When the and announced late last week that the $2.6 billion stadium they are set to construct in Inglewood, still in its relative infancy, would already be at least a year delayed in its opening, I couldn't help but conjure images of f-bombs being yelled and coffee mugs being hurled acro s the room in the teams' corporate offices.I mean, that's how I probably would've reacted if I had Kroenke or Spanos for a last name.And the idea that this isn't really much of an i sue, and that such a significant delay
Minnesota Vikings Polos could be caused by El Nio and a rainy winter in Southern California gave me some pause as well. Turns out I'm not the only one. There are some very impactful, very real, financial lo ses a sociated with this postponement for both clubs, to say nothing of the marketing and branding hit both will absorb having to remain in makeshift temporary homes for at least three more seasons. There are also very real concerns about running well over that original $2.6 billion projection given the inauspicious start to the project, and the consequences are far more telling than some might want you to believe.Los Angeles has long been a fickle mistre s for the , and having to send this me sage to these two fledgling fan bases, at least in their current locations, is suboptimal at best. It puts the ability to host the 2021 in jeopardy, and while Rams owner Stan Kroenke still stands to vastly increase his already ma sive wealth over time with the construction of this football Taj Mahal, in the short term there will be fiscal pain for
Moritz Bohringer Jersey these two franchises to the tune of $150 million each in lost revenue for each year beyond 2019 lost due to construction delays, some suggest. As I digested the news over the weekend, my thoughts quickly turned to former president Joe Banner, the point man in the construction of Lincoln Financial Field in downtown Philadelphia in 2003. Banner is anything but a shrinking violet, and I imagined what his reaction might have been had some construction manager called him 16 months after being granted NFL approval for his stadium, with nothing but a huge hole still in the ground, and informed him the stadium was going to be at least a year delayed from opening."I'd like to think I wouldn't have let it get to that point," Banner said matter-of-factly. Fair enough. OK. But let's say hypothetically that there had been an extra snowy winter in Philly and he got this news that The Linc was going to open a year later. On a scale of 1-10, how freaked out would he be?"Oh, I'm freaking out," Banner said. "I'm definitely freaking out until I meet with people like the construction manager and the architects to really get a handle on what's going on. I'd want to know, right away, did somebody mislead me to the point that I put out 2019 and now it's already 2020? Are the architects way behind? Is the construction manager under-staffing the project? "I'm reading these guys the riot act, and I may even be looking at replacing my construction manager already if that's the source of it. That's who you are hiring to really oversee everything and they'd have some really serious questions to answer from me. And if they can't answer them, then I'd have to replace them now. The really shocking thing is for this to happen now. It would be one thing where it came to this point two years in and you lose a year; even that shouldn't happen, but it can happen. When it happens now, and you haven't really done anything yet, that's troubling."For starters, the idea that the weather caused this prolonged of a delay, well, executives and sports busine s experts simply aren't buying it. This is outside whatever realm of expertise I have -- a suming I even have one -- but it's fair to say there were collective eye rolls from the folks I spoke to about El Nio being the primary culprit here. And they all agreed that to have something this big come down already likely portends costs overruns and po sibly other delays as well.One former NFL executive who was involved
Eric Kendricks Jersey in the construction of a state-of-the-art stadium this decade noted how facilities in places like Cleveland and Minnesota and Chicago, with far more severe weather, got built on time. "Playing four years in antiquated stadiums costs $100s of millions," he noted. He estimated that each team could lose $50 million per year in gate, $50 million in sponsorships, $40 million in suites and maybe $10 million in conce sions/parking per year the stadium is behind. "It's hard to believe they couldn't have figured
Randall Cunningham Jersey this out knowing how much was at stake." Furthermore, each team will have to play an international game for an additional season while they are in a temporary home, and the Rams might delay their unveiling of new uniforms for a year (they are tying it to the new stadium), which could hurt with their merchandising in the meantime."The lo s of that year is over $100 million in actual costs versus what they would have been had they opened on time. That's just the math of it," Banner said. He noted that in actuality, the project likely might be only three or four months behind, but given how short the NFL regular season is in relation to the entire year, that's enough to push you back a full season. "To be this far behind when you've barely really started the project, I've never heard of it." The Rams and Chargers both took this calculated gamble focused on the long view, of course, buying into the concept that with the right facility and glitz and glo s (and winning product on the field), both teams will enjoy riches and revenue streams far beyond anything ever conceivable had they stayed in St. Louis or San Diego. And I would agree that, say, 15 years from now they might be right. I would also point out there is a reason L.A. went over two decades without a team to call its own after the Rams and fled, and nothing is guaranteed in the NFL -- though owners making a lot of money is generally a very safe proposition.There is a unified public front between the two teams, who strove to put their new fan bases at ease with the statements they released last week on the matter. The Rams said, "This new target gives us flexibility to accommodate any additional delays that may arise while still delivering an unparalleled experience upon opening." A.G. Spanos, the Chargers' president of busine s operations, said in the statement: "If getting it right means pushing back the completion date, then I think the extra year is well worth it. Construction is our family busine s, so we understand the challenges that come with a project of this magnitude."The Chargers, who will be playing in 27,000-seat StubHub Center -- a soccer-specific stadium -- face more acute potential lo ses of revenue, and there is increased pre sure on these rebuilding teams to start winning immediately, or close to it, to keep the buy-in from fans coming.
Cris Carter Jersey Marty Conway, a profe sor of sports and busine s at Georgetown and a former executive with the , and
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