Former NFL executive Eric Grubman had a role in the actual and threatened relocation of multiple franchises. He denies that he’s currently trying, while no longer employed by the league, to move a team back to one of the markets the NFL vacated.
Appearing on the Mighty 1090 in San Diego, Grubman denied a report from Mike Freeman of Bleacher Report that Grubman is trying to move a team back to the former home of the Chargers. That echoes Grubman’s quote to Vincent Bonsignore of the L.A. Daily News, saying it’s “completely and utterly bogus information” having "[z]ero merit.”
Freeman didn’t back off despite the denial: “I feel very confident that what I was told was accurate.
I also feel very strongly about something else I was told,” Freeman said, adding that Grubman has told people he’s involved in trying to take a team to San Diego. “San Diego is NOT off the market for an NFL team.”
San Diego shouldn’t be off the market. It’s a major-league city that simply wasn’t able or willing to finance a new stadium for the Chargers. If the stadium can be privately financed or if the powers-that-be will come up with the funding, San Diego could attract a team from a city where a new stadium is needed and the public money isn’t available.
So which teams would be in play? Basically, any that currently need or that soon will need a new stadium, and that don’t believe public money will be available. If, in the end, ownership will have to pay for its own stadium, building it San Diego may be regarded as preferable to paying for a stadium in the team’s current market.
