NFL Relocations and League Expansion

[Exe Gesis]

Jaguars owner Shad Khan clears hurdle to buy Wembley Stadium
Posted by Michael David Smith on September 28, 2018, 4:03 PM EDT

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Jaguars owner Shad Khan has cleared another important hurdle in his attempt to buy Wembley Stadium, but as he’s done so he is saying the move will only strengthen the Jaguars in Jacksonville, and not result in a relocation to London.

The board of the English Football Association has approved the sale moving forward, although there’s still at least one more hurdle to clear when the sale goes before the Football Association Council. The BBC reported that Khan wants to move the Jaguars to London, but the Jaguars released a statement from Khan saying he remains focused on Jacksonville.

“The Jaguars’ investment in London as our home away from home, at a time when other NFL teams are becoming more interested in the UK, will be protected and enhanced,” Khan said in a statement. “And here in Jacksonville, our footing as a small-market NFL franchise will be significantly strengthened by the new local revenue streams that we will be able to count on well into the future.”

Ultimately, however, Wembley Stadium may prove to be a more lucrative site for home games than TIAA Bank Field. And even the Jaguars website acknowledges that “Khan owning Wembley Stadium absolutely will mean the Jaguars making more money when they play there.” If Khan can make more money when the Jaguars play at Wembley for one game a year, will he soon want his team playing two games a year there? Or three, or four? Or eight? For now he says no. Whether that changes in the future remains to be seen.

 

[Broken]

Eric Grubman denies that he’s working to take a team back to San Diego
Posted by Mike Florio on September 28, 2018, 8:01 PM EDT

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Former NFL executive Eric Grubman had a role in the actual and threatened relocation of multiple franchises. He denies that he’s currently trying, while no longer employed by the league, to move a team back to one of the markets the NFL vacated.

Appearing on the Mighty 1090 in San Diego, Grubman denied a report from Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report that Grubman is trying to move a team back to the former home of the Chargers. That echoes Grubman’s quote to Vincent Bonsignore of the L.A. Daily News, saying it’s “completely and utterly bogus information” having “[z]ero merit.”

Freeman didn’t back off despite the denial: “I feel very confident that what I was told was accurate.
I also feel very strongly about something else I was told,” Freeman said, adding that Grubman has told people he’s involved in trying to take a team to San Diego. “San Diego is NOT off the market for an NFL team.”

San Diego shouldn’t be off the market. It’s a major-league city that simply wasn’t able or willing to finance a new stadium for the Chargers. If the stadium can be privately financed or if the powers-that-be will come up with the funding, San Diego could attract a team from a city where a new stadium is needed and the public money isn’t available.

So which teams would be in play? Basically, any that currently need or that soon will need a new stadium, and that don’t believe public money will be available. If, in the end, ownership will have to pay for its own stadium, building it San Diego may be regarded as preferable to paying for a stadium in the team’s current market.

The LA Chargers would be perfect for this

Who else would be potential candidates? Going on the usual stadium cash cow reason, I'd say
Buffalo, same stadium since 1973,
Miami, same stadium since 1987 (seem to be entrenched in Miami however)
Jags, London more likely than San Diego
Not really anybody else that stands out apart from maybe the Bengals?

 

[fumbler]

The LA Chargers would be perfect for this

Who else would be potential candidates? Going on the usual stadium cash cow reason, I'd say
Buffalo, same stadium since 1973,
Miami, same stadium since 1987 (seem to be entrenched in Miami however)
Jags, London more likely than San Diego
Not really anybody else that stands out apart from maybe the Bengals?

Jets get a raw deal.

 

[Exe Gesis]

The LA Chargers would be perfect for this

Who else would be potential candidates? Going on the usual stadium cash cow reason, I'd say
Buffalo, same stadium since 1973,
Miami, same stadium since 1987 (seem to be entrenched in Miami however)
Jags, London more likely than San Diego
Not really anybody else that stands out apart from maybe the Bengals?

