Ken, It Is Really Happening!

[anacostiakat]

New ownership for our Washington Commanders!  I'll rest easy once the ransom is actually paid.  Great new ownership.  Fanbase is going wild.

[SCgarman]

With 6 billion in his pocket Snyder will be laughing all the way to the bank. Will it make any difference whether they win or lose? Absolutely not. The team has been an embarrassment for most of Snyder's ownership. Quite a Rollercoaster ride for the fans. I wish you all best of luck. I used to reside in the area, but much enjoy my new home in Myrtle, SC. 

[LizardGizmo]

It’s wild how ridiculously valuable an NFL franchise is, even if you do your absolute worst with it.

Snyder bought the team for a couple hundred million bucks 20 years ago. Then he ran it into the ground, cut a ton of corners, and was generally the laughing stock of the league from an ownership perspective - and it still appreciated to $6 billion. Lunacy.

Congrats to Washington fans. Should be huge for the future of the team with Snyder gone.

[anacostiakat]

It is amazing that you can run something into the ground and still make a killing selling it.  Reminds me a bit of Rodney Dangerfield who said something to the effect that he did not understand prostitution.  You have something and you sell it.  But you still have it.  

[SCgarman]

1 hour ago, anacostiakat said:

It is amazing that you can run something into the ground and still make a killing selling it.  Reminds me a bit of Rodney Dangerfield who said something to the effect that he did not understand prostitution.  You have something and you sell it.  But you still have it.  

Quite the parallel eh? Running our country into the ground, and at the same time selling it out to another country! 

[alloy]

All I have to say....AMEN!!!!!

[Çnote]

14 hours ago, anacostiakat said:

New ownership for our Washington Commanders!  I'll rest easy once the ransom is actually paid.  Great new ownership.  Fanbase is going wild.

I'm only liking this as your use of a Wire screenshot is perfect.

As a Cowboy fan, I only hope your dumpster fire burns hotter and brighter.

[MrBirdman]

Josh Davis isn’t gonna be much better. Everyone here in Philly hates his guts. My father - who has no tolerance for antisemites whatsoever - has said some shockingly “non-PC” things about Harris which are not suitable for print. (He is a sixers fan and feels people like Harris give all Jews a bad name.) 

He’s a guy with this much scratch who wants Philly to pay for a new sixers stadium (his implied long term threat is moving them to Jersey). Scumbag. Should fit right in with most people at the NFL owners meetings. 

[Corylax18]

They desperately need a new stadium as well, but that wont open until the 2026 season at the earliest. I wouldn't be surprised if they bounce along the bottom (spending and winning wise) for the next couple seasons while they get the new stadium and completely new branding figured it out. It would make sense to cut ties from the "Commies" name and FedEx field at the same time. 

6 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

Josh Davis isn’t gonna be much better. Everyone here in Philly hates his guts. My father - who has no tolerance for antisemites whatsoever - has said some shockingly “non-PC” things about Harris which are not suitable for print. (He is a sixers fan and feels people like Harris give all Jews a bad name.) 

He’s a guy with this much scratch who wants Philly to pay for a new sixers stadium (his implied long term threat is moving them to Jersey). Scumbag. Should fit right in with most people at the NFL owners meetings. 

Fans hating their team's owners is a past time as old as sports. Ask any Avalanche fan how they feel about the Kronke's (despite the fact they won the Stanley cup last year), its the same with any of the Teams the Kronke family owns. Ask any Rockies fan how they feel about the Monfort's, I've never hears anyone say a single positive word about them. 

I'm a Giants fan and I think the Mara's (John in particular) are way out of their element. They've made some good choices in the last couple years, but that was after a decade of making objectively stupid decisions, over and over again. I remember my grandfather bitching about them when I was like 6 years old. Haha. 

[MrBirdman]

45 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

They desperately need a new stadium as well, but that wont open until the 2026 season at the earliest. I wouldn't be surprised if they bounce along the bottom (spending and winning wise) for the next couple seasons while they get the new stadium and completely new branding figured it out. It would make sense to cut ties from the "Commies" name and FedEx field at the same time. 

Fans hating their team's owners is a past time as old as sports. Ask any Avalanche fan how they feel about the Kronke's (despite the fact they won the Stanley cup last year), its the same with any of the Teams the Kronke family owns. Ask any Rockies fan how they feel about the Monfort's, I've never hears anyone say a single positive word about them. 

I'm a Giants fan and I think the Mara's (John in particular) are way out of their element. They've made some good choices in the last couple years, but that was after a decade of making objectively stupid decisions, over and over again. I remember my grandfather bitching about them when I was like 6 years old. Haha. 

