Field of Schemes new post Goodell's guidelines on NFL L.A. move: Two birds, one stone

On Friday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell fired up the teams-moving-to-Los-Angeles rumor mill by issuing a memo to all 32 teams providing guidelines on how a team should go about moving to L.A. In short: The league will decide who moves to L.A., not individual team owners.

Among Goodell's edicts:

• "Although substantial uncertainties remain, stadium development in Los Angeles has advanced to the point where the prospects for a new facility are better than they have been in many years."
• Any teams wishing to relocate for the 2013 season must submit an application to do so between next January 1 and February 15.
• "Any stadium seeking investment support from the 32 member clubs should preserve a viable option of being able to host two teams at appropriate times and on appropriate terms."
• In addition to the downtown AEG site and Ed Roski's City of Industry site, the NFL is considering possible stadiums in Carson, near Dodger Stadium, and at Hollywood Park, according to the L.A. Times. (The Dodgers owners say they haven't been approached about an NFL stadium in Chavez Ravine, and "it's not on our radar screen," though they'd listen if asked.)

The Times says that the memo is "partly intended to discourage squatting on the market," to prevent a team from moving to the L.A. Coliseum or Rose Bowl and then working out a stadium deal. That doesn't seem all too likely in any case, though — the only leverage a team has is to wait to move until it gets a sweetheart stadium lease, so why give away the milk for free?

What the memo also does, of course, is confirms the NFL as the entity that potential L.A. stadium builders need to be negotiating with, at a time when the league and developers are in a standoff over the large chunks of money and/or equity that the NFL would be asked to put up in order to get a stadium built. So Goodell is effectively telegraphing that he's not going to back down on his hard line on stadium talks — while simultaneously garnering headlines that increase the impression that an L.A. move is imminent, aiding any team owners that are looking for stadium subsidies from their own cities. There's a reason they pay him the big bucks.

from Field of Schemes http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2012/07/5001_goodells_guidel.html