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January 31, 2015 at 6:22 am #17713
znModeratorBernie: Three ways to view Goodell’s remarks
By Bernie Miklasz
PHOENIX • From a St. Louis standpoint, here are my three Rams-related takeaways from comments made by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during his annual state of the league address Friday:
1. The good: “The St. Louis representatives seem determined to build a stadium,” Goodell said. “That’s a positive development and something we look forward to working on with them.”
Goodell also reiterated that the NFL wants all of their franchises to stay in their current markets and termed it a “shared responsibility” among the community, team and league.
Now, none of this means Goodell plans to throw himself in front of moving vans to block Rams owner Stan Kroenke from taking the team to Los Angeles. But positive public comments from the commissioner are welcome and can help the St. Louis stadium task force headed by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz.
There is a psychological aspect to this. Peacock doesn’t want fans, politicians or area leaders to think the quest to save the Rams is hopeless. Peacock insists the situation is far from hopeless, and Goodell and other league executives have urged Peacock to keep working hard.
So even if Goodell’s words are just that — words — the surface-level encouragement can be good for keeping folks motivated. Including Peacock and Blitz.
2. The bad: When asked if Kroenke is working to exhaust all opportunities for a stadium solution in St. Louis in a way that would comply with the NFL guidelines on franchise relocation, Goodell gave Kroenke a pass. This is potentially important and something to remember.
“Stan has been working on the stadium issue in St. Louis for several years,” said Goodell, referring to the Rams’ dispute with the Convention and Visitors Commission over the “top tier” status of the Edward Jones Dome. After a lengthy arbitration process, the Rams won the decision and their lease converted to a year-to-year arrangement.
Goodell’s comment was revealing. If Kroenke attempts to move the Rams, and submits his request to a vote of the NFL owners, we can expect Kroenke to argue that he fulfilled his obligation to find a St. Louis solution by simply entering into arbitration.
This, of course, is preposterous.
Kroenke took time to meet with the mayor of Inglewood, Calif., before ramping up plans to build a stadium complex on the old Hollywood Park grounds near Los Angeles. Kroenke, however, has refused to meet with the St. Louis stadium task force. He has refused to meet with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. He hasn’t met with St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. Kroenke continues to ignore phone calls and requests to discuss the STL stadium.
The arbitration was settled only two years ago, and St. Louis already has cultivated a plan for a new stadium. Compare that to the San Diego Chargers, who have been trying to get a new stadium built in their market for a dozen years. Or the Oakland Raiders, who have been stuck in a terrible stadium situation for a decade.
And Kroenke will try to convince Goodell and the owners that he worked in good faith to exhaust all opportunities in St. Louis? Really? The same guy who won’t even meet with the political leaders or take their phone calls?
But as we’ve written multiple times, the NFL owners don’t have to adhere to the guidelines if they’re asked to vote on a Kroenke-Rams move. If Kroenke can convince enough owners that he made an honest effort in STL, then maybe he’d get the necessary votes (24) to pull the Rams out of St. Louis. (And Kroenke already is working on his fellow owners.)
Goodell not only tipped Kroenke’s likely strategy Friday; the commissioner also gave the league some wiggle room on the guidelines. That isn’t surprising. Again: This league will do whatever it wants to do, and that includes putting its own rules in the shredder if it benefits the NFL’s interests.
3. The predictable: Goodell tried to convince everyone that the NFL will really, really, enforce its relocation rules. But when asked what the NFL would do if Kroenke went “rogue” and moved the Rams to LA in defiance of the league’ wishes, Goodell talked around it and never gave a direct answer. And that’s all we need to know about that.
All in all, Goodell’s approach was what I expected. He slowed the breathless speculation that a Rams-LA deal was all but inevitable. He gave a lift to Peacock and Blitz and expressed a desire to have the league work with St. Louis on the stadium issue. But Goodell also reaffirmed an unpleasant reality: The NFL relocation guidelines are a matter of interpretation. And that could create a convenient loophole for Kroenke.
Stay calm. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs before the key figures throw down and make their play.
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The Pro Football Hall of Fame discussion, debate and vote gets underway Saturday morning at 7 a.m. (Phoenix time). The late Junior Seau will almost certainly be one of the five modern-era candidates chosen from a list of 15. In recent years the selection committee has been obsessed with putting in pass rushers , so it might be a happy day for Kevin Greene or Charles Haley.But other than that, I don’t have a sense of how the vote will go. I’ll be making a pitch for “Greatest Show” greats Orlando Pace and Kurt Warner. I don’t think it’s realistic for both to pick up enough votes for a first-ballot induction, but I’d be extremely disappointed if both missed out this time
January 31, 2015 at 6:33 am #17715znModeratorGoodell speaks about franchise relocation
By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot…cle_810ace79-8b67-560c-aaa0-fe6b43f315a8.html
PHOENIX • While expressing a general league-wide desire to keep franchises in their current markets, and deeming the St. Louis stadium effort a positive development, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also issued a vague warning about the Rams’ ability to meet relocation guidelines.
