relocation articles 1/29-2/5

Chargers won’t play in Los Angeles in 2016

Nathan Fenno and Sam Farmer

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-chargers-rams-stadium-agreement-20160129-story.html

In another twist to their long flirtation with Los Angeles, the San Diego Chargers announced Friday they will not move here for the 2016 season and will redouble their efforts to reach a deal to remain in their hometown.

Chargers Chairman Dean Spanos, disclosing his decision in an open letter to Chargers fans, said the team still had an agreement with the Rams to share their stadium in Inglewood, “but my focus is on San Diego.”

“This has been our home for 55 years, and I want to keep the team here and provide the world-class stadium experience you deserve,” Spanos said.

The announcement means Los Angeles will have one NFL team when the season opens this year. The Rams are expected to play the first three seasons in the Coliseum while a stadium is being built in Inglewood.

The Chargers have until Jan. 15, 2017, to exercise a one-year option to move to L.A. The team can ask for the option to be extended one year if San Diego voters approve public financing for a stadium there. Should the Chargers remain in San Diego, the Oakland Raiders have the right to share the Inglewood stadium.

Spanos informed San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and County Supervisor Ron Roberts of his decision during a half-hour meeting Friday afternoon.

“We appreciate Mr. Spanos’ commitment to staying in San Diego for the 2016 season to work with the region on a stadium solution,” Faulconer and Roberts said in a joint statement. “We … will be working with him and our negotiating team on a fair and viable plan to put before voters.”

Spanos echoed that sentiment: “I am committed to looking at this with a fresh perspective and new sense of possibility.”

San Diego has pushed to put a stadium initiative on the ballot this year to approve public money to go toward a $1.1-billion stadium at a Mission Valley site near the Chargers’ current stadium.

The Chargers had previously expressed concerns that voters wouldn’t approve such a measure and that the city rushed an environmental impact report for the proposed project.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he is “very supportive” of the Chargers’ decision.

“We look forward to partnering with the Chargers in Inglewood, but the decision, of course, is Dean’s to make,” said Rams owner Stan Kroenke.

When NFL owners green-lighted the Rams to move to L.A. and build a stadium in Inglewood this month, they also provided incentives to the Chargers and Raiders to pursue stadiums in their home markets. The teams backed a rival stadium project in Carson for the last year, but the effort didn’t attract widespread support among owners.

As a consolation prize, owners pledged $100 million to each team toward new stadiums in their current cities. It’s unclear whether the money would be a loan.

The Chargers would also be able to use a $200-million construction loan from the league toward a new stadium.

Spanos has another reason to try to remain in San Diego. Moving to L.A. would require the Chargers to pay a $550-million relocation fee to the league starting in 2019. The payments could be spread over 10 years.

The Chargers are developing plans for a five-acre training facility in Santa Ana in case of an eventual move to L.A.

Earlier Friday, the team reached an agreement in principle with the Rams to share the Inglewood stadium. The deal would leave the Chargers as a tenant paying $1 per year in rent, with the team’s $200-million loan from the NFL and revenue from the sale of personal seat licenses being used to offset construction costs for the stadium.

The stadium, scheduled to open for the 2019 season, is expected to be the most expensive in U.S. history.

A second team would also be a boon for a surrounding development bankrolled by Kroenke. It would provide more visitors to what is envisioned as a sports and entertainment hub on a 298-acre site that will include shopping, office space and housing.

The Chargers had expressed reservations about the Inglewood stadium, including the venue’s roof, artificial turf and location.

Now they will return to talks in San Diego — with L.A. still one decision away.

John Clayton: Chargers buying time by staying in San Diego for 2016

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:14675182

With NFL Rams gone, St. Louis still stuck with stadium debt

By Robin Respaut

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VC0EP

(Reuters) – The National Football League’s Rams left behind more than bitterness when the team ditched St. Louis for Los Angeles last month – it left a stadium saddled with about $144 million in debt and maintenance costs.

Taxpayers will now shoulder the remaining payments for the Edward Jones Dome with only the help of revenue from tractor pulls, volleyball tournaments, concerts and the like.

St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed has asked the NFL to help pay off the stadium, but so far has gotten no response.

“The fans are being left holding the bag,” Reed said. “I think they should factor that into the total cost of the move.”

The leftover debt and maintenance costs are another example of the NFL’s negotiating prowess with many cities, sports economists said, and also reflects larger problems with the deal St. Louis struck with the Rams.

Even before the team decided to leave, the city’s stadium revenues didn’t cover its payments, leaving the city with annual shortfalls.

The league and the Rams did not respond to requests to comment.

Across the country, cities have gotten stuck with substantial costs after sports teams leave or even move across town. Often, local governments must pay bonds, maintenance costs, or demolition fees after a team is gone.