Would have to be an existing West team.
Cardinals? Chargers?
Or, there'd have to be a division/conference reshuffle if a team like Jaguars went there, an existing West team would have to "move" South/East.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Some good comments from the comments section of that article....

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Guy Hence says:
September 28, 2018 at 8:35 pm

The Fumbled ‘re-location’ policy has to change. The LA Chargers are clearly a failed relocation. TV viewership is down when the NFL has a franchise with no fan base and no fan interest. The Rams drove the last nail in the LA Chargers coffin last night with their dominant win and the Coliseum jam packed with Rams fans. They rule LA. Spanos was wrongly convinced he could get more money for the team if it re-located to LA. It has failed and no owner would purchase it as he/she would have to kick-in another $650,000 ‘re-location fee on top of the purchase price. No new owner would remain in LA. The owners and NFL have a major relocation failure with the Chargers Raiders up next. Total mismanagement by the NFL and it’s owners.

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jimbo75025 says:
September 28, 2018 at 8:57 pm

Not many teams left who are either able or need to move.

Half the teams have gotten new stadiums in the last decade. Another five or so have undertaken renovations of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Others are never moving in this lifetime-Pack, Pats, etc

Everyone would be better off if Spanos was forced to sale to someone in SD who would move the team back there and let people slowly forget about this LA experiment.

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coltzfan166 says:
September 28, 2018 at 9:19 pm

Oh please, Dean Spanos would never let another franchise take that market away from him. He would move the Chargers back himself before another team moves there.

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richc111 says:
September 28, 2018 at 10:48 pm

Well the league needs to come up with another city now that La and lV are gone to use to blackmail other other cities into getting public money to build billion dollar stadiums. I am just disappointed that they couldn’t have come up with a better city than the one they just pulled that trick on.

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suchapaindude says:
September 28, 2018 at 11:01 pm

As to the comment ‘The Rams won LA last night,’ that may be true, but the stadium wasn’t jam packed with Rams fans. There was too much cheering when the Vikings did well.
I don’t agree with the notion LA needs 1 team, never mind 2. But these two are there for the decade before anyone admits failure.

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Robert37 says:
September 29, 2018 at 1:33 am

1. San Diego Titans 2. San Diego Panthers

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[FootyJunkie]

3 sides in so cal? Too much?

 

[Chewy316]

3 sides in so cal? Too much?

Had the Raiders been turned down in Las Vegas, they were going to be full steam ahead on moving to San Diego.

The SoCal market is the biggest market in the USA, even bigger than NYC when you take into consideration the outer SoCal cities such as Orange County, Riverside etc. I don't doubt that it can support 3 teams in that market. Vegas is essentially another SoCal team anyway given that the Raiders have so much support down there, combined with the close proximity of SoCal to LV.

 

[Exe Gesis]

3 sides in so cal? Too much?

There was a time when the Rams and Raiders were in Los Angeles and the Chargers in San Diego. The two LA teams failed there in comparison to the one SD team. Talk of the huge LA market/extended region closing off SD into a tiny precarious market. But it was the two LA teams who failed.

Fast forward to 2018....and the Rams are committed to LA now for 30 years, but even they are still "struggling" to pack out their stadium with Rams fans. The Chargers are dead to the post in LA already. Really it would be best to have one LA team, one SD team, by moving the Chargers back. Forcing a Spanos sell would be the morally right thing to do.

I still think California needs a fourth team, and NorCal a second team, with the Raiders in NV now.

Far too many East/South/North teams in the league and not enough truly West teams.

 

[Exe Gesis]

There was a time when the Rams and Raiders were in Los Angeles and the Chargers in San Diego. The two LA teams failed there in comparison to the one SD team. Talk of the huge LA market/extended region closing off SD into a tiny precarious market. But it was the two LA teams who failed.

Fast forward to 2018....and the Rams are committed to LA now for 30 years, but even they are still "struggling" to pack out their stadium with Rams fans. The Chargers are dead to the post in LA already. Really it would be best to have one LA team, one SD team, by moving the Chargers back. Forcing a Spanos sell would be the morally right thing to do.