“We want all of our franchises to stay in their current markets,” Goodell said Friday at the annual State of the NFL press conference. “That’s a shared responsibility; that’s something that we all have to work on.”
Goodell cited programs, including the league’s stadium-funding program, that are available to cities trying to build new stadiums.
“And we will work, and have worked with communities including St. Louis,” he added.
Goodell said the business community — as well as the public sector — needed to be engaged in a stadium-building project to make sure a plan works for both the community and the team. The idea is making sure that teams can be successful long-term in that market.
Goodell also had good things to say about the St. Louis stadium initiative headed by Gov. Jay Nixon’s two-man task force of former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock and St. Louis attorney Bob Blitz.
“The St. Louis representatives seem determined to build a stadium,” Goodell said. “That’s a positive development and something that we look forward to working on with them.”
(Peacock was scheduled to attend the commissioner’s annual Super Bowl party Friday night, in more of a meet-and-greet setting than any nuts-and-bolts meeting.)
But when asked about Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s seeming lack of direct engagement in the St. Louis project, and whether that constituted a failure to meet the league’s relocation guidelines, Goodell didn’t exactly give the answer that St. Louis wanted.
“Stan has been working on the stadium issues in St. Louis, as you know, for several years,” Goodell said. “They had a formal (arbitration) process as part of their lease. They went through that entire process.
“So I don’t think the stadium is a surprise to anybody, in any market that is having these issues. There’s been quite a bit of discussion about it.”
Longtime NFL stadium consultant Marc Ganis, who as usual attended the commissioner’s press conference, saw both positives and negatives to Goodell’s remarks with respect to St. Louis.
“(Goodell) is not foreclosing any options,” said Ganis, president of Chicago-based SportsCorp. “Unlike many of the reports that are out there that (a team in) LA is somehow a foregone conclusion, he was very clear that is absolutely not the case for any team and for any owner — and that includes of course Stan Kroenke.”
Earlier this month, Kroenke announced plans to build a stadium in Inglewood, Calif., as part of an overall development plan in the Hollywood Park area of Los Angeles.
“What Roger is also saying about St. Louis that came through loud and clear was: Get your stadium deal put together, and make it solid,” said Ganis, who worked as a Rams consultant when the team moved to St. Louis from Southern California in 1995.
“The previous three years related to the arbitration process is going to be taken into account when the issue is raised as to whether the Rams and Stan Kroenke worked in good faith with the community. That is gonna be taken as part of the effort.”
However, Ganis’ view in terms of meeting relocation guidelines was not universally shared by those who listened to Goodell’s remarks Friday.
“What has Kroenke been doing in St. Louis for the past few years in St. Louis?” said one longtime NFL team executive familiar with the situation. “All he has done is participate in the arbitration. He made it clear he wanted to go year-to-year, and wouldn’t discuss a settlement or compromise.”
The Rams formally exercised their option to go year-to-year on the Edward Jones Stadium lease on Monday.
According to the NFL’s relocation guidelines, teams must show they have exhausted all efforts to settle their stadium (or other) issues in their current market before being allowed to move to another city.
Goodell did emphasize the importance of following relocation guidelines for any team wanting to move to Los Angeles. As far as the league is concerned, going rogue and moving without league approval is not an option.
“The ownership takes very seriously the obligation for us all to vote on any serious matter, including relocation of a franchise,” Goodell said. “There’s a relocation policy that is very clear. We have shared it with our ownership over the last several years.
“We have emphasized the point in each of those meetings that there will be at least one vote if not multiple votes if there is any relocation. We would potentially have the relocation itself, potential stadium funding, potential Super Bowls. So a lot of things that likely would be subject to a vote. So any relocation would be subject to a vote.”
Even with the announcement of Kroenke’s LA stadium plan, Goodell said, there has been no determination that the league wants a team there at this point — or that it has decided on any of several proposed stadium sites in the area.
“As a league, we haven’t gotten to that stage yet,” Goodell said. “We have several alternatives that we’re evaluating from a site standpoint. There are teams that are interested but are trying to work their issues out locally.”
Besides the Rams, those teams are Oakland and San Diego. On Friday, there was an announcement in San Diego on the formation of a task force to try to resolve the Chargers’ stadium situation.
After Goodell’s press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney echoed the commissioner’s thoughts on keeping the Rams in St. Louis.
“We don’t want any team to be moving,” Rooney told the Post-Dispatch. “We think that if they stay in their own area, and work at it, do a lot of really good things as far as community relations and things like that, that they’ll be successful.