True enough, though it's often merited and, in Philly, not really true. Lurie is very popular here - Ed Snyder was too, at least for Flyers fans (he didn't care about basketball). Frankly Middleton is a popular owner here as well because he took over a Phillies team that constantly cheaped out on payroll and was willing to start shelling out to win instead of milking the team for money (see: Pirates ownership, the lowest of the low in baseball). The Phillies relative lack of success is down to abysmal drafting - ironically the one thing they did really well under the old regime.

So maybe we're spoiled here - doesn't change that Harris is a detestable jerk. He likes to make a big deal of promising to pay for the sixers new stadium now, but that's only because City Council told him unequivocally that he wouldn't get a dime to build another stadium. Still getting tax breaks though. BS. But he's hardly alone there among entitled team owners.

[MrBirdman]

35 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

They desperately need a new stadium as well, but that wont open until the 2026 season at the earliest.

Fedex field is a dump of course, but if paying $6 billion doesn't convince government that these guys don't actually need the money nothing will.

[Corylax18]

1 minute ago, MrBirdman said:

Fedex field is a dump of course, but if paying $6 billion doesn't convince government that these guys don't actually need the money nothing will.

Public Stadium funding has never been need based. Again, look at what the Kronke's did. They essentially said "pay for the stadium or we're leaving." St. Louis refused, and they left. Owners across all the major sports use the same leverage. Mark Davis did it in Oakland, although I think that was justified. Huge sewage leaks during games seems like a fair enough reason to want out. Same thing in San Diego, that stadium would flood during the one Rain storm per year in San Diego. No politician wants their name tied to a sports team leaving a city. People in Both Oakland and San Diego were pissed, but all three of those teams that moved are in much better situations now. 

This was the result of a mere 4.2 inches of rain, spread over a week. The stadium wasn't even accessible:

15 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

see: Pirates ownership, the lowest of the low in baseball

See: Rockies ownership, at or below the league average in salay cap every year. they stack 80-90 loss seasons like its their job. But the stadium is FULL for every Yankees Game, every Red Sox Game, every Dodgers game. Coors field however is a beautiful, wonderful place to spend a summer afternoon. The rooftop bar may be the best way to watch a game in all of professional sports. 

[KCCubano]

49 minutes ago, Corylax18 said:

Public Stadium funding has never been need based. Again, look at what the Kronke's did. They essentially said "pay for the stadium or we're leaving." St. Louis refused, and they left. Owners across all the major sports use the same leverage. Mark Davis did it in Oakland, although I think that was justified. Huge sewage leaks during games seems like a fair enough reason to want out. Same thing in San Diego, that stadium would flood during the one Rain storm per year in San Diego. No politician wants their name tied to a sports team leaving a city. People in Both Oakland and San Diego were pissed, but all three of those teams that moved are in much better situations now. 

This was the result of a mere 4.2 inches of rain, spread over a week. The stadium wasn't even accessible:

See: Rockies ownership, at or below the league average in salay cap every year. they stack 80-90 loss seasons like its their job. But the stadium is FULL for every Yankees Game, every Red Sox Game, every Dodgers game. Coors field however is a beautiful, wonderful place to spend a summer afternoon. The rooftop bar may be the best way to watch a game in all of professional sports. 

Agree on Coors Field. Lived up in Conifer for many years and went to several games each  season. Great venue! 

[MrBirdman]

1 hour ago, Corylax18 said:

Rockies ownership,

We can agree to disagree on who is worse. The Pirates are routinely in the bottom three of payroll. 

1 hour ago, Corylax18 said:

Public Stadium funding has never been need based. Again, look at what the Kronke's did. They essentially said "pay for the stadium or we're leaving." St. Louis refused, and they left. Owners across all the major sports use the same leverage. Mark Davis did it in Oakland, although I think that was justified. Huge sewage leaks during games seems like a fair enough reason to want out. Same thing in San Diego, that stadium would flood during the one Rain storm per year in San Diego. No politician wants their name tied to a sports team leaving a city. People in Both Oakland and San Diego were pissed, but all three of those teams that moved are in much better situations now. 

This was the result of a mere 4.2 inches of rain, spread over a week. The stadium wasn't even accessible:

See: Rockies ownership, at or below the league average in salay cap every year. they stack 80-90 loss seasons like its their job. But the stadium is FULL for every Yankees Game, every Red Sox Game, every Dodgers game. Coors field however is a beautiful, wonderful place to spend a summer afternoon. The rooftop bar may be the best way to watch a game in all of professional sports. 

Yes, I think we’re all aware of why these stadiums actually get public money. But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t or couldn’t be a paradigm shift where cities either stop paying or stop paying as much, or at the very least start getting ownership and better terms when they do. Granted, some smaller cities will always be at the mercy of owners threatening to move. But DC area governments fighting to move the team a short hop into their state is silly. And there are teams that realistically won’t be relocated because they’re too closely tied to the region. That admittedly is why Philly had leverage with the Sixers. Places in the middle of the country have tougher decisions to make in that regard. But that doesn’t mean they have to get screwed. And the fact is that when these questions are put to the public they often would rather the team leave rather than subsidize billionaires. I haven’t heard of anyone getting voted out of office in San Diego for the football team leaving. So hopefully politicians are realizing the prospect of being voted out of office for this is quite minor.

