NFL Merry-Go-Round: Relocation Roundelay

[Gothamite]

Yeah, since those are the numbers for the first year in the new stadium I think they have to include PSL sales.

 

Which shows what an utter disaster this whole experiment is - the Chargers were supposed to get, planning on getting, a one-year boost from the opening of the Inglewood stadium.  A boost that @colortv quite correctly notes would temporarily rocket them up to the top of the revenue charts.

 

You only get that boost once, and the Chargers are now admitting to their partners in the league that they’ve squandered their golden opportunity.  That’s really not good. 

[Sport]

My only issue with that Chargers LA logo was the A being too tall. Other than that I think it's pretty solid and I didn't get why it was so roundly lambasted. And running away from it with their tail between their legs was a mistake. 

[FiddySicks]

Any chance/possibility ol Stan takes a look at the numbers, see’s it as a train wreck, and gives the Churds the boot? 

[Gothamite]

18 minutes ago, Bucfan56 said:

Any chance/possibility ol Stan takes a look at the numbers, see’s it as a train wreck, and gives the Churds the boot? 

 

Pretty sure he can't.  The league forced him him to take the Spanos clan as partners, he'll likely need them to approve any changes to that arrangement.

[Mac the Knife]

Any team relocation in the NFL is going to be a multi-year process, if not due to logistics than for sake of public relations optics.  The Chargers are stuck in Los Angeles unless they find some other NFL franchise to relocate their and assume its obligations.  But presuming they even could, where would they go?  If Oakland's letting the Raiders go, again, they sure as hell aren't.  Going back to San Diego would be a disaster unless Spanos sold the team.  St. Louis would be ironic as all get out, but no NFL team's going there without a spankin' brand new stadium (which, obviously, wouldn't be forthcoming).  San Antonio?  Maybe, but a decade down the road or less and the Alamodome will be outmoded as well.

[bosrs1]

On 10/20/2018 at 4:34 PM, colortv said:

 

San Diegans seem to have no problem rooting for the Lakers, that might be why you don't see Clipper fans. We both know there are plenty of casual fans who aren't going to take to heart the Chargers moving a couple hours up the road...this isn't a Colts moving to Indy in the middle of the night thing. It's moving two hours up the road in the same state...and over time a lot of wounds can heal. We both know the 5 between LA and San Diego is packed constantly with people going back and forth, it's not exactly the border between the Koreas.

 

 

 

 

First, only a few San Diegans root for the Lakers. they don’t have a huge presence in this town. But, they also don’t have the handicap of having screwed over San Diego. That would be the Clippers who have absolutely no presence in San Diego, nor any fans I’ve seen in all my years here. 

 

And this is exactly the Colts moving to Baltimore. San Diego has no love for LA. And now former fans aren't driving the 6 hours round trip to games. Their tanked revenue belies that fact. And as for “getting over it”, I’d point to the non existent Clippers fan base in San Diego. Memories are long in this town. Just as the highway between Boston and New York is packed, you’d not expect Boston fans would continue to follow a team that moved to New York.

[IceCap]

On 10/19/2018 at 9:31 PM, colortv said:

Which they are playing in for basically free.

Turns out they can’t even afford “basically free.”

 

Why is my favourite team in this stupid league such a dumpster fire?

[Kevin W.]

On 10/23/2018 at 1:53 PM, Mac the Knife said:

Going back to San Diego would be a disaster unless Spanos sold the team.

That is accurate. Dean Spanos is not welcome in the city of San Diego ever again and very few people would support the Chargers coming back unless the Spanos family isn't involved in any way.

 

10 minutes ago, Ice_Cap said:

Turns out they can’t even afford “basically free.”

 

Why is my favourite team in this stupid league such a dumpster fire?

[Dalcowboyfan92]

Spanos was so desperate to go to LA, he sold his soul to probably the only owner out there more crooked than him in Kroneke. And in a deliciously ironic twist is going to have to pay rent to a man who can't even buy a decent hairpiece to Kroneke.

[Cosmic]

While I'm not saying Kroenke can or will just unilaterally kick the Chargers out, it's more than just a minor annoyance that he's going to foot over $100M more for stadium construction because of his tenant's bargain basement PSL prices.

[IceCap]

1 hour ago, Cosmic said:

While I'm not saying Kroenke can or will just unilaterally kick the Chargers out, it's more than just a minor annoyance that he's going to foot over $100M more for stadium construction because of his tenant's bargain basement PSL prices.

I can’t see it going over well with NFL brass either. Sure everyone may like Dean (for reasons I have yet to fully understand) but I doubt the NFL’s collective-minded ownership will like one NFL owner not only drastically undercutting another in the same market but also complicating their massive LA-based entertainment complex. 

