Back Home in Indiana

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It’s as American as Apple Pie, Flying the Flag, and Mom.  It’s Memorial Day weekend, a time to remember, and a time to race.
 
It’s the Indianapolis 500…the Old Brickyard…Gasoline Alley..Pit Row… and Jim Nabors singing ‘Back Home in Indiana’.
 
The 500 is about personalities and people who became the sport.

 Lonestar JR and AJ…Johnny Rutherford and AJ Foyt.
The Boys from Brazil..Emerson Fittipaldi and Tony Kanaan.
 
It’s the Foreign Legion…Ari Luyendyk and Dario Franchitti
It’s Big Al and Little Al…the Unsers.
 
The Gasman and the Spiderman…Tom Sneva and Helio Castroneves.

Its Father and Son…Mario and Michael..the Andrettis’.
 
It’s the dudes from down under and those over there..New Zealand’s Scott Dixon to Will Power.
It’s the battle of the Brits, Jackie Stewart to Graham Hill.
 
It’s those who came and then went..Tony Stewart to Danica Patrick.It’s those who raced-those who died..Eddie Sachs-Swede Savage-Salt Walther-Billy Vukovich.
 
It’s history, the early days Ralph Harroun, Ralph DiPalma and Maury Rose.
It’s racing with an engineer on board, or doing 500-laps on cobblestone.
 
It’s technology, roadsters to turbines, Cosworth’s to rear-engines.
It’s the inventors…Tony Granatelli to Roger Penske to Parnelli Jones.
 
It’s pit stops and cut tires, fires and flashy finishes.
It’s breathtaking close finishes…the whine of engines..the horrible sound of steel on cement wall crashes.
 
Sunday is a slice of Americana, the greatest spectacle on earth.
It will be fast, you hope it won’t be fatal.
 
Green flags to checkered rings…Drinking the milk to kissing the bricks.
Memorial Day weekend.  After you give thanks to all who gave in the Military…go watch them race.
 
The Indianapolis 500…safe run guys and gals.

Lakers – Tarnished Gold

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It’s been an awful time of late for a once proud franchise.
 
The LA Lakers are not what they used to be.  Maybe it was ego and arrogance.  Maybe it was stupidity of leadership.  Maybe it was the salary cap.  Maybe it was age-injury and the cycle of talent.
 
What was a long time ago, is no longer right now, a dynastic franchise, where trophies-rings and the bling were the norm.  Lakers fans would give anything to see a playoff game, or even have to rationalize, ‘we got to the finals but lost’.  Hasn’t been that way recently, surely won’t be that way for awhile to come.
 
But at least there is some hope going forward with what just happened earlier this week.  The draft lottery finally shined some golden sunshine of the franchise.
 
The Lakers have had great periods of dominance.  Early on they were in the NBA finals yearly, but always blocked by Red Auerbach and the greatness of the Boston Celtics, Cousy, Russell, Sanders, the Jones boys, Havlicek and Siegfried.
 
The lost in the finals 7-times in a row because of all things Boston Gardens, from 1961-1970.
 
Then came greatness, the era of West-Baylor-Chamberlain.  The arrival of all things “Showtime”, Magic, Big Game James Worthy, Silk Wilkes, Cooper, McAdoo.
 
And then there was Kobe-Shaq, D-Fish, Robert Horry and so many others.
 
From 1971 on, they won 6-trophies, even in the reincarnation of the Michael Jordan-Bulls and Larry Bird-Boston eras.
 
The one constant was Jerry Buss the philanthropic owner, and great on-floor leadership, from Pat Riley to Phil Jackson to Mitch Kupchack.
 
Times changed, rules changed, mistakes were made.  The Lakers no longer became a destination point.  The passing of Dr. Buss ended an era.  It led to in-house fighting.  Jerry West left as GM.  Phil Jackson left as coach.  Shaquille O’Neal left in an ego fight.  Dwight Howard came and was gone.  And coaches were hired, only to be fired, mistake after mistake.  
 
Whereas there was stability and leadership, and LA was a destination point for stars, it was replaced by an ill-fitted son, Jim Buss, as a leader, and a rag-tag roster full of players.  By the end of last year, you’d think you were watching an NBA-D League minor team.
 
Did you ever think you’d sit here and read a Lakers record that is (48-116) over the last two non playoff seasons?  Kobe Bryant is the last man standing of the greatness, when he is not down and out on the NBA injured list.  3-straight seasons of surgeries-injuries have brought him to the brink of retirement.  No one wants to go out a loser.
 
The Lakers may have one last chance.  The lottery for losers did not come up ‘craps’ for them.  They get the second choice in next month’s college draft.  They have 3-solid picks in a deep athletic draft.  They could hit the jackpot, and back on the rebuild road quick.
 
