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Chargers Won’t Fulfill Desires in San Diego
Gringo, We both agree that an expansion franchise is not going to come Roski's way. ( There have been only 4 true expansion teams in the 39 years since the merger. The other 2 came about only because of the relocation of existing teams). Roski has said he wants ownership of the team and and has private money. It can't be all his because he doesn't have it. You have said "Roski has many friends with lots of money, he won't break ground alone. He has the guts and the resources, and he already owns the land". So where is it? Who are his "friends" Why hasn't he put it on the table, so to speak. The last serious effort to bring football back to L.A. was Michael Ovitz and Eli Broad when they were competing for the franchise that eventually went to Houston. The NFL wanted back in L.A. even then. They had all the players and the money out there for all to see (Ron Burkle, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Tom Cruise, Kevin Costner to name a few). So why doesn't Roski, if he indeed does have it? Roski is on record as stating he wants ownership, so which franchises might be for sale? I have read that the Spanos family have said no to any possible sale or partial sale of the Chargers. Have you read something different or have you read anything from Roski altering his stance on ownership being a must? I haven't. Then of course there are Roski's boasts that he will get 2 teams for his stadium, playing in the Rose Bowl and Coliseum until his stadium is ready in 2011-2013(????): "They'll play in the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl for two years while we're under contruction,'' Roski envisions, "and we plan to open by 2013." And play host to a Super Bowl in Los Angeles in 2016. If Roski had his cards on the table as the others have had in the past, I might be more inclined to believe him. But thus far, all anyone has is Roski's own words that he can pull it off.I need something a little more substancial than that.— September 11, 2009 12:03 p.m.
Chargers Won’t Fulfill Desires in San Diego
surfpuppy, It was indeed 700 million. Combine that with the cost of their stadium , which was about 350 million, and you have the first billion dollar franchise in pro sports. BTW, everything I've read in the couple of years or so points towards a franchise fee of 1 billion plus for the next franchise. Throw in 800 million for a new stadium and that's why there will be no expansion team in LA, or in the NFL in general, for a long, long time. And yes gringo, you and I have agreed to diagree previously.— September 10, 2009 11:13 p.m.
Chargers Won’t Fulfill Desires in San Diego
There will be no expansion team, in L.A. or any place else. During the NFL owners spring meeting, several owners and teams polled about expansion had a simple response. The answer was "no." There is no sentiment to expand. Owners scratch their heads when asked if they can even think of a fellow owner who embraces the idea of expansion to accommodate the Los Angeles market. "Expansion does not make sense for the NFL at this juncture," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. "We don't improve anything by expanding. We water it down." Colts general manager Bill Polian, a member of the competition committee, worries about the quality of the product by adding more teams. He said it's not as simple as finding 53 players for an expansion team. Teams need eight-man practice squads. Teams build up injury lists. Most teams go under the assumption that they have to have 64 players to get through a season. "There are not enough football players now," Polian said. "To take 64 players out of the current pool would make it even tougher.— September 10, 2009 7:55 p.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
I believe Lane Field was named after the guy who bought the PCL team that became the PCL Padres. I think the city built the stadium when Lane moved the Padres to San Diego in the 30's. Smith didn't buy the Padres until the late 50's. That's when they moved to Westgate Park. They played at Westgate until The Murph opened, playing there in '68 in their final year of existance. I was only about 6 when the PCl version played at the Murph so don't remember if I saw them either their or at Westgate. I know my parents and grandparents did because I remember them going to watch baseball before they started taking me with them to see the major league Padres at the Murph.— September 10, 2009 12:58 a.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
I hadn't heard of Luke Easter. Here's an article: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/12/…— September 8, 2009 9:31 a.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
Don, I remember reading about this. You probably mean William Edward White. ESPN had a story about him some time ago ( which was picked up by the WSJ).There is a record of him playing in one game in 1879 but really not much else is documented. If he was the first, he would also be the only former slave to play major league ball. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=17233…— September 7, 2009 10:15 a.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
