A Three year old's take on "Art Modell" Kroenke

Show note: We will be talking about the NFL Los Angeles situation after it is resolved next week. We will share some notes on what's going on, but first a cute little video of a 3-year-old football fan sharing her thoughts on a certain owner who's trying to move his team to LA:







Easily the cutest video we've ever shared on the WSC blog. Now, on to the notes:

• As expected, the football teams in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego have filed relocation papers to the NFL.  The cities also submitted paperwork, with only one city - St. Louis - having anything remotely close to a workable stadium plan.
• According to Bernie Miklasz, the NFL owners - who will decide these teams' fates no later than Wednesday - break down thusly: 19 strongly in favor of Carson (Chargers/Raiders), 5 in favor of Inglewood (Rams), and 8 undecided.  A proposal requires 24 out of the 32 votes to pass.
• The LA committee, consisting of 6 mostly old-school NFL owners - Clark Hunt (Kansas City), Bob Kraft (New England), John Mara (NY Giants), Bob McNair (Houston), Jerry Richardson (Carolina), Art Rooney II (Pittsburgh) - is said to be leaning heavily in favor of Carson and heavily contributed to the final St. Louis stadium proposal drafted by Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz.
• That said, there are elements within the NFL that want St. Louis to lose their team, namely some NFL executives (cough*Eric Grubman*cough) and a handful of "new money" owners, namely Jerry Jones (Dallas).
• The Rams, per media request, released their relocation papers to the public, and they just unfairly trash St. Louis.  The proposal also uses bad math (i.e. only accounting for St. Louis City and St. Louis County populations - and disregarding the remainder of the St. Louis metro area) and is filled with flat-out lies and failure to take responsibility for a primary contribution to lousy attendance in recent years - 12 straight non-winning seasons, no playoff appearances since 2005, and the worst 5-year stretch of football in NFL history, going 15-65 from 2007 through 2011.  They also lie about negotiating with St. Louis and falsely claim that their faulty lease gives them the right to relocate.  (It doesn't: the lease contains a clause requiring the Edward Jones Dome to be in the top 8 of all NFL stadiums in terms of quality.  Since the Dome opened in the middle of the 1995 season, 20 new stadiums have been built.  By the way, to comply with that top 25% clause, the convention center authority would have had to spend $700 million and essentially tear down the Dome and rebuild across Broadway and into the park currently across the street from the Dome.)  I could go in greater detail, but I'm angry enough.  Just know that St. Louis fought back with the facts, and in force - for more reference, check out the hashtag #kroenkecomplaints.  Moving on.
• Chargers owner Dean Spanos, unlike the elusive "Art Modell" Kroenke (although I think San Diegans may feel like tacking the deceased Baltimore Ravens founder and most hated man in northeast Ohio to Spanos), shot a short video where he explains to his fans why his team is filing for relocation.  Simply put: 9 different proposals in 14 years to replace the aged Qualcomm Stadium (or Jack Murphy Stadium, as it was originally called), and little political will to get it done.  You can see Spanos' video here.  (By the way, Jack Murphy is the 4th oldest stadium in the NFL.  Only Soldier Field (which had a new stadium built within the shell of the old), Lambeau Field (substantial improvements to the facility) and the Oakland Coliseum are older.)  Also, there's a self-preservation aspect here: the Chargers claim about 25% of their fan base comes from the neighboring LA area.
• Some view the Raiders as a drag on Carson, mostly because of the old school owners hatred of the late Al Davis.  Also, owner Mark Davis (son of Al, and the only owner to show up to his city's town hall) is viewed as being one of the weakest owners financially.  There have been talks about bringing on more partners.  We shall see.
• Take the Raiders out of the equation and it's just Chargers vs. Rams: Chargers win, hands down.  Spanos is better liked among NFL owners than Kroenke, and clearly did his due diligence to try to find a solution in San Diego (something AMK did not do at all in St. Louis).  Also, I'd like to remind you that Kroenke was part of the reason the Rams left LA in the first place, by purchasing a minority stake in the team from the late Georgia Frontiere.
• One last note that must be emphatically mentioned: Spanos loathes Kroenke, primarily because the latter was told about the Inglewood land by the former and bought it without informing the former.
• I just realized that I hadn't even thought about the air traffic hazard that is Kroenke's Inglewood project.  The site is dangerously close to LAX and the FAA has some serious concerns about a stadium messing with their equipment.  Under California law, if the FAA says no go, it's illegal to start building.
• And absolutely lastly: Everyone, please STFU about the Jacksonville Jaguars already!!!  Their owner Shad Khan (whom Kroenke screwed out of owning the Rams in 2010) signed a lease on that stadium through 2030, has put money into the stadium, and the team has incrementally improved on the field.  I'll still criticize his stewardship of Fulham (currently 19th in the Football League Championship), but at least he's trying.  Speaking of London, guess who also hates "Art Modell" Kroenke?  3 points if you said Arsenal fans.

If the NFL owners have any honor at all, they will disqualify Kroenke and the Rams from LA and force them back to St. Louis, hopefully under the provision that Kroenke sell the team to someone who will work with Peacock-Blitz and actually make an effort to keep the team in St. Louis long-term.  They will approve Carson for the Chargers initially and the Raiders later on.



That assumes, of course, that the NFL owners are more like Richardson and McNair and less like Jerry F. Jones.