They draft 2nd, 27th and 34th.  Solid positions to be in.  Kobe comes back healthy.  So does last year’s first round pick, Julius Randle, who went out with season ending surgery at the beginning of last season.  Jahlil Okafor (Duke), Karl Townes (Kentucky) or DeAngelo Russell (Ohio State) are at the top of the board.  They are going to get a great player.
 
If Mitch Kupchack can make the right choices the other two top picks should be rock-solid.  And they have cap space with Steve Nash’s expiring contract and a combination of players off last year’s roster, they don’t want back.
 
The colors are Purple and Gold.  More recently the franchise has become a punching bag around the league, turning Black and Blue.  It should end quickly.  Anything is better than the last two years, and it will be better in the next few years.
 
The lottery has given them a life-line.  Soon the Lakers line will be buzzing with fans who believe this franchise can come back.  Golden State did.  Oklahoma City did.  The Lakers  can.

The Chargers – The Truth Hurts

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The right guy but the wrong job description.

Everyone has an opinion about what has transpired the last 48-hours in San Diego with the Chargers ownership group.

As San Diego’s Stadium Task Force was launching its financial proposal to build a new Stadium, the owner of the team was putting down more infrastructure to potentially move to Los Angeles.

Hiring Carmen Policy was a stroke of brialliance.

In Dean Spanos’ early years of leadership, after father Alex installed him with the job responsibility in 1994, he built alliances with two of the real bright minds on the West Coast. Policy, who was busy making things happen under Eddie DeBartolo’s ownership with the 49ers, was a trend-setter. Everything about the franchise, that was a Super Bowl power, was classy.

The other key contact was John Shaw, a power broker with the Rams, who did many wonderful things, but eventually was the man who delivered the team to St. Louis then disappeared into retirement.

Yes it’s been 14-years since Policy ran the NFL hallways with other execs, and the league business model has surely changed, but he is ‘a doer’.

What is sad is what has happened since Monday, the message that is starting to ring true, that Dean Spanos, for all the litany about wanting to stay in San Diego, really wants to be in Los Angeles where the money is.

Policy has worlds of experience in deal-making and will likely be a key deal-broker for all things in Los Angeles, whether it is Carson, or turns out to be as a co-tenant with the Rams in Inglewood.

As a side bar, the owner can put his oldest son AG in any job he wishes to give him. Nepotism is not wrong, I guess, if you are on the receiving end. Is he qualified to really be the President and CEO of an NFL team. Only time will tell.

In the end, Carmen Policy is a great hire, and would have been a great asset to help oversee the San Diego Stadium drive, or even to actually run the Joint Power Authority,. a leadership position for a new Stadium.

Unfortuantately, he is headed to Los Angeles, to over see the move of the team.

Yes, it’s the owners right to seek the best deal. It’s a shame the owner no longer feels loyalty to a city that has given him 50-years of support.

A shame Dean Spanos no longer cares about the town, considering how much the town cares about its NFL team.

Chargers – Show Me the Money

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The free lunch is over, though the salad days will likely remain for the ownership of the San Diego Chargers.  It’s just going to cost them a bit more to taste the fruits of a new football stadium.
 
The 14-years of rhetoric from the Chargers about lousy leadership in the mayor’s office, a city that doesn’t care, and the need to increase their revenue streams, should end too.
 
The City-County have teamed up with a bold proposal to build a new NFL Stadium in Mission Valley, doing so without burdening the taxpayers, nor inviting a tidal wave of lawsuits.
 
The 36-page CSAG financing proposal lays it out in the black and white, how they will create ‘green’ (money) to get a 65,000-seat stadium constructed.  They will do it without taxpayer money, with creative financing, and with they believe necessary, funding from the Chargers and the NFL.
 
The lineup card is filled with dollar signs.  The City-County will chip in $242M.  They want $300M from Team Spanos.  The NFL will be expected to put in $200M.  There will be $275M from the sale of hilly land across Friars Road and empty land on the other side of the San  Diego River.
 
Add in $125M in PSL tax money from the rich fans who buy the most expensive seats and sky boxes.  The Chargers will be asked to pay $173M in rent over the next 30-years.  There will be contributions from San Diego State, the Holiday-Poinsettia Bowl, and ticket surcharges for Chargers fans when they park there, and when they buy tickets.  
 
Everyone will be asked to make an investment in the future.  An investment that could generate enormous profits to be split amongst the team, city and county.
The Chargers were second worst in the NFL in revenue streams a year ago, a bad stadium, and a small market size the likely reasons.
 
Everyone wants to be part of an event, and a shiny new Stadium coming up out of the ground becomes a destination point for fans in Southern California.  
 
