Kroenke meets with Peacock & other relocation stuff

Is Stan Kroenke being too abrupt with his plans to move the Rams to Los Angeles? ESPN’s Adam Caplan cautions against not considering St. Louis’ stadium plan.

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Kroenke’s Hollywood Park Plan is NFL’s Best Bet Yet

http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardcole/2015/02/05/kroenkes-hollywood-park-plan-is-nfls-best-bet-yet/

Prepare for kickoff, Southern California, because the NFL is coming to Inglewood. Stan Kroenke’s Hollywood Park stadium plan is to too bright an idea not to have happen.

Sure, we’ve been down this road before, with more development schemes presented by moguls armed with an artist’s rendering than you can shake a down marker at. And here we are, 20 years after the Rams and Raiders said “adios” to Los Angeles, still minus a football team to either root for or boo heartily off the field. Skepticism from the locals is understandable.

The City of Industry plan was at best an uninspired idea, and at worst a misapplication of the term, “industry.” The rock quarry known as Irwindale was a question mark the second it was drawn up on a chalkboard, with the location better suited for a production of “Flintstones: The Documentary” than big-city football.

More than one Carson project had (and has) potential, downtown L.A.’s Farmers Field did (or does) too, and those projects are officially still in play, although with considerably less a feeling of the flavor of the month than Inglewood has now.

Earlier, Chavez Ravine sported the land, the backdrop, the freeway access – and the fun prospect of a Los Angeles Football Dodgers expansion franchise – but not the will of the land owner. Peter O’Malley bowed to pressure from pols touting an inferior and less NFL-friendly Coliseum proposal, before souring on the team owning business entirely.

And oh, what might have been. If only Peter O’Malley had the dynamism of father Walter, who no doubt would have told City Hall, “no, we’ll do it my way; you can thank me later.”

Inglewood has eager Kroenke, an actual member of the league fraternity of owners, raring to go. He’s got acreage and plenty of it, he’s got the oomph of project partner Stockbridge Capital behind him, and he has the support of Mayor James T. Butts, which is no small thing.

Contrast Inglewood’s going-for-it leader to L.A.’s Richard Riordan, who not only encouraged O’Malley to pursue football only to drop his support later, but had to recuse himself from the Staples Center development discussion because of a conflict of interest. Riordan’s The Pantryrestaurant may be always-open, but football at the close of the previous millennium, not so much.

Inglewood (population 111,000) makes sense because it’s easier to get things done in small cities. It just is. The NFL gets that, what with the experiences that led teams to East Rutherford, Foxborough, Glendale, Pontiac and Santa Clara. Not to mention the L.A. to Anaheim flight of the Rams 30 years ago.

So why continue to wrestle with the challenges of a metropolis like Los Angeles when Inglewood is ready, willing (we’ll see about the willing part, actually) and able?

Environmental impact studies will be commissioned, votes will be taken and positions debated, pro and con. Of course, there hasn’t been a slam dunk within the city limits since the Lakers left town for Staples in 1999, so no one in Inglewood is getting too far above the rim with the expectations.

Obstacles remain, certainly, but organizers managed twice the signatures required to ensure a June 16 vote, and in record time too. Promoters of competing projects assuredly see where the momentum lies just days after the Super Bowl.

There will be questions about gentrification offered in thoughtful op-eds by Inglewood residents, like Erin Aubry Kaplan, who understand their town more than we outsiders, mostly interested in getting our sports fix, could ever pretend to. But the voters saying nay to a Wal-Mart superstore is one thing; turning their backs on the National Football League is another animal entirely.

While it is an oversimplification to say that dollars win out in the end, if the NFL really and truly wants football in Inglewood, it’s going to happen. And the league should want a team in Inglewood. Or better yet, tees for two.

The obvious reasons include the city’s proximity to LAX, four interstate freeways and the Pacific Ocean, the presence of both old rail (like theUnion Pacific) and new (the Crenshaw/LAX line, scheduled for completion in 2024), and a fondly-remembered connection to Lakers championship history.

The Fabulous Forum has been re-imagined as a fine concert venue, reversing the sacrilegious painting of the Fabulous Forum from orange to blue in the process, and opened by the Eagles early last year.

While Inglewood’s real estate prices may seem steep by national or typical NFL city standards, low-to-mid six figures is a veritable bargain for Californians. With Curbed LA tabbing the city Neighborhood of the Yearrecently, and housing at a premium in nearby Santa Monica, Venice and even Westchester, an influx of techies from Silicon Beach may be inevitable. Which means a young demographic with disposable income.

At about 300 acres on the old Hollywood Park site, Kroenke and Stockbridge have the space required for a stadium and entertainment complex with plans for retail and housing, and an estimated $25 million per year in tax revenue being generated for the city of Inglewood.

Yes, concern about fans coming in for an event, only to make a quick getaway without spending money around town before and after, is legitimate. That’s essentially what happened during the Lakers and Kings reigns during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. But a modern, top-tier marketing and public relations effort from both the city and the league should help attract new business, and new customers. There should be more than enough commerce to go around.

Current Inglewood residents can decide for themselves whether they want all that. In the meantime the NFL should stand up with a resounding “yes!” to the proposal, because it’s the best one fashioned in 20 years.

If Kroenke brings his Rams home, great. Hallelujah, in fact. If the San Diego team returns to its 1960 Los Angeles Chargers AFL roots, wonderful. And if it’s the Raiders, well, we’ll all live. Probably.

But there is no world in which revenue equals in Missouri what it does in Southern California. While a major-market city without a franchise has served the league’s purposes until now, the vacancy was never intended to be permanent. Were the right opportunity to come knocking, the league was eventually going to jump.

Stan Kroenke’s Inglewood plan represents the NFL’s best chance yet. And it’s going to happen. There will be no more false starts, no official review necessary to determine catch or no catch. There’s a fresh clock now, and it’s first and goal for Los Angeles.

nittany ram wrote:

Captain Peacock doesn’t suffer insolence.

Are You Being Served?

I liked that show.

GreatRamNTheSky wrote:

Peacock stalked him at an NFL party and cornered him to hold a conversation.

How could you know that?

We have no idea what this means and only the people there who were in on it know what happened.

Either way, it’s just one tidbit and to me, doesn’t mean much either way.

GreatRamNTheSky wrote:

How could I know that? That is what was reported, that is how I know that. Stan would not talk to Peacock. Why was Peacock at an NFL party? Is he a member of the league? No, clearly he was there to try and talk to Stan.

Grits

No reporter writes that one public figure “stalked” another. That’s at best you reading into what was reported, and giving it your own spin. And how do you know who gets invited to league parties? Why wouldn’t Peacock be invited? He has had talks with and contact with the league…why wouldn’t he be on a list to invite? For that matter, who CRASHES a league party? As the report says, “Peacock was reportedly at the party…by invitation and was warmly received.”You having an opinion of what happened is not the same as an objective account, right?

All I know is that each of the two looks bad if he ignored the other.

I don’t see the basis for reading much into this either way.

Well, we know principle and rules won’t be at play here… What I heard Roger Goodell say is that he just wanted the owners to vote.

Now, if they all vote NO and an owner moves anyway, then… nothing. Are they really going to hold no Super Bowls in Los Angeles?

Really? Maybe not for a while, but eventually, they’ll cave.

And if St. Louis builds the NFL stadium, the NFL will put a team there. Probably Jacksonville, although who knows at this point?