NFL Merry-Go-Round: Relocation Roundelay

[TBGKon]

I still find it hilarious that the three teams attempting to move to LA are teams that all have some historical tie to the city.

[STL FANATIC]

You can have the last word, Ice. It's genuinely not worth carrying on anymore. And that's not an insult, that's a realization that all that's going to be said has been said at least once.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I still find it hilarious that the three teams attempting to move to LA are teams that all have some historical tie to the city.

It's going to be super fun in 2035 when they're all trying to move out of LA. Probably to St. Louis, Oakland or San Diego. Or more likely OKC.

[RyanB06]

Ultimately I think if somehow it ends up being Chargers and Raiders going to L.A., it'll be the Chargers that are realigned. The real question though is what NFC West team gets sent over in trade. Arizona, San Francisco and Seattle will all balk at it, and the concept of the Rams losing out on the L.A. market *and* being asked to accommodate it by being realigned into the AFC is a non-starter.

You forget two things: instant cross-state rivalry with the Chiefs. Plus fewer trips to the Pacific time zone (in a hypothetical new AFC West, you'd have LA-DEN-STL-KC), which means better start times for your away games.

I'd take that if I was Kroenke.

[STL FANATIC]

So as the momentum (perhaps more accurately, speculation) appears to be shifting towards the Rams and Chargers in Inglewood, where does that leave the Raiders?

I guess that gets figured out after the fact?

Oakland seems like a nonstarter.

Santa Clara with the 49ers seems reasonable but hasn't gotten much play yet.

San Antonio is often mentioned, but as far as I know there's still not really an effort to make that happen or to renovate the Alamodome to the necessary levels.

Presumably if St. Louis has a plan ready to go, it'd be viable, but there doesn't seem to be any belief that's a move that would actually happen.

Is Santa Clara most likely despite the lack of talk it has gotten?

Ultimately I think if somehow it ends up being Chargers and Raiders going to L.A., it'll be the Chargers that are realigned. The real question though is what NFC West team gets sent over in trade. Arizona, San Francisco and Seattle will all balk at it, and the concept of the Rams losing out on the L.A. market *and* being asked to accommodate it by being realigned into the AFC is a non-starter.

You forget two things: instant cross-state rivalry with the Chiefs. Plus fewer trips to the Pacific time zone (in a hypothetical new AFC West, you'd have LA-DEN-STL-KC), which means better start times for your away games.

I'd take that if I was Kroenke.

I meant to say this. If Kroenke wants to pout in this scenario, then yeah, maybe he wouldn't play ball. But the truth is the AFC West would be better for him in every way. So if he's truly making business decisions and not emotional ones, I think it'd be no-brainer for him if that's what's put on the table.

[The_Admiral]

I said I wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland but having the Black Hole descend upon Lego Stadium would be delightful. Maybe before each game they'll ritually sacrifice a private-equity banker.

[bosrs1]

I said I wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland but having the Black Hole descend upon Lego Stadium would be delightful. Maybe before each game they'll ritually sacrifice a private-equity banker.

They won't be staying in Oakland. That's about the one guarantee you can take to the bank in all that is happening. There's no money or political will to make a stadium happen in Oakland, they can't stay where they are, and the Raiders can't get the money for a new venue themselves. If they're locked out of LA and can't move to St. Louis or San Antonio it'll be the extra locker room they built into Levis Stadium that the Raiders call home.

[TheOldRoman]

Wouldn't Levi's Stadium be a temporary home? I imagine the Raiders would have the same issue other teams in shared stadia have with not getting the full share of revenue from the stadium. The Jets and Giants went into their stadium together so they're presumably on equal footing, but I can't see any way the Raiders come in and the Niners give them an equal cut of the revenue from advertising and suites out of the goodness of their heats.

[Gothamite]

It has been reported that sharing Levi's is the NFL's preferred solution. They could sweeten the pot for the 49ers.

[bosrs1]

Wouldn't Levi's Stadium be a temporary home? I imagine the Raiders would have the same issue other teams in shared stadia have with not getting the full share of revenue from the stadium. The Jets and Giants went into their stadium together so they're presumably on equal footing, but I can't see any way the Raiders come in and the Niners give them an equal cut of the revenue from advertising and suites out of the goodness of their heats.

They wouldn't get an equal cut. The Niners would get a boost actually from the Raiders luxury suites actually. The situation would be more akin to the Jets in Giants Stadium. But paying a token rent to the Niners and/or a cut of revenues to play in a modern venue with their own cut of the revenues it produces would be preferable to playing in a half century old baseball stadium with 10,000 tarped seats, a baseball infield and limited extraneous revenue streams.