I still think California needs a fourth team, and NorCal a second team, with the Raiders in NV now.

Far too many East/South/North teams in the league and not enough truly West teams.

California is smart not to invest in shiny new stadiums. Other states are more willing for misguided reasons. Invest in infrastructure education and reduce tax burden b4 helping billionaires and inheritance winners build underutilized stadiums.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Chargers. What an embarrassment for the NFL. Sea of red in the LA stands (Niners).

 

[A11dAtP0w3R]

Chargers. What an embarrassment for the NFL. Sea of red in the LA stands (Niners).

Spanos getting his just deserts.

 

[deck]

Chargers. What an embarrassment for the NFL. Sea of red in the LA stands (Niners).

To be fair these problems will arise in any new city due to fans already being aligned to a team from outer town. You will find the teams that featured heavily in the LA tv market over the last 25 years have big followings in that market.

 

[Exe Gesis]

ESPN's Seth Wickersham reports the Chargers' viability in Los Angeles will be a "major discussion topic among NFL owners and executives at this week’s league meetings."

As Adam Schefter notes, it's a "troubling issue" for the league. The Chargers' PSL (personal seat license) sales have been a real struggle, and Wickersham says the team is expected to revise its Inglewood revenue goals sharply to a more realistic number of $150 million from initially setting it at $400 million. The Chargers are a team without a home as the Rams have cornered the L.A. market, and the Bolts are the stepson to the city. There were whispers last year of the NFL considering moving the Chargers back to San Diego. It should be done, but it would be a total admittance of failure by Roger Goodell and his billionaire buddies.


Source: Seth Wickersham on Twitter

 

[Exe Gesis]

Jaguars owner Shad Khan withdrew his offer to buy Wembley Stadium in London on Wednesday.

"Mr. Khan he expressed to us that, without stronger support from within the game, his offer is being seen as more divisive than it was anticipated to be and has decided to withdraw his proposal," a spokesman for The Football Association said. There had been rumors bubbling up recently that Khan had planned to move the Jaguars to London in the near future. This would seem to squash those. By all accounts, Khan has remained more than committed to Jacksonville.


Source: The FA

 

[Broken]

Might be one for the conspiracy board, but with ratings down and the vocal vast minority avoiding the NFL over the anthem debate, who would be likely to go if the NFL contracted to 30 teams?

 

[quotemokc]

Might be one for the conspiracy board, but with ratings down and the vocal vast minority avoiding the NFL over the anthem debate, who would be likely to go if the NFL contracted to 30 teams?

Won't happen but Chargers and a Florida team

 

[Exe Gesis]

That wouldn't be a way to address the flagging ratings....reducing teams. Instead, the thing fans are griping about is the rules

 

[Broken]

That wouldn't be a way to address the flagging ratings....reducing teams. Instead, the thing fans are griping about is the rules

Just throwing out the hypothetical. Everything has it's day.

For mine I'd say the Bills and Chargers would be in the gun.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Chargers won’t be leaving L.A. for at least two decades
Posted by Mike Florio on October 18, 2018, 5:05 PM EDT

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In the wake of the news that owners have concerns about the Chargers in L.A., some in the media have started throwing darts at the map in search of a new home for the team.

Don’t bother. They aren’t leaving Los Angeles. Not for at least 20 years after the opening of the new stadium they’ll share with the Rams in Inglewood.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Chargers have a firm 20-year lease at the venue being built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke. The Chargers also hold a pair of exclusive 10-year options after the first 20-year term.

Don’t shrug at the existence of a 20-year lease and say, “Contracts were made to be broken.” Everything currently being sold at the venue — from naming rights to luxury boxes to sponsorships to advertising — hinges on at least 20 NFL games per year, for at least 20 years. Thus, a premature exit by the Chargers would be the first domino in a cascade of contractual breaches.

