Chargers Chair Dean Spanos "rewrote history Monday night" when he defended filing for relocation by indicating that the team has made multiple stadium proposals that San Diego has turned down, according to an editorial in the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Spanos in an interview on Chargers.com said, "We’ve had nine different proposals that we’ve made, all of them were basically rejected by the city." The editorial: "For the record, no 'proposals' were actually rejected; negotiations never progressed that far in any city. ... We don’t expect to change Spanos’ mind about leaving, but we do want the NFL owners holding San Diego’s fate in their hands this month to field facts." Spanos' comment "doesn’t stretch the truth. It steers clear of it" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/6). The editorial comes after Spanos said filing for relocation "has been probably the single most difficult decision that I have ever made, that our family has ever made, in business." Spanos: "I promise you it wasn’t an easy decision to come to. ... It’s been 14 years and we’ve been working very hard to try to get something done here." He added, "We have never wanted to leave. ... This decision to file has had nothing to do with the fans. The fans have been great, they’ve been supportive. It’s really been the inability of the city at the political level to get any kind of public funding or any kind of a vote to help subsidize a stadium. This current process that’s proposed by the mayor, it just runs past the time frames really where you need to have an answer, and it really puts the burden on the team if you’re not successful in having a positive vote" (CHARGERS.com, 1/4). In San Diego, Tom Krasovic wonders if the Chargers did "really try to get a stadium built in San Diego." Spanos "quite logically" said that "they did." The narrative of San Diego failing the Chargers "doesn't need to be wholly true." Just true enough for NFL billionaires and their lawyers "to make it work." Just true enough for the choir "not to spurn the preacher's message" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/6).
THE REAL MCCOY? In San Diego, Nick Canepa writes while the Chargers have kept Mike McCoy as coach, his "retention tells me ownership believes it’s quite possible L.A. will not be among their 2016 destinations." Canepa: "Word is that, if Chargers move, Mike will remain. I’m not so sure. They can’t afford a box office flop. And Hollywood ain’t buying this movie." Meanwhile, speculation that Spanos "will skip Carson and join" the Rams in Inglewood is "far-fetched." The Chargers "abhor the Inglewood site and don’t like" Rams Owner Stan Kroenke. (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/6).
DELAY UNLIKELY: In San Diego, Kevin Acee notes the NFL is less than a week away from all of its owners convening in Houston with the "aim of resolving the relocation riddle," and how the meetings "will be executed and what will come of it remains a mystery." A source said, “I don’t think even the league really knows." Acee reports there is an "overwhelming sentiment among owners to conclude the relocation process soon, if not in the Houston meeting then shortly thereafter." One source said, "The possibility of a year delay is almost zero. The possibility of a month’s delay, that is possible.” Another source added, “Nobody thought we’d get to the point we’re going into a meeting where nobody knows what the outcome is going to be." Acee notes while the L.A. Committee "has been soliciting opinions, doing research and petitioning fellow owners, there has been no formal recommendation from the committee or from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell." One owner said, "The meetings I’ve been in, the way Roger has talked, this is going to get done. But we have been waiting for Roger to take charge" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 1/6).
JED EYE: 49ers CEO Jed York said it is "vitally important" that the NFL do "everything that we can to stay in markets that we’re in." York: "If it’s proven that we can’t stay there and the markets aren’t viable or if there’s a reason to leave, we need to make sure that if we go back into a market such as Los Angeles ... we do it the right way." He added of teams playing in the L.A. market, "I’m in favor of teams being in markets that work. And, if you can prove that Los Angeles works and that the existing markets are tough and they’re not workable for long-term stadium deals, then I think you have to do what’s best for the overall league. But, you have to exhaust every effort possible to make sure that teams are staying in their own markets.” In San Jose, Mark Purdy wrote, "My sense was that York is indeed still on the fence about the issue. ... But it sounds to me as if, at the very least, York is not eager to vote for a Raiders’ move to Los Angeles just yet -- or maybe for any team’s move to Los Angeles just yet." Purdy: "That mirrors what I have heard from various plugged-in folks across the league" (MERCURYNEWS.com, 1/5).