[BoliDan]

13 hours ago, SCgarman said:

With 6 billion in his pocket Snyder will be laughing all the way to the bank. Will it make any difference whether they win or lose? Absolutely not. The team has been an embarrassment for most of Snyder's ownership. Quite a Rollercoaster ride for the fans. I wish you all best of luck. I used to reside in the area, but much enjoy my new home in Myrtle, SC. 

Exactly. Snyder took advantage of his cult following and kept the team cheap so he could reap profits no matter is every season is doomed. He is an absolute PoS of a human too. Good riddance. I'm not even Washington fan. Just a Snyder hater.

[Corylax18]

22 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

We can agree to disagree on who is worse. The Pirates are routinely in the bottom three of payroll. 

Yes, I think we’re all aware of why these stadiums actually get public money. But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t or couldn’t be a paradigm shift where cities either stop paying or stop paying as much, or at the very least start getting ownership and better terms when they do. Granted, some smaller cities will always be at the mercy of owners threatening to move. But DC area governments fighting to move the team a short hop into their state is silly. And there are teams that realistically won’t be relocated because they’re too closely tied to the region. That admittedly is why Philly had leverage with the Sixers. Places in the middle of the country have tougher decisions to make in that regard. But that doesn’t mean they have to get screwed. And the fact is that when these questions are put to the public they often would rather the team leave rather than subsidize billionaires. I haven’t heard of anyone getting voted out of office in San Diego for the football team leaving. So hopefully politicians are realizing the prospect of being voted out of office for this is quite minor.

You and I are in full agreement that regular people should not be subsidizing the businesses of Billionaires. Unfortunately, its the way of the world, not just the sports world. Hidden in all the headlines about Oil Companies record profits last fiscal year is the fact that fossil fuels received roughly 6 Trillion USD in subsidies during that fiscal year. Paying them to continue lying to us about climate change makes even less sense than paying for a billionaire's new edifice to Himself, but it happens all day, every day. All around the world. 

There are three pretty high profile examples of governments telling teams where to stick it, but the reality is that the leverage is very affective, most of the time. Your example of the DC area governments competing with each other to see who can get the worst deal is a good one. I simply cant understand it. Meanwhile, the rusting shell of RFK stadium is still there, sucking up taxpayer dollars for "maintenance."  Apparently, they're starting to dismantle it, but all the framework for a great stadium complex is already there. 

[Ken Gargett]

On 4/15/2023 at 2:53 PM, SCgarman said:

With 6 billion in his pocket Snyder will be laughing all the way to the bank. Will it make any difference whether they win or lose? Absolutely not. The team has been an embarrassment for most of Snyder's ownership. Quite a Rollercoaster ride for the fans. I wish you all best of luck. I used to reside in the area, but much enjoy my new home in Myrtle, SC. 

i agree with most of the comments here but not this one - it might turn out that way but to suggest that owners can't make a difference is so obviously wrong. so many examples. start here - under jack kent cooke, the team was a force. one of the great franchises. winning and contesting superbowls. from the moment that wizened little half-orc synder got hold of it, down it went. hardly coincidence. the patriots were the joke team of the nfl when i lived in the states. kraft came in during the early 90s and they became the most successful franchise since then.

i know little about the new guys (i gather that magic is considered a very good administrator) but as much as they might not be liked (seriously, hands up if you like any sports team owner - we all think we could do better if we had the readies), i gather that they have a record of improving their teams and making them contenders. honestly, you could install the corpse of bin laden and it would be an upgrade. 

anyway, if nothing else, it will give the team, region and fans a big boost. just have to see how far it goes. 

as for stadiums, i miss RFK. what a place. but of course they will seek public funds. they don't get rich by being stupid or timid. but the various authorities must make a decision as to whether the spending of those funds is in the interests of constituents (granted many will make that decision based on whether it garners them votes). does it bring in funds to the region?

if not, don't spend the money. they might lose the team but it is swings and roundabouts. you want an nfl team, you pay the dosh.  

but seriously, whatever happens, if they have finally squeezed the boil that is synder, nothing but good awaits. 