The first breach would surely be the biggest. Kroenke didn’t amass his fortune by not holding his business partners to their commitments. He’s shelling out billions to build the stadium, and the return on his investment relies on the Chargers honoring their commitment to play roughly 200 total games there over two decades. There’s no way Kroenke would look the other way on a way out for the Chargers absent significant compensation, from someone.

Then there’s the question of whether the Chargers want out. They don’t, and they’re not expected to. The Chargers get to play in the new stadium without paying any construction costs, including cost overruns. The Spanos family took on no debt to make the move, with the only expense being the $650 million relocation fee, paid out over 10 years.

Given the ongoing increase in TV revenue and franchise value, it’s a drop in the bucket to have partial long-term dibs on the nation’s No. 2 market.

And by the time the 20-year lease matures to the point where the Chargers can exercise their first 10-year option to renew it, a generation of Angelenos will have grown up with a pair of NFL teams in town, in contrast to the generation that grew up with none. So, yes, as time goes by, more people will embrace the Rams or the Chargers, or both. While that unfolds, the Chargers will be playing in the best stadium in the league, on favorable terms.

Maybe the first two years have been rockier than expected, but this is a 20-to-40-year play. At a minimum, it’s a 20-year venture beyond the opening of the stadium in 2020, with little or no chance of a re-relocation.

 

[Chewy316]

Might be one for the conspiracy board, but with ratings down and the vocal vast minority avoiding the NFL over the anthem debate, who would be likely to go if the NFL contracted to 30 teams?

Would never happen considering that despite ratings being a touch lower, they're still higher than any other TV show in the USA, and are dwarfing other sporting codes in terms of ratings.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Oakland is suing the the NFL over the Raiders’ move
Posted by Mike Florio on December 11, 2018, 3:47 PM EST

The NFL’s most litigious team is getting a taste of its own medicine. Along with every other NFL team.

The City of Oakland has filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL and all 32 teams, including the Raiders.

“The defendants brazenly violated federal antitrust law and the league’s own policies when they boycotted Oakland as a host city,” Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker said in a press release. “The Raiders’ illegal move lines the pockets of NFL owners and sticks Oakland, its residents, taxpayers, and dedicated fans with the bill. The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold the defendants accountable and help to compensate Oakland for the damages the defendants’ unlawful actions have caused and will cause to the people of Oakland.”

The civil complaint, a 49-page document, advances seven different claims against the NFL and its teams.

Much will be said and written about the lawsuit as it unfolds. For now, the most immediate question is whether the lawsuit means that the Raiders will play elsewhere in 2019. Via Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, team president Marc Badain declined comment on the question of whether the litigation means that the inevitable Las Vegas team will be leaving Oakland after 2018.

And for good reason. With one home game left this year — a Christmas Eve visit from the Broncos — making it known that there will never be another Raiders game in Oakland could spark the kind of scene not witnessed since the Browns’ final home game in Cleveland.

 

[juice t]

I hear San Diego is available

 

[Broken]

So is Rochester. They've been hanging out for an NFL team since the Rochester Jeffersons went under in 1925.

 

[fuey]

— hinges on at least 20 NFL games per year, for at least 20 years. Thus, a premature exit by the Chargers would be the first domino in a cascade of contractual breaches.

...

He’s shelling out billions to build the stadium, and the return on his investment relies on the Chargers honoring their commitment to play roughly 200 total games there over two decades.

8 home games for the rams... 8 home games for the chargers...

Has maths changed since I left school??

How are the Chargers going to play 10 home games every year?? Expecting them to be good for 20 years is far fetched in itself, but expecting them to at least win the division each of these 20 years is ludicrous...

 

[LeverPuller]

8 home games for the rams... 8 home games for the chargers...

Has maths changed since I left school??

How are the Chargers going to play 10 home games every year?? Expecting them to be good for 20 years is far fetched in itself, but expecting them to at least win the division each of these 20 years is ludicrous...

Preseason will be counted.