Some NFL execs and owners met this week regarding returning a team to L.A., but they "emerged without revealing a clear favorite in advance of next week's two-day special meeting in Houston of all 32 team owners," according to Farmer & Fenno of the L.A. TIMES. One potential compromise is to "find an incentive to persuade the Raiders to drop out of the running and to pair the Chargers and Rams in one stadium." The Chargers have said that they "aren't open to sharing the Inglewood facility with the Rams despite an offer from the latter to do so." Chargers Chair Dean Spanos: "Nobody knows for sure until the vote is taken." Farmer & Fenno write the uncertainty "extends to next week's meeting format," and the NFL is hoping a vote will be taken "only after a consensus has been reached." The league "doesn't want a team leaving with nothing" (L.A. TIMES, 1/8). In L.A., Vincent Bonsignore writes no one left the meetings in N.Y. this week "confident Carson has the 24 votes needed to win outright," and no one is "exactly sure how close the Chargers and Raiders are to securing that number." Compounding the issue is that Rams Owner Stan Kroenke has "some powerful NFL owners in his corner," including the Cowboys' Jerry Jones, the Eagles' Jeffrey Lurie and the Dolphins' Stephen Ross. They "aren’t just powerful, they are vocal in their support" of the Inglewood project. The situation "sets up an epic poker hand." Barring an outright win, the hand Kroenke will play is "a negotiated outcome in which all three owners leave Houston satisfied." Sources said that the "most likely scenario is the Chargers and Rams teaming up in Inglewood." But other sources insist that the Carson partnership between Spanos and Raiders Owner Mark Davis is "rock solid and nothing will break it" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 1/8).
MAKING HIS PRESENCE FELT: Chargers Special Counsel Mark Fabiani said Disney Chair & CEO Bob Iger plans to attend next week's meeting. While speculation has again surfaced that the Rams and Chargers might solve the logjam by agreeing to share a stadium, Iger’s presence suggests, at the very least, that is not the direction the Chargers and Raiders are planning. Iger would run the Carson stadium if it is approved (Daniel Kaplan, Staff Writer). The TIMES' Bill Plaschke writes the road to L.A. "hasn't really been about Los Angeles at all, it's been about friends helping friends get out of St. Louis or Oakland or San Diego." L.A. "doesn't want two teams," and it "doesn't need two teams." Plaschke: "The answer is simple. If only the owners would listen. If only the owners truly cared." The Rams are the "only team that has the long history, rich pockets and rich fan base to make it work" in L.A. (L.A. TIMES, 1/8). In L.A., Chris Erskine writes under the header, "Oakland Raiders? Don't Need 'Em, Don't Want 'Em" (L.A. TIMES, 1/8).
ARCH NEMESIS: The St. Louis stadium task force and city convention authority wrote the NFL on Friday to vigorously rebut the Rams' relocation proposal made earlier this week. That came after St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay on Wednesday wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he was "struck by multiple inaccuracies and misrepresentations" in the Rams' application for relocation. He wrote the most "disturbing" was the notion that the Rams "put forth consistent efforts to negotiate a solution to their stadium situation" dating back to '02. Slay: "I have been Mayor of St. Louis since then and I -- to this day -- cannot ever remember meeting Stan Kroenke, much less engaging with him in any conversations about the future of NFL football in St. Louis" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/8). In St. Louis, David Nicklaus writes Kroenke's assertions about the city "wouldn’t hurt as much if so many of them, particularly about the health of the region’s economy, weren’t true." Nicklaus: "When we get over our hurt feelings, maybe we should thank him" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/8). Also in St. Louis, Tony Messenger writes there is "some truth" in Kroenke's economic analysis that shows St. Louis, "in many different areas, to be struggling." The challenge for St. Louis is to "get past the hurt feelings" and "learn from both our city’s strengths and its shortcomings." The city's economic future will "have more to do with breaking down our historic divisions and investing in our next generation than it will ever have to do with whether professional football is played here on Sundays" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/8).
MONEY FOR NOTHING: The AP's Tim Dahlberg wrote under the header, "Greed The Motivator As NFL Teams Rush to L.A." The idea that an NFL team "might be in financial difficulty is laughable," and the push to move to L.A. is also "not about fans." The move for all three teams is "about potential and potential valuation." The L.A. market is "big and vast," and occupying a new stadium in it is "about as close as it gets to a license to print money" (AP, 1/7).