Houston’s iconic Astrodome, once dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World, sits empty a decade after the facility housed 25,000 evacuees of Hurricane Katrina and nearly 20 years after the Oilers left. The Detroit Lions’ former Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, was used sporadically after the team moved downtown in 2002, but shuttered for good when the inflatable roof was deflated.

Today, after years of exposure to the elements, the Silverdome is slated for demolition. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, the Washington Redskins’ former home, may meet the same fate, said Greg O’Dell, president and CEO of Events DC, the convention and sports authority that owns the stadium.

NFL stadiums are primarily designed for one thing – eight home games a year – and don’t necessarily adapt well to alternate uses. Cities also have little chance of attracting a new professional team to an old stadium; building a glitzy new one is often what it takes to win league approval.

“These things become economically obsolete before they become physically obsolete,” said Victor Matheson, College of the Holy Cross economics professor.

It’s not uncommon for local governments to pay debts and maintenance on abandoned stadiums for years – even after it is demolished. Seattle’s Kingdome bonds were retired only last year, 15 years after the facility was imploded in 2000. Philadelphia has $160,000 left to pay on Veterans Stadium, more than a decade after the facility was torn down. Debt from Indianapolis’ Hoosier Dome – demolished in 2008 – still hadn’t been paid off in 2013, according to state filings.

In St. Louis, the $280 million agreement to build the Edward Jones Dome for the Rams raised eyebrows since its opening in 1995. Unlike other stadium deals, the St. Louis contract included a clause requiring the 67,000-seat dome be maintained to a first-tier standard, meaning the facility must be considered among the top quarter of all NFL football facilities.

As the stadium aged – and new, state-of-the-art NFL stadiums were erected in New Jersey, Texas, and California – the bar became more onerous.

“This was a contract designed to be broken” by the team, said Matheson, who studies stadium finances. “They had a terrible, terrible contract with the Rams.”

A few years ago, to maintain the stadium’s top-tier status, the Rams sought an estimated $700 million of improvements. St. Louis balked, and the Rams started looking elsewhere.

To cover costs, the city paid about $6 million for annual debt service and maintenance for the stadium but collected only about $4.2 million in direct revenues from Rams games, according to the Mayor’s office. The state, which paid $12 million annually, made $12.4 million in revenues from NFL activities, Missouri Department of Economic Development estimated. The county paid $6 million annually; it’s unclear how much of that was offset by Rams-related revenues.

All three entities will continue paying their share until the debt is paid off in 2021.

Without the Rams’ revenues, St. Louis is looking at an even deeper financial hole. And it’s coming at a time when the city is facing a spiking murder rate, high poverty and high debt. Last August, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the city’s credit rating to Aa1 from Aa3, which could lead to increased borrowing costs.

“We’re going to have to tighten the belt in a few places,” said Reed, the alderman.

In 2002, St. Louis city voters displayed their frustration with public stadium financing by passing a ballot measure that required a public vote to approve any future sports subsidies.

But last summer, a judge invalidated the law as too vague. The next day, voters rejected a $180 million proposal to purchase more fire trucks and improve police equipment.

The juxtaposition of residents voting on such basic needs while being denied a say on stadium subsidies did not sit well with Jeanette Mott Oxford, executive director of Empower Missouri, a social justice organization, and co-founder of the Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums that campaigned for the ordinance.

“When you live in an urban area, there is money needed for public safety, public health, even just repairing potholes,” Oxford said. “I just became so cynical.”

Party’s over for many St. Louis Rams employees

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/party-s-over-for-many-st-louis-rams-employees/article_e35120d2-b376-5fe2-819b-df6ac4c8a8a2.html

There aren’t nearly as many cars in the parking lot these days at Rams Park.

If you’re in marketing and sales, for example, you really don’t have a function because there’s no longer anything to market and sell for the Rams — at least not in St. Louis.

Since the NFL approved the relocation of the Rams to Los Angeles three weeks ago, change is afoot at the team’s Earth City headquarters. Each day, more and more desks are cleaned out. Packing is well underway.

Even in the media workroom, large blue plastic containers are stacked in one corner, labeled and filled with files, photos, decades worth of box scores, anything and everything that an NFL media relations office would need.

The Rams have until April 1 to be out of the building, which they have occupied since 1996 — the team’s second season in St. Louis — and have rented for $25,000 a year from the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority.

No one knows exactly where those containers — or anything else — are going because the Rams have yet to decide where it will set up headquarters in the Los Angeles area.

Players anxious to find places to stay in California are being told to be patient and wait a little longer. The last thing a player needs is a condo or home located far from the practice facility — which would mean a long commute in the notorious L.A. traffic.

So even with the move approved, there’s still uncertainty, not to mention heartache and stress for many rank-and-file team employees. Not counting players, coaches, and those in the scouting/personnel department, there are about 100 team employees.

