“You do the Math”

 

 

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You Do the Math”
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You’re a rich man. You have all the luxuries of life, home, vintage cars, a favorite ‘toy’, an NFL football team, much of it given to you by your patriarchal father. And you’re unhappy.

 

 

Unhappy, because whatever the dollar figure you are, your net worth, it never seems to be enough.

 

 

Forbes Magazine says your net worth is 1.1B. Granted it’s not equal to the founder of Facebook, or the legendary Paul Allen of computer fame, or even a compatriot like Jerry Jones, but that’s alot of money in the bank.

 

 

So Dean Spanos, owner of Bentley’s and Mercedes and more, owner of a palatial estate, with his Lear Jet, and multiple business ownerships, wants more. He wants LA type money to be generated by his Chargers football franchise.

 

 

The Bolts become a bargaining chip, in a potential move to Los Angeles, where revenue streams could be triple what they are in San Diego. Sounds great. The glitzy stadium designs, the meetings, hanging with the important people, must be something special.

 

 

Of course he fails to realize he is moving into a market resided in by big boys. You’ve heard of Philip Anschutz. You know about the history of the Lakers, the legacy of the Dodgers, the growth of the Clippers. There are two NHL teams to deal with. The NBA has 2. Two great big time college programs USC and UCLA. It’s not an open market, and it’s a really different market. And now you have another competitor, a possible business partner in Stan Kroenke, he of Hollywood Park fame, who is officially in LA already.

 

 
So what does Spanos do next? Rebuffed in attempts to be a ‘player’ with his own stadium in Carson, he found out the cruelty of secret ballots, that he doesn’t have as many friends as he thought. Or maybe he found out, his friends like the potential bigger cut of the pie they’d get partnering up with Kroenke. Disliked as much as he is, he is still a ‘doer’, builds arenas, owns other teams, pretty successful entrepreneur. And by the way his net worth is over 12B, not 1.1B.

 

 

Spanos has to move fast, tough to do for a man who has always been slow to react to things. Bad business deals, bad hires, bad firings, mistakes here, there and everywhere. Move fast, for everyday you hesitate to make a decision, go to LA or stay in San Diego, is a day Kroenke and the Rams have a jump on you. That’s for things like selling season tickets to home games at the Coliseum, run by USC; making TV-Radio-Media deals; getting corporate sponsors lined up in stadium and the such.

 

 

It will cost the son of the Stockton industrialist at least 800M to become an equal partner with Kroenke, the price to fund his share of the football stadium. It will cost him another 550M-to be paid as a territorial fee, to move close to Rodeo Drive, to hang with the pretty people. That’s alot of upfront money (1.3B) just to get to area code (213).

 

 

In San Diego, it will cost him just 300M, his share, of the total package to work with the City-County consortium. He has all his own contacts and business associates, still on board, to buy his suites, season tickets etc. Of course he has to put together an even stronger infrastructure to sell PSLs, naming rights etc.

 

 

It will cost less to do the deal in San Diego than Los Angeles,s but the profit levels will be less too. Of course it raises the question, how much money, who you are rich, do you really need. His dad’s 74M purchase price, will escalate into a franchise worth probably 1.5B, once they get a new Stadium built in town.

 

 
What’s a man to do? Tough call for someone who seems so greedy. Pay more to get more? Repair all the damage you’ve done here, and try to regain credibility and momentum. The owner’s pretty radioactive right now. His scorched-earth policy has come back to infect everything around him. He surely does not have much currency in this town now, not with the civic leaders, and maybe not even the fans.

 

 
He can stay and hope he can find a way to make a deal. He can leave, make more, though not be the true leader he thought he could be in the LA market. Since 2000, everything he tried failed, now Carson included. Now he is really on the clock, with a pressured decision that has to be made.

 

 

Not sure what is more appalling. A partnership with a ruthless Kroenke, or the realization, if he doesn’t go to LA, a do-nothing like Mark Davis gets a shot at some of the riches Team Spanos thought they deserved, were entitled to, or were going to be part of. –

 

 

You do the math. What would you do. Then call Dean Spanos and give him advice.

 

 

All of his most recent decisions, football and financial, haven’t worked out. Oh to be a rich man, wanting more, but not having the intelligence to make the right decisions to get more. His life of luxury sure seems to be a life of disappointment right now.

 

 

“Words Cannot Describe”

 

 

 

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“Words Cannot Describe”
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Pick a word to describe what you saw last night, when you watched Chargers Owner Dean Spanos at the NFL podium, an hour after his fellow owners voted not to accept his Carson project, but rather allow the Rams to move to LA and build a stadium at Hollywood Park.

 
Devastated. Angered. Betrayed.