Surfpuppy, The piece of land O'Malley wanted was one of the problems. He wanted to buy the property at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues in Prospect Heights which is still in Brooklyn. Moses wanted the Dodgers to move out of Brooklyn to Flushing Meadow. He didn't think the Dodger's choice was the right area for that kind of development. Problem two was the city wanted to build and own the stadium, with the Dodgers paying rent. LA was willing to sell Chavez Ravine to O'Malley.End of story. O'Malley's reply: If the Dodgers moved they would be the Flushing Dodgers, not the Brooklyn Dodgers." Coincidently, the New Jersey Nets are SUPPOSED to start breaking ground for thei arena at the same site before the end of the year, but we'll see. Shea Stadium ended being built where Moses had wanted the Dodgers to build. Moses, by the way, is credited with being the MasterBuilder of NYC. From an NYT article: Mr. Moses was close to a number of city, state and Federal Government officials. But with the exception of Gov. Alfred E. Smith, to whom he owed much of his early power, he seemed, to many observers, to be less in debt to governors, mayors and even Presidents than they appeared to be to him. His era of power had begun long before the election of many of the chief executives for whom he worked, and it continued long after many of them had passed from public view. Many officials frequently suggested that they did not know how they could get public projects built without Mr. Moses' help. He often threatened to resign when he did not get his way and, having called most mayors' and governors' bluffs, he usually did get his way - until 1962, when Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, to Mr. Moses' shock, accepted his resignation from several of his positions. Apperently, mosed thought he could beat O"Malley in a showdown.....I guess he was wrong. Bur at least NY got the Mets.— September 6, 2009 4:18 p.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
Gringo, the vote was 8-1. The dissenting vote was M Donald Grant, who later became chairman of the Mets. He was voting on behalf of Joan Whitney Payson. Appeaently he was some sort of "confidante" to her regarding baseball. She was the majority founder of the Mets and hired Grant. Grant is the one who traded Tom Seever because he was "too expensive". I partially agree, sort of, with your assessment of the owners' vote. From what I have read over the years, it seems most likely that single team part of the vote was a feeble attempt to call what they thought was a bluff by Walter O'Malley. O'Malley had originally wanted a new ballpark that would be built, financed and owned by the ballclub but the guy in charge of development, interestingly named Moses, wouldn't play ball, pun intended, because he didn't think the Dodgers would move. Good call on his part. But I think at that point the move was a fait accompli (O'Malley had already sold Ebbets and 2 minor league parks for about $5 million). I belive the league thought that if they made the move contingent upon both teams moving, when O'Malley relented to Moses(lol!!) or Stoneham got what he wanted, then the other team would withdraw their petition. But as I said, by January of '57, Stoneham and O'Malley had pretty much already agreed to move together.— September 6, 2009 2:59 p.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
Let me add a few things to gringo's post. The SF voters approved the $5 million GO bond to be used for construction of a stadium in November of 1954, way before the Dodgers had decided to move, because they wanted a major league team. San Fran already had a pretty good PCL team, the SF Seals., who were bringing in over 600k fans as far back as the 40's so the fan base was there. When the new mayor took office in 1956, he publicly stated that bringing a major leagure team to SF was one of his priorities. Walter O'Malley made his first stop in LA in late '56 on the way to Japan for some exibition games. By Jan. of '57 he and Horace Stoneham both agreed it made more sense for both teams to move at the same time. A few weeks later, O'Malley bought the LA Angels of the PCl, giving him the MLB territorial rights in LA. In May of '57, the NL owners voted to approve both teams moving. They never said the Dodgers couldn't move alone; what they said was that if either team wanted to move alone, they would have to seek permission an there own. In July of '57, Stoneham announced the Giants were moving to SF; in early August the Giants received the "official" offer from SF and on August 18th, the Giants Boeard approved the transfer. Those are the basics. As for the stadium, I guess there's a reason that the SF city people never took Horace Stoneham to the stadium sight in the afternoon; that's when the winds pick up. One thing that people always get wrong though. The Stick isn't really colder than the AT&T. A study was done during the construction and the first season. If showed that the actual temp was within 1-2 degrees of the Stick, without the wind. The problem at Candlestick is that when the wind comes in from the Pacific, it hits the hill to the west of the park, it flows over the hill right down into the park. What used to happen was the wind would come in from right towards home plate and swiorl around and head back out towards left field. After they enclosed the stadium, it got worse and now the wind comes in and just swirls around. I once read an article that said if the stadium had been built as little as 1-20 feet further away from the hill, it's affect would have been greatly diminished. And to anticipate your question, no surfpuppy, I didn't google it. I knew most of it because I own a pretty good book on the Giants, The Original SF Giants - The Giants of 1958.— September 6, 2009 1:42 p.m.
John Moores sinks Padres pay to number 29 of 30 teams
Don, not sure what you mean by the owners screwing up when the Stick was built and the taxpayers paying for it.— September 5, 2009 11:46 p.m.