Since the league’s relocation vote Jan. 12, about half of those 100 employees have been told they are being invited to accompany the team to Los Angeles. The other half? Well, they’re not making the travel squad.

Those told they’re not coming with the team are being offered two months termination pay, six months severance pay, plus one week of additional pay for each year of employment with the team. So an employee who was with the Rams for, say, 15 years and is not accompanying the team to Los Angeles could walk away with nearly a year’s worth of pay. The team also is providing a placement service for employees not going to L.A., offering interviewing and résumé tips, as well as networking opportunities.

But that doesn’t ease the pain for many.

“It’s tough. A lot of friends, a lot of goodbyes,” said one team employee speaking on condition of anonymity. “Worst thing I’ve ever been through.”

Some longtime employees have been invited to L.A. but have established roots in St. Louis and simply don’t want to go. Some can’t leave because of family considerations. For others, including many who are single and early in their careers, it’s just the opposite. For them, Los Angeles represents a new adventure.

This picture of the final days at Rams Park emerged from interviews with several employees. But none felt comfortable speaking on the record — they don’t want to jeopardize a severance package or a job offer with the Rams in L.A.

Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff declined to be interviewed for this story.

Obviously, the prospect of a move to L.A. has been out there for a couple of years, but still, the league’s decision seemed sudden — and so final — for many. The first couple of weeks after the relocation vote were particularly tough, including some tearful farewells among co-workers.

“I wish (Demoff) was around to see and feel the pain in this building,” said another team employee just days after the move was approved.

Demoff has spent a lot of time in Los Angeles since the 30-2 relocation vote, and he wasn’t in the building the first few days after Jan. 12.

To a large degree, those in ticketing, marketing, sales and accounting are not making the trek to Los Angeles. The Rams’ ticket office at the Edward Jones Dome was emptied and closed about a week after the relocation vote.

Most of the team’s athletic trainers, equipment staff, and those in the Rams Broadcast Network are going. It looks like most of the media relations staff also is heading to Los Angeles.

It’s highly unlikely that any of the team physicians, who are affiliated with Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, are following the team west. Basically, they have well-established practices in St. Louis apart from the football team.

Those doctors are expected to stay on with the team through the NFL Scouting Combine this month, the recheck combine in April, and then the draft before the Rams start fresh with a new set of physicians in Los Angeles.

Although everyone at Rams Park knows whether they’ve been invited or not to join the team in L.A., one unknown remains: any cost of living adjustment for those invited to the more expensive West Coast.

Will it be a flat rate, or amount, to all employees? Or will it vary from employee to employee or by job title? If the numbers aren’t right, even more employees have indicated they will stay in St. Louis.

Roger Goodell calls Rams’ return to Los Angeles ‘transformational,’ says league will keep working on Chargers, Raiders

TODD HARMONSON

SAN FRANCISCO – NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called the Rams’ return to Los Angeles “transformational” and said the league is determined to help the Chargers and Raiders work on solutions in their current markets during his annual news conference Friday.

He also insisted the NFL is looking into allegations that Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning received shipments of HGH to his home and stressed the league is focused on players’ safety and conduct.

And Goodell remained vague on his feelings about the daily fantasy industry, which has come under fire at the state level.

“I don’t make that determination,” he said about whether daily fantasy is gambling. “Each state makes that determination. We are obviously going to follow the law.”

Goodell got laughs when he talked about being done with the questions about when Los Angeles will get an NFL team.

But he was clear that he believes the Rams will have a stadium in Inglewood that will exceed anyone’s expectations and change many things.

“We believe this will be transformational, not just for the Rams, not just for the Los Angeles community, but for the NFL,” Goodell said.

While Goodell said the NFL will work with the Chargers and San Diego as well as the Raiders in Oakland, he also acknowledged the Chargers have a big decision to make.

They announced that they will play the 2016 season in San Diego while they try to work on a solution there, but they have a deal in place with Rams owner Stan Kroenke to join the team in Los Angeles and later Inglewood.

“I think it’s great that Dean Spanos and his family said they want to make this work in San Diego,” Goodell said. “They have an incredibly attractive option in Los Angeles.”

He said that the league’s owners made a strong statement about the adequacy of facilities in St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego when it approved the Rams, Raiders and Chargers for relocation.

“Clearly, the 32 clubs made that judgment,” he said.

Goodell said player safety and getting better as a league are keys for the NFL. He also announced that the NFL will return to Mexico for a regular season game Nov. 21 between the Raiders and Houston Texans.

In the Manning case, he said the league is working with the other league’s involved and the World Anti-Doping Agency but has not launched an independent investigation.

“We take every allegation of violations very seriously,” he said.

Goodell, however, refused to take a firm stance on daily fantasy sports. Instead, he talked about how the league will follow the law and more consumer protection is needed.

“For our longterm growth, fantasy football is more than daily fantasy,” he said.

More to come on this story