Officially, the proposal made by Floyd Kephart for bridging the gap between the private contributions toward the cost of a new Raiders stadium and the total price tag for the building has not been released. Unofficially, the media has obtained a copy of it -- and the early reviews aren’t good.
Matthew Artz of the Bay Area News Group reports that proposal includes a suggestion that the team sell a 20-percent stake to Kephart’s company, New City Development, for $200 million. That reflects an assessment that the franchise is worth $1 billion, which seems pretty light.
Marc Ganis, a long-time league consultant on stadium matters describes the overall proposal as a very bad one.
“This is not just the worst stadium proposal I’ve seen,” Ganis said. “It’s the worst by far.”
The proposal is so bad that Ganis views it as an invitation by the local government for the Raiders to leave. And with a much more viable proposal in the L.A. area to share a stadium with the Chargers in Carson, the Raiders may be ready to accept.
Assuming that Raiders owner Mark Davis agrees with Ganis and gives the project a thumb’s down.
Then question then would be whether Carson can beat Inglewood in the race to build a new L.A.-area stadium. And if Inglewood wins, the current partners in Carson could suddenly be racing for the second seat at the table with the Rams.