“Sure you need a new stadium if it’s old. We don’t play St. Louis very often, so I can’t say that I’m right on the button as far as your stadium is concerned.”
Rooney also indicated that the television networks had talked about putting a team in Los Angeles.
“You know, they talk about it all the time,” he said. “They’ve done pretty well without (a team in LA). But there are people that want to go there. But as I answered the question earlier, we’re not anxious to have people move and things like that. Maybe the right thing can be accomplished.”
January 31, 2015 at 9:08 am #17727
wvParticipantThere’s a lot of tip-toe-ing and ‘balancing of interests’
talk going on now.
(and there’s lots to balance — San Diego,
Oakland, St.Louis, LA, the NFL, season ticket sales, etc etc)Exactly WHEN are we gonna know something concrete?
Is there a time-table here? Some dates
where something has to be decided?
Or is everyone going to be in limbo
all during the offseason and season?w
vJanuary 31, 2015 at 9:15 am #17728znModeratorThere’s a lot of tip-toe-ing and ‘balancing of interests’
talk going on now.
(and there’s lots to balance — San Diego,
Oakland, St.Louis, LA, the NFL, season ticket sales, etc etc)Exactly WHEN are we gonna know something concrete?
Is there a time-table here? Some dates
where something has to be decided?
Or is everyone going to be in limbo
all during the offseason and season?w
vThere is no set in advance target date in 2015 that would change anything.
Doesn’t mean things won’t change or clarify or whatever…but there is no set in advance time it must happen by.
January 31, 2015 at 9:17 am #17729wvParticipantThere’s a lot of tip-toe-ing and ‘balancing of interests’
talk going on now.
(and there’s lots to balance — San Diego,
Oakland, St.Louis, LA, the NFL, season ticket sales, etc etc)Exactly WHEN are we gonna know something concrete?
Is there a time-table here? Some dates
where something has to be decided?
Or is everyone going to be in limbo
all during the offseason and season?w
vThere is no set in advance target date in 2015 that would change anything.
Doesn’t mean things won’t change or clarify or whatever…but there is no set in advance time it must happen by.
well damn
weird team, weird year
Do you think it will affect
the play on the field?w
vJanuary 31, 2015 at 9:28 am #17731znModeratorDo you think it will affect
the play on the field?w
vIt could. But remember, JF has been through this before, AND he has a knack for creating “us against them” environments. So, he could make it the one team in existence that thrives off of not having a complete home field advantage.
January 31, 2015 at 11:08 am #17732wvParticipantDo you think it will affect
the play on the field?w
vIt could. But remember, JF has been through this before, AND he has a knack for creating “us against them” environments. So, he could make it the one team in existence that thrives off of not having a complete home field advantage.
Well, if it becomes obvious the rams are lame-ducks in St.Louis
and the fans stop showin up….can we still give the fans a nickname?
Like Seattle’s “12th Man” thing — ? What could we call them?w
vJanuary 31, 2015 at 11:18 am #17734
InvaderRamModeratorwe will rally around a lame duck season and play decent football.
ughhh.
goodell’s words aren’t too comforting. or maybe it’s just cuz they’re coming out of goodell’s mouth.
January 31, 2015 at 12:57 pm #17739
PA RamParticipantDo you think it will affect
the play on the field?w
vIt could. But remember, JF has been through this before, AND he has a knack for creating “us against them” environments. So, he could make it the one team in existence that thrives off of not having a complete home field advantage.
Well, if it becomes obvious the rams are lame-ducks in St.Louis
and the fans stop showin up….can we still give the fans a nickname?
Like Seattle’s “12th Man” thing — ? What could we call them?w
vThe Invisible Man?
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick
January 31, 2015 at 2:32 pm #17741
ZooeyModeratorI would think the Inglewood vote is the next event. I don’t know, though, if there is another wave of bureaucracy to get through after that. Maybe there are environmental hurdles, and so forth, that have to get cleared prior to the commencement of construction. Could take months. I would think that the project needs a legal green light in LA before the league votes on it. Once that happens, I would think things would move quickly, and dominoes will fall all around.
January 31, 2015 at 3:01 pm #17742wvParticipantDo you think it will affect
the play on the field?w
vIt could. But remember, JF has been through this before, AND he has a knack for creating “us against them” environments. So, he could make it the one team in existence that thrives off of not having a complete home field advantage.
Well, if it becomes obvious the rams are lame-ducks in St.Louis
and the fans stop showin up….can we still give the fans a nickname?
Like Seattle’s “12th Man” thing — ? What could we call them?w
vThe Invisible Man?
Ha. I love it. The Invisible Man 🙂
w
v
The Invisible Man: The drugs I took seemed to light up my brain. Suddenly I realized the power I held, the power to rule, to make the world grovel at my feet.
(The Invisible Man 1933) -
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