Goodell speaks about franchise relocation
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_810ace79-8b67-560c-aaa0-fe6b43f315a8.html
PHOENIX • While expressing a general league-wide desire to keep franchises in their current markets, and deeming the St. Louis stadium effort a positive development, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also issued a vague warning about the Rams’ ability to meet relocation guidelines.
“We want all of our franchises to stay in their current markets,” Goodell said Friday at the annual State of the NFL press conference. “That’s a shared responsibility; that’s something that we all have to work on.”
Goodell cited programs, including the league’s stadium-funding program, that are available to cities trying to build new stadiums.
“And we will work, and have worked with communities including St. Louis,” he added.
Goodell said the business community — as well as the public sector — needed to be engaged in a stadium-building project to make sure a plan works for both the community and the team. The idea is making sure that teams can be successful long-term in that market.
Goodell also had good things to say about the St. Louis stadium initiative headed by Gov. Jay Nixon’s two-man task force of former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock and St. Louis attorney Bob Blitz.
“The St. Louis representatives seem determined to build a stadium,” Goodell said. “That’s a positive development and something that we look forward to working on with them.”
(Peacock was scheduled to attend the commissioner’s annual Super Bowl party Friday night, in more of a meet-and-greet setting than any nuts-and-bolts meeting.)
But when asked about Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s seeming lack of direct engagement in the St. Louis project, and whether that constituted a failure to meet the league’s relocation guidelines, Goodell didn’t exactly give the answer that St. Louis wanted.
“Stan has been working on the stadium issues in St. Louis, as you know, for several years,” Goodell said. “They had a formal (arbitration) process as part of their lease. They went through that entire process.
“So I don’t think the stadium is a surprise to anybody, in any market that is having these issues. There’s been quite a bit of discussion about it.”
Longtime NFL stadium consultant Marc Ganis, who as usual attended the commissioner’s press conference, saw both positives and negatives to Goodell’s remarks with respect to St. Louis.
“(Goodell) is not foreclosing any options,” said Ganis, president of Chicago-based SportsCorp. “Unlike many of the reports that are out there that (a team in) LA is somehow a foregone conclusion, he was very clear that is absolutely not the case for any team and for any owner — and that includes of course Stan Kroenke.”
Earlier this month, Kroenke announced plans to build a stadium in Inglewood, Calif., as part of an overall development plan in the Hollywood Park area of Los Angeles.
“What Roger is also saying about St. Louis that came through loud and clear was: Get your stadium deal put together, and make it solid,” said Ganis, who worked as a Rams consultant when the team moved to St. Louis from Southern California in 1995.
“The previous three years related to the arbitration process is going to be taken into account when the issue is raised as to whether the Rams and Stan Kroenke worked in good faith with the community. That is gonna be taken as part of the effort.”
However, Ganis’ view in terms of meeting relocation guidelines was not universally shared by those who listened to Goodell’s remarks Friday.
“What has Kroenke been doing in St. Louis for the past few years in St. Louis?” said one longtime NFL team executive familiar with the situation. “All he has done is participate in the arbitration. He made it clear he wanted to go year-to-year, and wouldn’t discuss a settlement or compromise.”
The Rams formally exercised their option to go year-to-year on the Edward Jones Stadium lease on Monday.
According to the NFL’s relocation guidelines, teams must show they have exhausted all efforts to settle their stadium (or other) issues in their current market before being allowed to move to another city.
Goodell did emphasize the importance of following relocation guidelines for any team wanting to move to Los Angeles. As far as the league is concerned, going rogue and moving without league approval is not an option.
“The ownership takes very seriously the obligation for us all to vote on any serious matter, including relocation of a franchise,” Goodell said. “There’s a relocation policy that is very clear. We have shared it with our ownership over the last several years.
“We have emphasized the point in each of those meetings that there will be at least one vote if not multiple votes if there is any relocation. We would potentially have the relocation itself, potential stadium funding, potential Super Bowls. So a lot of things that likely would be subject to a vote. So any relocation would be subject to a vote.”
Even with the announcement of Kroenke’s LA stadium plan, Goodell said, there has been no determination that the league wants a team there at this point — or that it has decided on any of several proposed stadium sites in the area.
“As a league, we haven’t gotten to that stage yet,” Goodell said. “We have several alternatives that we’re evaluating from a site standpoint. There are teams that are interested but are trying to work their issues out locally.”
Besides the Rams, those teams are Oakland and San Diego. On Friday, there was an announcement in San Diego on the formation of a task force to try to resolve the Chargers’ stadium situation.
After Goodell’s press conference, Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney echoed the commissioner’s thoughts on keeping the Rams in St. Louis.
“We don’t want any team to be moving,” Rooney told the Post-Dispatch. “We think that if they stay in their own area, and work at it, do a lot of really good things as far as community relations and things like that, that they’ll be successful.
“Sure you need a new stadium if it’s old. We don’t play St. Louis very often, so I can’t say that I’m right on the button as far as your stadium is concerned.”
Rooney also indicated that the television networks had talked about putting a team in Los Angeles.
“You know, they talk about it all the time,” he said. “They’ve done pretty well without (a team in LA). But there are people that want to go there. But as I answered the question earlier, we’re not anxious to have people move and things like that. Maybe the right thing can be accomplished.”
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