JASON LA CANFORA
CBS Sports NFL Insider
Why the Raiders are going to LA -- whether it's with Rams or Chargers
February 20, 2015 3:42 pm ET
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Raiders are not long for Oakland. This much we know.
As movers and shakers around the NFL try to sort through the aftermath of the announcement of a Chargers/Raiders alliance for a proposal to build a stadium outside of Los Angeles, and as the Rams continue their full-speed ahead approach of building a stadium in downtown LA, there are no shortage of conclusions to be made and theories to be expounded upon.
The fallout will continue for months and the race to Southern California is as heated as it has ever been, if not more so. This is on, and it won't stop until at least one team, and quite possibly two, are playing in the LA area by the start of the 2016 season.
We still don't know which two teams it will be, and where exactly the new stadium will be built, but after discussions today with numerous people plugged in to the growing marketplace of teams seeking a new life in LA, I am most concerned for Raiders fans right now.
I've been documenting for, literally, years at this point the amount of time Raiders owner Mark Davis has been spending in LA, his growing relationship with former entertainment mogul Michael Ovitz, his unwavering intent to get a new stadium there. If anyone in the Bay Area wasn't convinced that this was a reality -- with the prospects of getting a stadium in Oakland or thereabouts incredibly bleak and the Raiders viewed within the NFL as the ideal "second team" in LA -- well it now has to be ringing loud and clear.
I continue to hear that Davis is seen as the most malleable, by far, of the three owners involved in this process and he's content to be that second team -- whether it means going with the Chargers, or the Rams. He isn't caught up in the developmental and real estate potential of these projects. He just wants some improved revenue streams, a chunk of money every season from suite sales and sponsorships and other revenue that a state-of-the-art stadium would provide. That's the end game for him: Keep his team, get to LA, and get the best second-tenant or co-tenant stadium deal he can get. And he's closer to that than ever.
Don't let this announcement fool you -- I wouldn't view the Chargers and Raiders as a guaranteed alliance, and however the league ends up jockeying the process, to the degree it can, the Raiders are viewed as a chip that can be shifted to virtually any locale as long as a new stadium is involved. (What is debatable, though, is the amount of control the NFL has over this now; in its zest to control everything involved with LA, it has, perhaps like a money-driven overbearing mother, lost all control, almost like these billionaires after being told for so long what they could or could not do, suddenly woke up one day and realized they are all grown up now and are going to doing what they want to do now. The NFL can put out statements about the process, but the prevailing perception I got from team executives was that this was becoming a free-for-all -- a "goat rodeo," as one plugged-in person put it).
What would concern me as a Raiders fan is the fact there is no momentum for a new stadium in that region, it has long been viewed as unfeasible, and, while Al Davis was at least beginning to explore the option of sharing a stadium with the 49ers in Santa Clara before he passed away, his son has been completely opposed to it. It's gotten to the point where now it's highly unlikely that this coupling can take place (though I'll never say never what it comes to the NFL).
But, rather than force that arrangement, at a time when the NFL has made it abundantly clear that it wants two teams in LA, and with the Raiders seen as the best candidate to be that second team, why force that issue? It's all about LA right now, as much as teams, and the league, want to talk about exhausting all options in their current locations. We're getting way beyond that now with multiple clubs wanting out this badly.
The Raiders are all about LA, and appear willing to go along for the ride while guys like Rams owner Stan Kroenke and Chargers owner Dean Spanos, real estate magnates and developers at their core, lead the charge. Having zero options in the short- or long-term for a new stadiums in Oakland, I have a difficult time not handicapping the Raiders as heavy favorites to be one of the two teams in LA by 2016 (assuming both go at the same time, and with these joint-proposals being formed, it grows increasingly likely to me that two free-agent teams -- in terms of their lease -- go ahead and move in the same season).
Both might as well start tapping into that new market as soon as possible. You might hear some yapping about the $100 million in debt on the Raiders current dilapidated stadium, but that's barely a financial ripple in this kind of multi-billion-dollar deal).
(In fact, if I am an NFL fan in St. Louis, I'm feeling better about my future in this league right than Oakland. The St. Louis stadium movement continues to gain momentum, and its leaders recently reached an agreement with local unions that should cut 44 weeks and millions of dollars from construction costs. They also have another meeting with NFL officials next week and it's very likely that the point people for the St. Louis stadium will present before the owners at the league meeting in Arizona next month.
It's not rosy for St. Louis in the short term, and, again, the Rams' desire to leave cannot be overstated, but they have a much more viable plan in place than anything in the Bay Area right now and some legit commitments. It's also a good possibility any team that is left out of the dance in LA could end up playing in St. Louis by the end of the decade.
The question of course, right now, becomes which stadium gets built in LA and which teams end up paired together. Kroenke set the tone for this by going rogue -- by NFL league office standards -- and twice purchasing preferred land in LA and then going ahead and announcing his intent to build in Inglewood in a deal that requires no public funding and no league funding. After being held at bay from formally announcing an intent to relocate through 2014, Kroenke wasn't going to be sitting in the corner anymore. His aim could not be more clear, and many believe if it takes suing the league in federal court to accomplish this, then so be it. He clearly has a head start on the process in terms of ability to build and the requisite local political support. I'd still call him the clubhouse leader.
But how wide of a gulf is it?
The Chargers have been late to this party, spending 15 years or so playing nice with the municipalities, saying and doing all the right things, and not exploring outside options. No hardball. Then things changed in January when Kroenke announced his acquisition of more land in Inglewood and his intent to build.
"When Kroenke made his move in January it really forced our hand," as one Chargers official put it. The game had changed and the Chargers had no recourse but to get on the LA train or risk being left without a home in California.
So, at that point, clearly the Chargers were playing from behind, but with the gloves off now, everything has been expedited. They brokered the framework of a proposal with the Raiders and, with the Chargers regular architect unable to participate due to a conflict of interest, they had to hire someone else. They negotiated for the land and by early February had the land deal in place. Numerous hurdles remain, but some familiar with the projects believe that this Carson, Calif., project might not be all that far behind Kroenke's. Deals like this don't come together overnight and the Chargers completed a fair amount of legwork, obviously, to reach this point.
Which option will the league prefer more? That remains to be seen. But the consensus of people I spoke to was that it's feasible that by the October fall league meeting, the NFL could be prepared to have the votes secured to determine which of these locations -- and which teams -- were going to Los Angeles for 2016. If not by that meeting, then perhaps in time for a special meeting called in November or December.
But this is happening. These guys aren't rattling sabers; they are in a high-stakes, big-money race, jockeying for position for one of two seats in one of the world's biggest entertainment markets, knowing that the cost of losing out, and being left without a seat in this game of musical chairs, is very real. The return of NFL football to Los Angeles is imminent. Two of these three teams will eventually be there, and if the last 24 hours have told me anything, it's that the Raiders will be riding shotgun with whomever is in the lead chair.