[SCgarman]

9 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i agree with most of the comments here but not this one - it might turn out that way but to suggest that owners can't make a difference is so obviously wrong. so many examples. start here - under jack kent cooke, the team was a force. one of the great franchises. winning and contesting superbowls. from the moment that wizened little half-orc synder got hold of it, down it went. hardly coincidence. the patriots were the joke team of the nfl when i lived in the states. kraft came in during the early 90s and they became the most successful franchise since then.

i know little about the new guys (i gather that magic is considered a very good administrator) but as much as they might not be liked (seriously, hands up if you like any sports team owner - we all think we could do better if we had the readies), i gather that they have a record of improving their teams and making them contenders. honestly, you could install the corpse of bin laden and it would be an upgrade. 

anyway, if nothing else, it will give the team, region and fans a big boost. just have to see how far it goes. 

as for stadiums, i miss RFK. what a place. but of course they will seek public funds. they don't get rich by being stupid or timid. but the various authorities must make a decision as to whether the spending of those funds is in the interests of constituents (granted many will make that decision based on whether it garners them votes). does it bring in funds to the region?

if not, don't spend the money. they might lose the team but it is swings and roundabouts. you want an nfl team, you pay the dosh.  

but seriously, whatever happens, if they have finally squeezed the boil that is synder, nothing but good awaits. 

Apparently the team is no longer happy being in FedEx field. I don't know why? When newly built it was a state of the art stadium. Do they want to play inside the city limits again? Those days may be long gone. Of course one always wants what one cannot have. 

[Ken Gargett]

12 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Apparently the team is no longer happy being in FedEx field. I don't know why? When newly built it was a state of the art stadium. Do they want to play inside the city limits again? Those days may be long gone. Of course one always wants what one cannot have. 

originally it took 90,000 plus - which at the time was the biggest in the nfl - but for some reason they reduced capacity down to 60,000 (probably because too many of the opposition fans were turning up or ir was embarrassing that they could not fill it - in jack kent cooke and gibbs day, the place was literally sold out around a decade ahead. which i would argue was more evidence of the positive state that can be attained with a good owner).  

but the state of the art stadium is now 30 years old. things have progressed considerably. it is now badly out of date. why wouldn't players want their team's stadium to be the best in the league, or at least as good as possible? who wants to play in a dump? RFK was a bit different as it was a bit quirky and the fans loved it and opposition teams hated it and you could get parts of the stadium to bounce. it was, as they said, "our dump". plus, we had a strong winning record there. fed ex? not so much. plus they simply want to do everything they can to rid the team of the stench of dan. they are talking another name change, but that cannot happen for several years. there won't be much left of the front office. the coaches will survive this year - too late to change - but they'll need to win or they are also gone for certain. 

did love one stat i saw this morning that the team really need to take advantage of - salaries for the four QBs in the division - 

Jalen Hurts (thru 2028) - 5 yrs, $255M (179.304M gtd)
Dak Prescott (thru 2024) - 4 for $160M ($126M gtd)
Daniel Jones (thru 2026) - 4 for $160M ($105M gtd)
Sam Howell (thru 2025) - 4 for $4.021M ($361K gtd)

that is one serious discrepancy. 

[Corylax18]

On 4/17/2023 at 6:42 PM, Ken Gargett said:

Jalen Hurts (thru 2028) - 5 yrs, $255M (179.304M gtd)
Dak Prescott (thru 2024) - 4 for $160M ($126M gtd)
Daniel Jones (thru 2026) - 4 for $160M ($105M gtd)
Sam Howell (thru 2025) - 4 for $4.021M ($361K gtd)

that is one serious discrepancy. 

The 49ers made it to the NFC championship game (and may have won if not for injury) with a guy making even less than Howell. 4 Years, $3,7 million, with a measly $77K guaranteed for "Mr. Irrelevant" Brock Purdy.  Meanwhile Aaron Rodgers was making nearly $60 million last year and the Packers finished 3rd in their division and didn't even make the playoffs. Over paying a quarterback doesn't mean jack squat when it comes to winning, often its actually a deterrent. The more you have to spend on everybody else, the better. 

On 4/15/2023 at 10:41 AM, Corylax18 said:

Owners across all the major sports use the same leverage. Mark Davis did it in Oakland, although I think that was justified. Huge sewage leaks during games seems like a fair enough reason to want out.

What has been known for a couple years now has become official, the Oakland A's will be the Las Vegas A's in 2025 or 26. They just Purchased 49 acres across I-15 from The strip and have already started development plans for the new stadium. Las Vegas has already promised $500 million in tax incentives and started work on creating a new room occupancy tax to help pay for. That's 3 major sports teams in less than a decade. The Golden Knights where an expansion team, but Oakland choose to let both their pro teams walk. Up next, an NBA team. Superbowl week in Vegas was always crazy, but with the game actually being in Vegas, Its going to be insane. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oakland-s-agree-buy-land-las-vegas-hope-build-stadium-2027-season-rcna80637

https://www.casino.org/vitalvegas/confirmed-oakland-as-reportedly-moving-to-las-vegas/

[gangus]

Crazy return on investment for such a poorly run organization