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Seven years since Paul Tagliabue wondered what the Super Bowl was doing at Qualcomm Stadium and six years since he described San Diego’s stadium issue as “urgent,” progress can still be measured in teaspoons rather than shovels.
One difference: the NFL now has a commissioner who understands diplomacy and patience.
Roger Goodell appeared at the NFL’s rookie symposium Sunday night without insulting his hosts or demanding tribute on behalf of the Chargers. Goodell can be firm where Tagliabue was sometimes flimsy, but he took a soft-sell stance during a brief media interrogation.
“I don’t think it is a coincidence that you haven’t seen a new stadium that has been approved and built since 2006,” Goodell said. “It’s a challenge.”
Few American enterprises have been better at diverting public dollars to private pockets than the NFL, and fewer still have the temerity to characterize nine-digit subsidies as “public/private partnerships.” But as Detroit’s auto executives learned upon taking private jets to seek government bailouts, humility is critical in seeking handouts.
Extorting stadium deals through threats to relocate worked wonderfully for the NFL during more prosperous times. In this economy, though, it pays to be solicitous rather than smug. In this town, at this time, having Roger Goodell at the NFL’s helm instead of Tagliabue could prove a critical difference.
For all his accomplishments, and as much as he enriched the owners who installed him as Pete Rozelle’s successor, Tagliabue became a local pariah on Jan. 24, 2003 when he declared (two days before Super Bowl XXXVII) that, “I’m surprised that we are here this week.”
Didn’t anyone teach that man manners?
“If it weren’t for Alex (Spanos) impressing upon the committee and upon the membership the importance of coming back here from his perspective, I don’t think that San Diego would have been on the top of the list of most owners who were considering Super Bowl sites,” Tagliabue said. “So I don’t think the outlook is promising.”
What was generally understood then is painfully apparent now — that there will be no more Super Bowls in San Diego unless the Chargers are able to sell a new state-of-the-art stadium. But there are a lot of ways to express that reality without demeaning the host city.
Whether any of that impacted the Chargers’ stadium campaign is speculative, but so much of politics is personality that it’s hard to imagine any deal getting done with Tagliabue in office. Even now, the Chargers may be hard-pressed to get their latest idea airborne because the NFL’s G3 funding mechanism has expired and the prospect of a lockout looms for 2011.
It says here, however, that Goodell improves the odds.
“Whatever role I can play that would be productive, I’m willing to try,” he said.
Away from a podium, Goodell speaks softly and introduces himself by name to reporters who have no doubt as to his identity. Maybe it’s an act, but it has its charm. Though his time is carefully budgeted by his PR handlers, he manages to appear unhurried.
On the competing stadium initiatives in Los Angeles:
“I think there’s a lot more work that needs to be done,” he said. “At the end of the day, we’re probably at a very early stage. I think it’s promising that there are alternatives developing, but there’s still a big hurdle to get these (stadiums) financed and built. They are difficult projects to get done.”
On the situation in San Diego:
“I think, again, it’s a positive development from last week with respect to the community looking for a solution,” he said in reference to the city council’s authorizing of a redevelopment study. “But these stadiums are very complicated and … a solution has to be developed that can work for the community and work for the team. And there’s really no cookie-cutter here. There are a lot of compelling issues on a local basis and from a team standpoint that have to be considered. They’re big developments.”
So if the San Francisco 49ers commit $493 million of private money to get a stadium built in Santa Clara, should San Diego expect a similar contribution?
“Why?” Goodell asked. “Look at the 31 (NFL) markets. Every one of the projects, I think, is developed locally. It has its own elements that are driven by community issues. Some need to have more convention facilities. Some are part of broader developments that are important to the city. So I don’t think you can assume because it’s done in one market (it should happen in another), because they’re all significantly different.”
The 49ers’ project is predicated on the sale of personal seat licenses, a financing option the Chargers say won’t work in the smaller San Diego market. It also assumes a league contribution that will need to be negotiated as part of the next collective bargaining agreement with the players association.
Whenever that happens.
“There will be an agreement at some point,” Goodell said. “Everyone would like it sooner rather than later. I think it’s important that we all get down and get a more productive dialogue. Sometimes these things don’t happen until you get closer (to a deadline). That’s just the reality.”
The same is true of stadium deals. Roger Goodell seems to understand that it pays to stay cool until things get hot.
