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Chargers Expected To Begin Formal Negotiations This Week To Join Rams In L.A.

The Chargers and Rams today were slated to "begin formal negotiations ... in a process that could lead the AFC West franchise to leave San Diego" for the new Inglewood stadium, according to Scott Reid of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. The talks will be the "first substantive negotiations" between the teams since NFL owners last week approved the Rams’ relocation to Inglewood, with the Chargers "having a year-long option to decide whether to move into the Los Angeles market or remain in San Diego." Chargers Chair Dean Spanos has until Jan. 15, 2017 to "exercise the team’s option to relocate" to L.A. He is "expected to decide quickly and will not pursue both" relocation and a new San Diego venue at the same time." Spanos did talk with both San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts "in separate telephone conversations Thursday." The calls were described as "cordial but not substantive." NFL officials and owners are "encouraging Spanos to reach an agreement" with Kroenke. The "primary argument for taking the Inglewood deal is that by not doing so Spanos would find himself in the exact position he wanted to avoid when he committed to the Carson project 11 months ago." Spanos has "two options in Inglewood" -- buying equity in the stadium or signing on "as a tenant, which likely would provide the quickest route to reaching an agreement." The financial potential and limits of both options "will be the key issue in negotiations between the Chargers and Rams." As a renter instead of an equity partner in the venue, the Chargers "would avoid paying part of the construction of the world’s most expensive sports venue and also would likely avoid being tied up in any potential litigation" surrounding FAA issues with the stadium’s design and location. But under a tenant arrangement, there "will be limits on potential revenue streams from the stadium" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 1/16). 

DOUBLE VISION: Faulconer on Friday said that San Diego officials "are willing to negotiate a stadium deal with the Chargers even if the team is simultaneously exploring a possible move" to L.A. Faulconer: "I'm open to any approach as long as we start talking and it's sincere." If talks between the Chargers and San Diego resume, Faulconer said that "any desire by the team to focus on a downtown stadium would require Spanos to give city and county officials some guidance." In San Diego, Kevin Acee noted Faulconer and Spanos "didn't set a time or date for a subsequent meeting, but the mayor said just talking was a positive step" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/16). A SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE editorial stated if the city’s political leadership, business community and any other stakeholders "think professional football is important to San Diego -- and it is -- they need to think big." They "need to come together and show that they can move mountains in a hurry to put together a real plan of action for resolving the many hurdles in the way of a new stadium project, particularly if that project is downtown as Spanos has said he wants" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/16).

LET'S SEE ACTION: The UNION-TRIBUNE's Acee wrote talking to Faulconer and Roberts "was the right thing to do" for Spanos, but he "needs to actually do something -- like prove San Diegans are wrong about him." It seems Spanos "is more interested in -- and perhaps better suited for -- being irrelevant in L.A. than being the keeper of San Diego’s civic treasure." Acee: "That’s what his (lack of) actions tell us. However, it is not too late for Spanos to be the hero" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/16). In San Diego, Michael Smolens wrote Spanos could move his Chargers to Inglewood, but he will "forever be in the shadow" of Kroenke. Staying in San Diego "would be no picnic, at least for a while" because his image, "never great around here, has taken a tremendous beating" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/16). 

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