VP Eric Grubman, because he has this stuff down:
“It’s obvious that no proposal has gained the support and enthusiasm of the Chargers — that’s obvious,” Grubman said in [a] press conference with reporters after the meeting [of the San Diego mayor’s citizens’ stadium advisory group]. “So you don’t need me to tell you that.”…
“If you start out with the key parties that have to support these things on different pages, it’s certainly a recipe for delay,” Grubman said. “It’s probably a recipe for failure.”…
“At this point of time, I think it’s more likely that we would move it up than leave it the same or delay it, unless something happens to knock one or more of the projects off of its pace,” he said. … “To wait until the end of next year to get the vote it seems to me to be very risky.”
Vague threats about “failure” and “risky” behavior, a message that no deal is a deal until the local team owners have been made happy, the general tone of a scolding dad — now that’s why they pay commissioners, and their henchmen, the big bucks. Not that this solves any of the problems that San Diego is having in finding a way to fund a new Chargers stadium that makes the team owners happy (key to this being “somebody who is not us paying for a large chunk of it”), but it turns up the perceived heat on city officials, and that’s all that league officials are expected to do, really.
I hope San Diegoans know that an industry that made over $9 billion last year can build their own stadiums on their own dime.
I just took a dump on Eric Grubman.
Hey, don’t mess with the Grubman. He’s fully caffeinated:
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/bd/6bd750d1-019e-5d75-9211-14f3fa0bf094/54b9341e51544.image.jpg
In the San Diego article there is this additional quote:
“It’s a very attractive market,” Grubman said about Los Angeles. “It now has two projects being sponsored by clubs — one of which is fully entitled, one of which is on the verge of entitlement. And those things create a momentum, which we are happy about.”
What are the entitlements that Grubman refers to? Something related to the NFL or the city?
I think he means that Inglewood has been approved by the city council, and Carson is working on it. “Entitlement” is a weird word to use there, but he may not have wanted to distract from “momentum,” which was the main point of that statement.
Entitlement means it has secured all of the necessary development permits/approvals it needs to be built
Maybe that’s California terminology? I don’t hear it in East Coast development circles.
It’s time for the city of San Diego, one the best places to live in the USA, to tell the NFL and the Chargers:
“If you want a new stadium, build it at 100% cost to you. You can build it in San Diego or you can build it in Timbuktu, or even LA – oh that’s the city that could not support two teams that left simultaneously in 1995.
So which is it Grubman? Hurry up or we want to do LA right. Talk about speaking out of both sides of his mouth. What a tool!!
Sasha is right about what ‘entitlement’ means. I’m not sure if it’s a California-only term but it’s definitely a California term.
Of course, having the right to build a billion dollar stadium somewhere is a far cry from actually having the billion dollars needed to build it.
I should have added that I don’t think they fully have the ‘entitlements’ that they need to build a new stadium in the LA area. They’ve shown they have some friendly city councils that would probably allow it, but my knowledge of the situation is they don’t have the full right to build yet, even if the money magically appeared.
If a local jurisdiction has said they’re in favor of it, that’s a positive sign (or momentum as Neil is calling it), but there could be hurdles such as lawsuits that could stop it.
Neil – don’t be giving Manfred any ideas – I want to not hate this commissioner!
“If you start out with the key parties that have to support these things on different pages, it’s certainly a recipe for delay”
I have to get my mind out of the gutter, as I spent a few seconds thinking why holding a ’70’s-style key party could possibly affect financing a stadium.
Maybe I’m being naive but I just can’t see the NFL owners voting for a Chargers move.
The hammer has arrived in San Diego. Like I said, you know we are serious when we let that guy out of his coffin to go make threats, haha.
I love the smell of public stadium cash in the morning!