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Bell: Will rift among NFL owners over Los Angeles linger?
By Jarrett Bell
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...tadium-chargers-raiders-dean-spanos/82059722/
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Jerry Jones strolled through the lobby of the resort hotel where NFL owners are huddling this week with the upbeat vibe of a man who won.
Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner, was a driving force in his peers' decision to select Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s $2 billion-plus stadium plan for the Los Angeles market at the previous league meetings in January. That also meant rejecting the alternative site in Carson, Calif., proposed by the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, a plan that initially had the backing of the owners’ L.A. subcommittee.
Jones, who supported Kroenke from the outset — to the point of lining up the architectural designers and marketing plan — was undoubtedly the most crucial voice in influencing the league to follow the money to Los Angeles rather than support the wishes of a longtime, loyal owner like Chargers CEO Dean Spanos.
"There were times over the past couple of years where I needed to remind myself, ‘This isn’t the Cowboys’ stadium we’re talking about,' " Jones told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday.
It just felt like a Cowboys project — Jones was that emotionally invested in the Rams' proposal.
And now it’s fair to wonder whether any hard feelings over the battle for Los Angeles will linger while owners continue their business of growing the nation’s most popular sports league.
“That’s in the past,” Raiders owner Mark Davis insisted to USA TODAY Sports on Sunday.
The Chargers now have the option to join Rams in L.A., pending a new, viable stadium deal in San Diego. That leaves Davis in limbo. The Raiders only have the option to rejoin the Rams in Los Angeles if the Chargers decline — a long shot, I suspect, given the Bolts' inability over more than a dozen years to get a new stadium in San Diego.
Davis, who has talked with officials in Las Vegas about relocating while still hoping to strike a new deal to remain in the Bay Area, hardly sounds like a sore loser. He downplays the notion that the L.A. outcome will divide owners over the long haul.
This week's meetingswill be held without Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who is undergoing shoulder surgery. As much as Jones carried the banner for Kroenke, Richardson campaigned hard for Spanos and Davis.
A Panthers spokesman told USA TODAY Sports that Richardson’s absence this week is coincidental and unrelated to the setback over L.A.
“Obviously, this is a sensitive situation,” Jones said. "But my experience has been that we may have differences of opinion, but the owners who are completely committed — and Jerry is certainly that — they mend their fences.”
Yet it appears there’s been a power shift.
The committee that supported the Carson plan included several owners from the traditional family owned franchises. But Kroenke's project resonated financially.
"When you spend $1.4 billion for a franchise, and franchises are worth $3 billion, the concept of take-care-of-our-own is not as it once was,” former NFL executive Carmen Policy told USA TODAY Sports.
Policy, who once headed front offices for the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns, was enlisted for the Carson project. But after a few years away from the NFL, he noticed a changing dynamic among owners.
“In the ‘80s and ‘90s, when you’d come to league meetings, it was much more collegial,” Policy said in a phone interview from California. “People came early and stayed days later. Now it’s a business conference, with the jets on the runway ready to go as soon as the meetings are over. I think the league lost something with that.”
Jones contends that any change isn’t so much about power — during the 1990s, he opposed the late Art Modell and helped flip television negotiations that led to a new network partner in Fox and also changed the landscape when he sued the league over marketing — but rather a shift borne of transparency. Owners had not rejected a significant committee recommendation like they did on L.A. since denying Modell’s TV plan, which ultimately left longtime league partner CBS sidelined for several years.
“Not to demean the committee approach but, frankly, this was really more about analyzing the best growth opportunity for Los Angeles for ourselves,” Jones said. “We told the players (during labor talks) we’d be aggressive in growing the pie, and this was the opportunity to do that, which we could not pass up.”
Not with Jones sealing the deal.
“Jerry’s always had power, influence and stature when it comes to certain areas,” Marc Ganis, a consultant with SportsCorp, Ltd., told USA TODAY Sports, alluding to matters that include marketing, sponsorships and television.
“So it’s not new. He’s exercised a certain type of power going back to the Fox deal.”
Ganis doesn’t see a major power shift among owners as much as he sees those like Jones carrying more weight on certain issues.
“If it had been close, Dean would have gotten the votes,” Ganis said. “But the plans were not even close. That doesn’t diminish Jerry Richardson’s influence. It came down to picking the better project.”
Which for the changing ranks of NFL owners, is all part of a larger evolution.