Nevermind the Oakland Coliseum's days are numbered if Oakland gets into bed with Lew Wolff and the A's to redevelop the site, which is highly likely after the current Coliseum City fantasy is put out to pasture.

[STL FANATIC]

Yeah. Spanos and Kroenke might play a game of hardball as far as revenues if they're forced to work together. But Davis would presumably view just about anything as better than what he's got right now.

He doesn't have the stadium or the financial where with all to make too many demands. Now, he also may just not want to move in with the Niners. That was the case before. But once he accepts that fate, I doubt the revenue distribution would end up being too big of a sticking point there.

[Gothamite]

And, if nothing else, the Raiders sign a 10-year lease in Santa Clara with an out if Oakland or another East Bay community ponies up. Then they use their moving as leverage and see if they can con their old home or another city to build them a park.

The Raiders are entirely extraneous to this discussion. They'll go where the wind blows.

[rams80]

Ultimately I think if somehow it ends up being Chargers and Raiders going to L.A., it'll be the Chargers that are realigned. The real question though is what NFC West team gets sent over in trade. Arizona, San Francisco and Seattle will all balk at it, and the concept of the Rams losing out on the L.A. market *and* being asked to accommodate it by being realigned into the AFC is a non-starter.

You forget two things: instant cross-state rivalry with the Chiefs. Plus fewer trips to the Pacific time zone (in a hypothetical new AFC West, you'd have LA-DEN-STL-KC), which means better start times for your away games.

I'd take that if I was Kroenke.

Well, the Chiefs get an extra home game a year under this plan, but what do the Rams get again by making the Governor's Cup a twice-annual affair?

And the "burden" of playing on the West Coast for the Rams is extremely overstated. The team's occasional late game fatigue problems could probably be laid more directly on the practice length restrictions imposed by the team having its training camp in a goddamn swamp.

[infrared41]

I said I wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland but having the Black Hole descend upon Lego Stadium would be delightful. Maybe before each game they'll ritually sacrifice a private-equity banker.

Now we're talking.

[Gothamite]

How about one before each quarter? Don't think small.

[LMU]

I said I wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland but having the Black Hole descend upon Lego Stadium would be delightful. Maybe before each game they'll ritually sacrifice a private-equity banker.

Now we're talking.

Only if it's into the giant eternal flame of Al Davis.

[HedleyLamarr]

I said I wanted the Raiders to stay in Oakland but having the Black Hole descend upon Lego Stadium would be delightful. Maybe before each game they'll ritually sacrifice a private-equity banker.

I would be very fascinated following around some of the folks of the Black Hole for a few days of the week of a home game. To see these folks do whatever it is they do for employment during the week...then whatever their game day/weekend rituals are. I doubt it would be uninteresting, that's for sure.

Whenever I think of the Raiders, I think of their last visit to Atlanta. I was heading downtown for something work-related that just happened to coincide with late-morning traffic heading to the Dome. I was driving down 75 when some guy was dressed up in a full gorilla costume and a white Raiders jersey sped past me in a minivan. Couldn't help but think "Some guy that's got a wife and two kids and a career in plumbing is dressed like King Kong for a football game"....

[STL FANATIC]

Ultimately I think if somehow it ends up being Chargers and Raiders going to L.A., it'll be the Chargers that are realigned. The real question though is what NFC West team gets sent over in trade. Arizona, San Francisco and Seattle will all balk at it, and the concept of the Rams losing out on the L.A. market *and* being asked to accommodate it by being realigned into the AFC is a non-starter.

You forget two things: instant cross-state rivalry with the Chiefs. Plus fewer trips to the Pacific time zone (in a hypothetical new AFC West, you'd have LA-DEN-STL-KC), which means better start times for your away games.

I'd take that if I was Kroenke.

Well, the Chiefs get an extra home game a year under this plan, but what do the Rams get again by making the Governor's Cup a twice-annual affair?

Under the scenario of St. Louis fans being so awful and and Kroenke being a businessman... what he gets is a guaranteed sellout. Pretty good, right?

[Gothamite]

STL, you seem to be taking other people's comments personally. They really aren't.

I'm sure St. Louis is a fine town, with many virtuous people. Not every city has to be a good football town, and being a good football town is not in and of itself a particularly worthy accomplishment.

[STL FANATIC]

Nah. It's not personal.

You guys are just wrong.

(By the way, I really don't care if St. Louis is a good football town. Football is a bad sport and breaking it's spell isn't a bad thing. Again, I don't put any status in being a good football town. It's merely that I know the town is a good football town. I'm just here to correct things.)