On Tuesday, NFL VP for stadium extortion Eric Grubman called in to an L.A. radio show and talked smack about Oakland’s stadium plans for the Raiders, because that’s what he does. In particular, Grubman said that over the past three years, “I visited with public officials, and I feel like we’ve gone backwards. So I feel like we’ve lost years and gone backwards. And that usually doesn’t bode well.”
Floyd Kephart, the financier trying to put together an Oakland stadium deal, however, apparently failed to read Grubman’s resume, and so yesterday freaked the hell out at the NFL capo:
“Every time he comes, there is a backward step,” Kephart said of NFL Executive Vice President Eric Grubman, who was in Oakland last week. “And if he would just stay the hell out of here, we might actually get a deal done.”…
Kephart peppered his remarks before the Airport Area Business Association with one-liners Wednesday but said afterward that he took umbrage with Grubman’s tone at last week’s meeting. “You don’t come to a city and threaten it with ‘I’m going to take your team away. We’ll move to Carson if you guys don’t do something,'” he said.
Floyd, Floyd, Floyd. When you’re the NFL, that’s exactly what you do. It’s not something you need to take umbrage over, it’s something to shake your head sadly at, and try to defuse by talking about all the great progress you’re making, blah blah blah. Sure, I guess that can be tough when you’re not really making much progress, but then just point out how the folks in Carson don’t know how they’re going to pay for their stadium, either. But resorting to petty name-calling is … way more entertaining, actually, so by all means, keep it up!
Had to chuckle about this. Oakland and the County seemed to have hired a loose cannon selling magic beans that nobody will end up wanting to work with.
An interesting part of the linked Contra Costa Times article was this:
“The proposal has the support of the City Council, but Kephart has not received a commitment from the Raiders and has been rejected by the Oakland A’s. He also hasn’t shown how the project would be funded or whether it is financially viable.
Unlike many cities that have kept their NFL teams, Oakland is unwilling to help pay for construction of a new stadium estimated to cost about $1 billion. Instead, it wants profits from the homes, shops and offices to help fund the stadium — an approach that NFL officials have opposed.”
Although I try to keep up, I didn’t realize the city had taken the stance to have the stadium(s) funded by development profits. Good for them.
But, the Raiders don’t like it. The A’s have said no. And the NFL sure as hell doesn’t like it.
So it pretty much guarantees an exit for the Raiders to the next highest bidder. Oh well, no big loss really. We’ve got the Niners lowballing to take over youth soccer fields next door to Levi’s so they can charge $75/car to park on them instead of on their own right-next-door practice fields. http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_27962743/49ers-proposal-to-take-over-soccer-fields-sent-for-further-study
That’s good enough entertainment that everyone should have seen coming. When I was at the stadium for a tour, it cast a dark shadow over these fields and reminded me of the “Who Shot Mr. Burns” episode where he taps the school’s oil and then blocks out the sun.
Nice to see a couple of City Council Members not bowing to the Niners and kicking it back down to a lowly sub-committee to let it fester. But, you know the Niners will find a way to put the city on the hook for this and force them to abdicate.
Lawyers, enter stage left.
Oakland’s mayor has distance her self from Floyd’s comments: “”I agree with the NFL. This is not moving fast enough,” she said. “We are also anxious for the Raiders and Kephart to come up with a project.””
This is to funny and yesterday Raiders and Chargers owners gave an update in NYC on the progress in Carson to NFL committee. I wonder how Floyd’s comments sat with the committee.
The Hammer strikes again! Poor Floyd thinks he’s running things. No, sonny–we are.