By Jarrett Bell
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...tadium-chargers-raiders-dean-spanos/82059722/
BOCA RATON, Fla. — Jerry Jones strolled through the lobby of the resort hotel where NFL owners are huddling this week with the upbeat vibe of a man who won.
Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner, was a driving force in his peers' decision to select Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s $2 billion-plus stadium plan for the Los Angeles market at the previous league meetings in January. That also meant rejecting the alternative site in Carson, Calif., proposed by the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, a plan that initially had the backing of the owners’ L.A. subcommittee.
Jones, who supported Kroenke from the outset — to the point of lining up the architectural designers and marketing plan — was undoubtedly the most crucial voice in influencing the league to follow the money to Los Angeles rather than support the wishes of a longtime, loyal owner like Chargers CEO Dean Spanos.
"There were times over the past couple of years where I needed to remind myself, ‘This isn’t the Cowboys’ stadium we’re talking about,' " Jones told USA TODAY Sports on Sunday.
It just felt like a Cowboys project — Jones was that emotionally invested in the Rams' proposal.
And now it’s fair to wonder whether any hard feelings over the battle for Los Angeles will linger while owners continue their business of growing the nation’s most popular sports league.
“That’s in the past,” Raiders owner Mark Davis insisted to USA TODAY Sports on Sunday.
The Chargers now have the option to join Rams in L.A., pending a new, viable stadium deal in San Diego. That leaves Davis in limbo. The Raiders only have the option to rejoin the Rams in Los Angeles if the Chargers decline — a long shot, I suspect, given the Bolts' inability over more than a dozen years to get a new stadium in San Diego.
Davis, who has talked with officials in Las Vegas about relocating while still hoping to strike a new deal to remain in the Bay Area, hardly sounds like a sore loser. He downplays the notion that the L.A. outcome will divide owners over the long haul.
This week's meetingswill be held without Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, who is undergoing shoulder surgery. As much as Jones carried the banner for Kroenke, Richardson campaigned hard for Spanos and Davis.
A Panthers spokesman told USA TODAY Sports that Richardson’s absence this week is coincidental and unrelated to the setback over L.A.
“Obviously, this is a sensitive situation,” Jones said. "But my experience has been that we may have differences of opinion, but the owners who are completely committed — and Jerry is certainly that — they mend their fences.”
Yet it appears there’s been a power shift.
The committee that supported the Carson plan included several owners from the traditional family owned franchises. But Kroenke's project resonated financially.
"When you spend $1.4 billion for a franchise, and franchises are worth $3 billion, the concept of take-care-of-our-own is not as it once was,” former NFL executive Carmen Policy told USA TODAY Sports.
Policy, who once headed front offices for the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns, was enlisted for the Carson project. But after a few years away from the NFL, he noticed a changing dynamic among owners.
“In the ‘80s and ‘90s, when you’d come to league meetings, it was much more collegial,” Policy said in a phone interview from California. “People came early and stayed days later. Now it’s a business conference, with the jets on the runway ready to go as soon as the meetings are over. I think the league lost something with that.”
Jones contends that any change isn’t so much about power — during the 1990s, he opposed the late Art Modell and helped flip television negotiations that led to a new network partner in Fox and also changed the landscape when he sued the league over marketing — but rather a shift borne of transparency. Owners had not rejected a significant committee recommendation like they did on L.A. since denying Modell’s TV plan, which ultimately left longtime league partner CBS sidelined for several years.
“Not to demean the committee approach but, frankly, this was really more about analyzing the best growth opportunity for Los Angeles for ourselves,” Jones said. “We told the players (during labor talks) we’d be aggressive in growing the pie, and this was the opportunity to do that, which we could not pass up.”
Not with Jones sealing the deal.
“Jerry’s always had power, influence and stature when it comes to certain areas,” Marc Ganis, a consultant with SportsCorp, Ltd., told USA TODAY Sports, alluding to matters that include marketing, sponsorships and television.
“So it’s not new. He’s exercised a certain type of power going back to the Fox deal.”
Ganis doesn’t see a major power shift among owners as much as he sees those like Jones carrying more weight on certain issues.
“If it had been close, Dean would have gotten the votes,” Ganis said. “But the plans were not even close. That doesn’t diminish Jerry Richardson’s influence. It came down to picking the better project.”
Which for the changing ranks of NFL owners, is all part of a larger evolution.
