Quote:Spanos didn't want to stay at all. He saw the increase in value the Rams got from moving back to LA and wanted a piece of that action before the Raiders got there. He made a token effort to build a new stadium in San Diego but a deal where the city would paid $1.1 billion of a $1.5 billion and the city (as well as the voters) rightly told him to sod off. 

I don't know if I buy this Spanos never wanting to stay hypothetical.

 

I know there has been a need for a new stadium in San Diego for quite some time.  Jack Murphy/Qualcomm/whatever that stadium is now called is almost as old as I am, if not older.  I know he had been trying to get a new stadium for a long time, and the L.A. market has been available for 20 years.

 

If he simply wanted to bolt (no pun intended) to Los Angeles, he could have negotiated his own stadium deal and done it himself years ago.

 

While many find the public financing of stadiums repugnant, and while recent history has shown some recent examples of nearly completely privately financed stadiums (save infrastructure like road, sewer, etc.), history has shown that in most instances where cities let their stadiums become dilapidated, they end up losing the team.

 

Fortunately Jacksonville has been largely proactive/cooperative in helping to make Everbank field a top facility.  They need to continue being proactive in stadium issues, including preparing for the day the stadium needs to be rebuilt/a new stadium needs construction.

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