• Knabe Talks State of County at Cerritos Republicans Club Annual BBQ —The Patch.com
LA is in a 17-year lockout from pro football
Joe McDonnel, Fox Sports West
July 18, 2011
For the past four months with the NFL in a labor dispute, fans in 31 different cities have had to think about the possibility of life without football.
For the past 17 years, those in Los Angeles have lived it.
On Dec. 24, 1994, the Los Angeles Rams played the Washington Redskins at Anaheim Stadium. As was the case in most of the games that year, the Rams lost, giving them a 4-12 record and a whole lot of uncertainty going into the offseason. But the question marks weren't about which players to draft, sign as free agents or get rid of before 1995 rolled around. The biggest uncertainty was where the Rams would be playing the next time they strapped on the helmet and pads.
Rumors had been running rampant for nearly a year that owner Georgia Frontiere and her point man John "The Vampire" Shaw had been negotiating with St. Louis to move the storied franchise from Southern California to the Midwest. Frontiere refused comment or giggled whenever the subject of the move was broached. Shaw, who ran the day-to-day operations, never admitted the team was talking with St. Louis, saying always that the first priority was working out a deal to keep the team in Southern California. The Vampire – a nickname I gave him and that he actually liked because he always wanted to have meetings late at night and mysteriously off the record – then spouted the party line on the record. Ad nauseam.
"I'm sure we'll be able to come up with a solution to keep the Rams in Anaheim or maybe even back to Los Angeles," he told me over and over during those meetings, usually held at the old Monty's Steakhouse atop the Westwood Center. "People would crucify me if I was the guy who took the Rams away from their fans. Besides, the Raiders will probably move back to Oakland, and we'll have the whole area to ourselves again. How stupid would it be to abandon LA?"
I was a member of the Rams' radio broadcast team, joining Steve Physioc, Deacon Jones and Jack Snow for that 1994 season. I did the pregame, halftime and postgame shows, plus call-in segments before and after each contest. And I was someone who considered Shaw to be a friend. Still do. He's hard not to like, unless you're working for him or trying to extract some truthful information about his team. Then he could be one of the most difficult and misleading figures in the world.
Sources throughout the Rams' organization kept telling me – off the record – that Shaw and Frontiere had a deal in place to take the team to St. Louis after the '94 season. It would net Frontiere more than $300 million, and a nice chunk of that would go to Shaw. A finder's fee, so to speak. Nothing illegal about it. Frontiere owned the club and had the right to move it, sell it, whatever. Shaw did what his boss asked him to do: find the best possible deal to put the most cash in her pockets. He did his job very well.
Even on the day of that final game on Christmas Eve in 1994, Shaw denied that any decision to relocate had been made. He said he would come on the postgame talk show, take questions from me and take calls from the listeners. I promoted it heavily during the pregame show and throughout the game. An early Christmas present: Shaw finally would address the rumors.
Shaw turned out to be football's Ebenezer Scrooge.
The Vampire flew off immediately after the final gun and never explained why he had lied about coming on the program. I eventually signed off by saying, "I don't know where the Rams will be playing in 1995, but if it's here, we'll join you for the first exhibition game next August. If not, this has been the final broadcast in the history of the Los Angeles Rams."
I walked out of Anaheim Stadium that evening in a daze. Shaw's no-show cemented – in my mind – that the deal with St. Louis was done and that the Rams were gone. Within a few months, this became fact. In addition, the Raiders did indeed return to Oakland.
And that's where we still stand today, 17 years later. No pro football in LA.
AEG and its president and CEO Tim Leiweke have a plan in place to build a showplace stadium right in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The NFL is ready to move one and possibly two teams into the area – if and when a new stadium is completed. Ed Roski also is trying to build a stadium in the City of Industry, but the league is behind the AEG plan.
Citizens of Los Angeles take pride in the city's sports teams. Most cities with pro franchises or big-time collegiate programs do. Stadiums are being built all the time – just go to San Diego or San Francisco and check out the baseball facilities. There's no reason it can't happen here as well.
Think of how many full- and part- time jobs would be created with the return of pro football. It could give an immediate boost to the city's coffers and to area businesses. While the politicians who speak out against the project talk about culture and how there will be more use of and interest in another museum or arts center, many Angelinos will tell you they want to see the NFL back before they die.
I say we give it to them. Now. Let's give AEG what it needs to get the project done. It's got a successful track record in working with the city (Remember a little building called Staples Center?), and if it says it's going to do something, I have faith that it will.
Go to the TOP
Knabe Talks State of County at Cerritos Republicans Club Annual BBQ
Shaun Gerard DeHaan, The Patch.com
July 18, 2011
The NFL in LA County
On a lighter note, Knabe talked about the two possible NFL franchises that may be coming to Los Angeles. There are currently two proposed stadiums, one backed by AEG and Farmers Insurance in Downtown Los Angeles, and the other in San Gabriel Valley backed by Ed Roski.
“It's a battle between AEG and Ed Roski, the bottom line there is whoever gets the team first wins," Knabe said. "Roski's got his plans approved, he can put a shovel in the ground tomorrow. Leiweke (CEO of AEG) and those guys have a lot of work to do downtown yet, trying to get through the city council.”