 
It all fits this morning, the aftermath of Spanos’ failure to get done what he worked on for a couple of years, relocating his football team to Carson, in a state of the art stadium, shared with bitter rival Mark Davis and his Oakland Raiders.

 
This morning the Spanos family wakes up to the shocking reality, they can choose between going back to the negotiating table with the city of San Diego and it’s mayor, Kevin Faulconer, or take the NFL offer, and become possibly a partner or tenant with Rams ownere Stan Kroenke in Inglewood.

 
Think about the millions spent laying out the design, and conducting all the groundwork business for Carson. Think about the legal fees. Think about the hours and days lost.

 
And while they now face an NFL ultimatum, think too of all the damage Dean Spanos allowed to be done to his reputation, by conducting a ‘Scorched Earth” policy in his torch job of the Mayor, the City, the County, the CSAG group.

 
Where once Spanos had friends and business partners, he created enemies. Where the fans were once loyal to his leadership, remember the Super Bowl run and the playoff years, he now has a clientele upset he tried to leave, and gave us a (4-12) team as a parting gift.

 

 

Late in the evening, he sent a mass E-mail to season ticket holders, asking for their ‘patience’.  Imagine that.  Now he wants you to committ to him, seaosn ticket money for next year, after he showed his loyalty by trying to go to Los Angeles.

 
Yes, anything is possible, if they open talks with the Mayor, and come to the table they could have been at for four years, but how do you put aside what the man did, and what he stands for, typical greed.

 
What is he going to do about the financial challenges ahead? Alot of money will be made by whomever joins the Rams in Los Angeles. It could be the Chargers-if not-then the Raiders of all people, have the window to move in.

 
Can Spanos trust Kroenke to work a fair deal with him? Moving to LA as a co-partner, means Spanos must spend 800M, his share of the stadium, and pay 550M-in territorial fees. And there are skyboxes to be sold, corporate sponsorships, and tickets, lots of tickets, with PSLs attached to them.

 
Maybe all the friends Spanos thought he had in the NFL never existed. Maybe the secret ballot changed everything. Maybe the enormity of the NFL campus proposal was more alluring that building on a toxic waste landsight, where oil refineries dotted the Carson skyline.

 
It’s fair to say, ‘what goes around-comes around’ and Dean Spanos got what he deserved in LA because he treated San Diegol so badly.

 
At the end of the day, he should rue the day he acted the way he did to a city that has loyally supported the franchise thru lots of bad times, and a few good years, for 55-NFL football seasons.

 
I’m a big believer in body language, and what I saw, with Spanos standing stunned, looking like was about to collapse from the strain of all this.

 
The Chargers created this mess. Now they have to repair it. I believe they can, because the City and County want the team to stay. What is still worth debating, does anyone want Dean Spanos to remain as owner.

 
For a rich NFL owner, who thought he could control everything,and treat people anyway he wished, it appears he is paying a steep pricetag for how he acted.

 
He has never made himself available. He has become a recluse, even in his own stadium, where he was being booed. His public personna has taken a brutal hit by what he let his personal mouthpiece Mark Fabiani do.

 
Dean Spanos looks like he has become a ‘hostage’ in his own house, by how he has conducted his NFL business.

 
Devastated. Angered. Betrayed. Add 1-more word. Loser.

 

 

 

“Roll Tide to Victory”

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It’s what championship games are supposed to be all about. Big plays, big hits, big finishes.

 

Alabama and Clemson did not disappoint in this (45-40) Crimson Tide win over the Tigers.

 

So much for both team’s having great defenses. Both were gassed, both were gashed when Jay Coker and Deshaun Watson got done throwing the football around the field. The two teams combined for an amazing (1,203) yards and 49-first downs, hitting huge pass plays, big kickoff returns, and keeping the howling mob fans on the edge of their seats.

 

It took a 24-point explosion by Bama midway thru the 4th quarter to turn this nail biter into a raging-spreading forest fire.

 

And Lane Kiffin, the deposed USC coach, now the offensive coordinator at Alabama, pulled every trick he had out of the book. Running the ball early, throwing the ball late. Going deep to a seldom used tight end. Triggering a wild on-side kick. Using a 95-yard kickoff return from a benched player. And of course, his great tailback took off on a 50-yard TD scamper too.

 

Dabo Sweeney’s dynamic offense at Clemson kept coming back, throwing and running, but it was the Tide that rolled in and eventually drowned a very active Tigers defense.

 

Watson, who finished 3rd in the Heisman voting, wound up with (405Y) passing and 4-TDs and ran the read option for another 73-yards, in a heroic effort. He was still throwing to the end zone right to the bitter end.

 

Coker went off for (335-P) and a couple of scores. His seldom used tight end OJ Howard wound up with 5-catches for 208-yards. And the guy who won the Heisman, tailback Derrick Henry, kept hammering away till he tired out the guys wearing Orange, finishing with 36-carries and 158-yards rushing.