[Gothamite]

5 hours ago, Cosmic said:

While I'm not saying Kroenke can or will just unilaterally kick the Chargers out, it's more than just a minor annoyance that he's going to foot over $100M more for stadium construction because of his tenant's bargain basement PSL prices.

 

I’m sure there’s something in the contract that will compensate him.  Most likely some kind of alteration to the share of naming rights or something, if the Spanos clan can’t come through with their contracted share of the construction costs.   We know that Kroenke believes in holding his partners to their fair obligations.  

[Kevin W.]

The Spanos clan definitely won’t be able to pay their fair share. Why do you think they tried to get San Diego to foot the bill for a new stadium? Why do you think they’re moving into someone else’s building? They don’t have the money to do anything on their own. 

[Gothamite]

They probably thought “there’s simply no way we can fail in a market as big as LA.”

[bosrs1]

On 10/25/2018 at 2:04 PM, Cosmic said:

While I'm not saying Kroenke can or will just unilaterally kick the Chargers out, it's more than just a minor annoyance that he's going to foot over $100M more for stadium construction because of his tenant's bargain basement PSL prices.

 

$250 million more... but who is counting?

[bosrs1]

On 10/26/2018 at 3:32 AM, Gothamite said:

They probably thought “there’s simply no way we can fail in a market as big as LA.”

 

So in other words the Spanos clan knows as little about their new LA market as they knew about their former San Diego market... at least they’re consistently ignorant

[Gothamite]

12 minutes ago, bosrs1 said:

 

$250 million more... but who is counting?

 

I do nor doubt that a cutthroat businessman like Stan Kroenke anticipated such a shortfall from the “partners” forced upon him.  Nor do I doubt that his contracts were drafted in preparation for it. 

 

If Kroenke’s share of the costs goes up, then the Spanos’s share of the spoils will go down. They might not get the expected economic boost from moving from San Diego to LA. 

 

Wouldn’t it be terribly ironic if the only increase in profits they get from moving their team comes upon its sale?

[Sec19Row53]

2 minutes ago, Gothamite said:

 

I do nor doubt that a cutthroat businessman like Stan Kroenke anticipated such a shortfall from the “partners” forced upon him.  Nor do I doubt that his contracts were drafted in preparation for it. 

 

If Kroenke’s share of the costs goes up, then the Spanos’s share of the spoils will go down. They might not get the expected economic boost from moving from San Diego to LA. 

 

Wouldn’t it be terribly ironic if the only increase in profits they get from moving their team comes upon its sale?

Isn't part of the move limiting when they could sell?  If that is the case, what if they didn't have the funds to operate the team?

[bosrs1]

1 minute ago, Gothamite said:

 

I do nor doubt that a cutthroat businessman like Stan Kroenke anticipated such a shortfall from the “partners” forced upon him.  Nor do I doubt that his contracts were drafted in preparation for it. 

 

If Kroenke’s share of the costs goes up, then the Spanos’s share of the spoils will go down. They might not get the expected economic boost from moving from San Diego to LA. 

 

Wouldn’t it be terribly ironic if the only increase in profits they get from moving their team comes upon its sale?

 

I mean it wouldn’t be surprising. With no fans, no stadium, little in the way of PSL money and little TV interest... They’ve realized no real gain by moving even if Kroenke doesn’t start penalizing them.

[Gothamite]

4 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Isn't part of the move limiting when they could sell?  If that is the case, what if they didn't have the funds to operate the team?

 

Yes.  Part of the NFL’s move agreement puts a time limit on how quickly they could sell the team.  10 years, IIRC.  That’s there to keep someone from moving for the increased franchise value and flipping it without having to do the hard work.

 

But the Spanos family does have the funds to operate the team.  All teams have their basic expenses covered by shared revenue alone. 

 

Last year, each team got $255M from shared revenue, mostly television contracts and shared merchandise (teams keep 100% of what they sell in their own online stores and their physical shops, everything else is shared equally with all teams except Dallas).  The total salary cap for the 2018 season is $177.2M.  That leaves $78M in ready cash for other team expenses before a single ticket is sold. There are a lot of those other team expenses, including coaching salaries, rent, facilities, marketing, etc., but a team in real financial distress could theoretically pull back on some of those to stay afloat.  If ticket sales and local sponsorships and everything else fell short. 

 

Now, where it gets interesting is debt owed to the league, money that only the Chargers owe.  They have to repay the NFL every year for installments on their relocation fee and stadium financing loans.  It’s concevable, although extremely unlikely, that the Spanos family might not have revenues enough to cover those payments on top of everything else. And in that case, the league would either have to agree to some sort of repayment modification or force them to sell.