Thread: Inside the Rams-Chargers marriage as the NFL fights for Los Angeles

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...ts-los-angeles

wow. Very interesting read. Spanos is totally sticking it to Stan Kroenke. This is hilarious.

Spanos felt burned and betrayed by the vote and the entire L.A. decision process, and therefore few expected him to exercise the tenancy option. But he did, and now these unequal partners are locked in a bitter fight, stoked by Kroenke's fury over cost overruns exceeding $3 billion, questions over the Chargers' long-term viability in the market, a lawsuit seeking billions over Kroenke's departure from St. Louis that has engulfed the entire league, and an increasingly fractious and sometimes petty civil war between Rams and Chargers officials, according to documents and nearly two dozen interviews with owners, league and team executives, and lawyers.

"No. No! No, Roger!" Kroenke said. "I've been out there, spending millions, and everybody else is piggybacking on everything I've done, not spending a dime, letting me take all the heat, and then they think they're going to get to step in? I don't think so."

ahahaha

Spanos and Chargers COO Jeanne Bonk then made a controversial decision. They slashed prices for 26,000 upper deck seats, lowering tickets to the $50 to $90 range, and dropped the SSL rate to $100 -- up to 15 times less than the Rams were charging for the same seats. The Chargers' reduced prices were higher than options suggested by Legends, which included the idea of abandoning the SSLs altogether. But for a bottom-line league, it was an unmissable flare that L.A. might never be a two-team NFL town.

The Rams got a heads-up one day before the Chargers' fire sale was announced.


THE RAMS WERE furious. Spanos had potentially cost Kroenke hundreds of millions. In the Chargers' news release, president of business operations A.G. Spanos, one of Dean's sons, wrote, "A family of four should be able to buy season tickets for the entire family and not need a second mortgage to do so." It felt like a subtle shot at the Rams.

too funny. I am sure this will end well.

Spanos also helped the St. Louis lawsuit.

Kroenke has had to foot all the legal bills for the teams and league, part of an indemnification agreement the league presented to the Rams, Chargers and Raiders on the morning of the L.A. vote. The legal bills have reached eight figures for some teams.

St. Louis is now seeking each owner's cut of the Rams' and Chargers' $550 million relocation fees -- about $35.5 million per -- as restitution, infuriating owners. Over the past year, the league has dedicated a full hour at owners meetings to debating the merits of "Hard Knocks" but hasn't formally addressed the St. Louis case in depth, irritating some owners even more. The lawsuit has even reopened old wounds from the relocation process. Discovery turned up a damning email from a Carson project official outlining to St. Louis authorities all the ways the Rams seemed to be in violation of the league's relocation policy, providing a blueprint for the city of St. Louis' lawsuit. The email enraged league and Rams executives and undermined Spanos' reputation as the consummate company man, even though he didn't write it. "The perception was that Dean always put the league first and Stan was only out for himself," a team executive says. "Neither was ever completely true."

omg this just gets better and better the more i read it.

" A lot of what is happening involves the teams' staffs at war, mostly in a passive-aggressive manner via emails and texts. There have been spats over the types of golf carts the stadium will use and over the number of office spaces Chargers suite sales staff are entitled to, per the term sheet. "We are fighting over relatively penny ante things," one executive involved says. "It's unfathomable."

It's sad people can't let a good capitalist like Kroenke operate within the boundaries of the rule of law.

Originally Posted by King87

It's sad people can't let a good capitalist like Kroenke operate within the boundaries of the rule of law.

capitalists take billions from public funds for their businesses?

I believe they call that Socialism for the rich.

Originally Posted by ShaneFalco

capitalists take billions from public funds for their businesses?

I believe they call that Socialism for the rich.

You're pure of heart and I love you.

I've always questioned how a city that did without NFL football for around 15 years now, suddenly, could support two teams. That didn't work the last time they tried it. I've said before that Southern Cal is all the professional football the Los Angeles area needs.

The problem is that there's no viable market in the U.S. the Chargers could move to. So Spanos and Kronke are now fighting over L.A. like two rats fighting over the same piece of cheese.