 

For Nick Saban, the ultra-driven coach at Alabama, his 4th NCAA title in a 7-year span, and his 5th overall. It leaves his 1-shy of the icon in Tuscaloosa, Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant, who won 6-crowns back in the day.

 

In a bowl year marred by blowout losses suffered by so-called top teams like Iowa and Michigan State, a season where there were lots of lousy bowl games and bad attendance too, this one proved to be a great way to close out the season.

 

We’ve seen wild championship games in the past, the Vince Young-Texas Longhorns game with USC ranks right up there. But this one may take the cake.

 

Roll Tide washed away the hopes of the team from South Carolina. If the game had not ended, they’d still be going up and down the field on each other.

 

 

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“Best & Worst Wildcard Weekend”
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Steelers-Bengals….Tremendous grit shown by QB-Ben Roethlisberger, coming back off sidelines with AC-shoulder joint sprain and still getting team down field close to field goal range….Superb performance by street free agent RB-Jordan Todman as Pittsburgh played without DeAngelo Williams…..Disgraceful helmet hit by LB-Vontaze Beferect, facing suspension now as repeat offender……..Stupidity of CB-Pac Man Jones to touch official and shove Steelers assistant coach…..Shameful move by Berfect to try and check on Brown hit after he obviously targeted his head…..Steelers in trouble going to Denver with all these injuries and Broncos coming off bye….Marvin Lewis (0-7) in postseason and facing heat for having no-class players on his roster who keep hurting team.

 

 
Chiefs-Texans…..Kansas City continues to live off its defense…Superb pressure on QB-Brian Hoyer bailed out pedestrian offense….KC in trouble now with hi ankle injury to WR-Jeremy Maclin when went down on turn by himself trying to turn to run upfield…Houston defense on field way too long….despite heroics of Brian Cushing-JJ Watt-could not bail out struggling offense….Texans had no playmakers outside of DeAndre Hopkins…..

 

 
Packers-Redskins….Aaron Rogers goes no-huddle to change entire chemistry of game…spreads Washington defense out-slows down pass rush, then RBs take over game, pounding for (141) on ground….Kirk Cousins lost his rythm under pressure…took 6-sacks….Washington went away from run game again….Packers pass rush covers up for deficiencies in secondary…..Pick your poison defending Rodgers…keep him in pocket….chase him when he avoids rush…deal with hurry up package.

 

 
Seahawks-Vikings…..Brutally cold weather wiped out potential good matchup….Neither team could run ball to set up other parts of offense….Russell Wilson under seige early in game-went to rollouts then no-huddle to get momentum….RB-Christian Michael broke off gash-runs in 2nd half thazt made a difference…..Teddy Bridgewater just not consistent throwing down field….WR-Mike Wallace-making big money, just not key component….Adrian Peterson fumble killed drive….never really got to second level running the ball-Seahawks team speed defense locked him in for limited gains.

 

 

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“10-Questions for Tom”

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The miserable football season is over, but the ache still remains, because of a battered roster, and the likelihood the Chargers have played their last game in San Diego.

Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco, ‘the Ghost”, who is seldom seen and hardly ever heard, will hold his season ending press conference-autopsy on Friday.

Therefore-10-Questions for Tom.

The day you were introduced, you promised ‘transparency’ in the organization, yet you have disappeared from public view, treat the media with disdain, and have broken the bond you said you would develop with those covering the team. Why?

You were given a contract extension last August after your solid draft and positive free agent spending spree, but it was never announced. Why?

As the national media lampooned Mike McCoy, you stood silent and let him take all the national heat for what wound up to be a terrible season., You preached ‘team’. Why?

You and John Spanos have burned thru 35M in signing bonus money and an overall 65M in guaranteed money in your three years on the job. That’s alot of mistakes?

Have you given a (4-12) coach a contract extension beyond 2016-after all the praise Mike McCoy received from his players for holding the team together thru this nightmare of a season. Does McCoy have a multi-year deal in place?

You obviously believe in McCoy. Was a condition of keeping him, that he purge his assistant coaching staff to stay on the job?

How do you replace 7-assistant coaches on a staff, if Mike McCoy is heading into the final year of his contract?

Do you need to evaluate changes in your medical team, training staff, and strength and conditioning crew in the wake of a horrid siege of injuries this year, a league leading 17-concussions, and a terrible three year run of injured players?

Based on your decision to bypass quality defensive lineman, and not having draft many offensive lineman, aside from DJ Fluker, will those be your priorities drafting at the top of the first and second rounds in April?

Do you and John Spanos owe quarterback Philip Rivers, and this community, an apology for the deterioration of the talent level around a future Hall of Fame quarterback like Rivers?