NFL Exec VP/Business Ventures Eric Grubman yesterday was in Oakland pressing Raiders execs and local officials "for signs of progress" on a multibillion dollar stadium plan, according to a front-page piece by Matthew Artz of the OAKLAND TRIBUNE. Grubman, who "scolded city leaders for their inaction" during his last visit several months ago, "continued to apply pressure earlier this week during a visit to San Diego, which is fighting to keep its team." Grubman told San Diego-based XEPRS-AM that of the three cities at risk of losing their teams to L.A. -- Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego -- only St. Louis "had produced a clear financing plan for a new stadium." In perhaps "a bigger blow to Oakland's effort to keep the Raiders," Grubman told members of San Diego's stadium committee that the NFL "did not want stadium financing to be dependent upon additional development surrounding the facility." NYU sports management professor Robert Boland said that the NFL's "aversion to tying stadium development to ancillary projects stems from its desire for the team to have ultimate control over any stadium development." Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty said that the meeting was "productive," but added that Grubman "still needed convincing that progress was being made" (OAKLAND TRIBUNE, 4/16).
GAINING STEAM: Carson, Calif., City Clerk and former Mayor Jim Dear said that the City Council "will vote Tuesday on a plan to build" a $1.7M NFL stadium. In L.A., Nathan Fenno reports the project backed by the Chargers and Raiders "continued to race forward" as the L.A. County registrar's office yesterday certified that "enough signatures had been gathered to qualify the initiative supporting the stadium for the ballot." Organizers last month submitted "more than 15,000 signatures of registered voters in Carson last month -- 8,059 were needed" (L.A. TIMES, 4/16).
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM? A SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE editorial states there are "two ways to consider the blunt talk" from Grubman at Tuesday's meeting. The first is to "see it as constructive by focusing the task force on league expectations." But a second, "much more cynical view of Tuesday’s events also makes sense." The league has "taken enormous publicity hits over the past four decades when franchises with loyal fan bases fled cities like Baltimore, St. Louis, Cleveland and Houston for better deals elsewhere." So to "head off that scenario, the Chargers and the league are pushing the narrative that the team really, really, really doesn’t want to leave and is taking extraordinary steps to try to avoid that happening." However, that "doesn’t cohere with reality." Hopefully, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the stadium task force "continue to do their best in coming up with a plan that will somehow satisfy the Chargers and the NFL." But this all "feels like Kabuki -- staged theater." America’s "most popular pro sports league is used to getting what it wants, and it wants a team or two in the Los Angeles megalopolis as soon as possible." The editorial: "We hope this mess somehow ends well for San Diego. But what seems far more likely is the Chargers leaving" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 4/16).