The Chargers, who have made $20-to-$30M profits a year are looking at a windfall of additional revenue streams, if they are willing to invest money now for bigger profits later.  
 
The task force did something no-one thought possible, created a money model without leaning on other developers or investors to come thru for them.  They retain 136-acres of land to sell off for a hotel, office buildings, condos, or buildings for San Diego State.  The infrastructure costs won’t be as significant  because transportation is already there in that  15-163-8 corridor as is the trolley spur.
 
What’s next, is the negotiations of the fine print in these deals.  This time it will be different.  The Chargers won’t be walking in with a gun to hold anybody up.  There won’t be any fools representing city hall, but a negotiating team with experience across the table.
 
The 65,000 seat Stadium has space for an additional 10,000 upper level endzone seats, which means Super Bowls, and that means additional revenue to help fund this entire project.
 
To use the favorite NFL quote, “on the clock”, the league is likely to open a November lst window for teams to apply to the Committee on Los Angeles to move into LA..  That means San Diego’s leaders have a 5-month window between June lst and then, to hammer out a deal.  Yes Carson and Hollywood Park are out there.
 
On a day that lead owner Dean Spanos pulled off a cheap stunt, announcing he was turning the franchise over to his 36-year old son, who has little “big league” experience at the negotiating table, the city did not seem bothered.  Send in your negotiating team, meet ours.  You said you wanted to stay, so here’s the deal as a starting point to get it done.
 
He then followed that late last nite by hiring Carmen Policy, the legendary 49ers President during their Super Bowl hey-days, to oversee the Carson Stadium project.  So now you have to ask is Dean really interested in San Diego, or just interested in making the most money?  Is he playing both sides against the middle?
 
Why that “Spanos steps down” announcement came on this day makes you wonder about them always doing something to impact what the Task Force was doing.  Just like when they announced the Raiders-Bolts alliance in Carson, the same day the Task Force members were being named.  Arrogance or stupidity?.
 
So now Dean Spanos can write his own legacy, for his own family, a new stadium printing money.  His legacy will be whether he follows thru on doing something for his adopted home town, or flees in the middle of the night to a bigger payday in LA.  But he keeps making decisions that seem to stain his reputation and his real intent.
 
It’s right there infront of them, thanks to the efforts of alot of people, who gave up 108-days of their lives, to try and make things better in San Diego.
 
The free lunch is over for the franchise, no more free stadium for a rich man.  The salad days of profits can continue, if Spanos becomes a giver rather than taker in the stadium talks.
 
What call would you make?  A deal to stay in America’s Finest City or a move to a toxic waste dump in Carson. 

Solving the Stadium Situation

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The work is complete, up next is the presentation, then the toughest part, hammering out a deal for the new NFL Stadium for the Chargers, the Aztecs, the Bowl Games, and many other things.
 
The Mayor’s Stadium Task Force is about to turn over a 105-page proposal to the Mayor.  He in turn will meet with his negotiating committe from Peabody for a review.  They will then present the concepts, the package and ideas on a lease to Dean Spanos, the Chargers owner.
 
Sources say the package is worth $850M, and it is destined strictly for the Stadium.  The ideas floated about the Q-Village and the state-funded River Walk, will come at a later date, with different financing proposals.
 
The Task force told me ‘this is a helluva deal for the city and the Chargers’.  They say the financing is ‘locked in’.  And more importantly, their framework will not necessitate any type of a public vote.  Not a two-thirds votre, not even a 50% plus one vote.
 
They won’t say where the money is coming from, won’t say details of the County loan are part of the package, won’t say what role Citi Group, brought on as financers, hopes to play.
 
What sources will say is that they met in 120-different meetings in a 3-month span.  What they will say is they have overcome the past public apathy, that this could never get done, because of Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s belief the project was doable.
 
There is a feeling however, they wish the Chargers had supported the CSAG group’s work.  The 9-member committee was not paid, gave up months of their own life and work projects, to do this on behalf of the city.
 
I ask the question, is anyone out there, aside from me, offended, that Dean Spanos would spend millions of dollars on the Carson project, but did not even have the decency to donate money for the task force for operating expenses, considering they were doing this Stadium drive on behalf of his franchise.
 
I would hope somewhere here down road, Dean Spanos will say thank you to that group for what they committed to.  Especially since they overcame all the historical political problems, the sniping of mouthpiece Mark Fabiani, and arrogance of an NFL owner, who says one thing (stay in town) but does something else (work for a payday in LA).
 
So we sit and wait to see the specifics.  Hoping for the best, a new Stadium for American’s Finest City, hoping we don’t have to deal with the worst, the owner moving in the middle of the night to LA, beca