Handful of Owners Resisting Parameters of New Deal

Let us look back at how Fed Ex Field came into existence.

Jack Kent Cooke wanted to build a stadium and put his name on it - - not sell naming rights. He tried to get land and zoning changes through the District government for about ten years offering a deal that he would pay for the stadium if they gave him the land and upgraded the road access to the stadium. The DC government never got around to doing anything thinking that he had nowhere else to go but to stay in RFK Stadium. [To those who think FedEx is old and out of date, you should have seen RFK...]

Cooke tried to get a deal done for a site in Alexandria VA but was stopped by a grass roots uprising there. He also looked at a site in Laurel MD; I do not recall what the stumbling block to construction there was.

After years of trying to get Cooke's attention, PG County contacted him at the height of his frustration. He was not getting any younger and if he was going to see his new stadium with his name on it before he croaked, he had to get moving.

Cooke and PG County came to a deal for land and road access; Cooke would build the stadium and he promised that the Redskins would play in that stadium or another stadium in PG County for a specified period of time. [I think that period of time was 30 years meaning the Redskins are "locked into" playing in PG County until about 2025 without a whole lot of legal wrangling.]

Because Cooke was old and wanted to see his stadium up and running before he died, Jack Kent Cooke Stadium was built fast and lots of corners were cut in order to get the stadium done as soon as possible. Cooke also wanted his stadium to be the biggest in the NFL so they built it big.

But the combination of "big" with "fast construction to get the job done ASAP" along with meager road access made Jack Kent Cooke Stadium a disappointing venue the day it opened. There have been changes to the stadium in the Danny Boy era, but adding amenities to Fed Ex Field is more like putting lipstick on a pig than anything else.

As with the ESPN ranking of the Redskins franchise almost at the bottom of the list for sports franchises, FedEx Field is indeed one of the worst stadium experiences in the NFL. Yes, there are worse; the stadiums in Oakland, New Orleans, Buffalo and Minnesota are more than bleak. But Fed Ex Field is clearly in the bottom 25% of the NFL stadiums and the likelihood that will change significantly in the next 5-10 years is small.

Kinda off topic but I wonder why Cooke was so hard pressed for a new staduim? He knew he wasn't going to be around for many more years and he knew he wasn't leaving the team to his son John.

Lockout: Sources reveal details of proposed NFL CBA - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6687485)

Lockout: Sources reveal details of proposed NFL CBA - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6687485)

lol Damn SS almost same time

If the low rev teams can't keep up then they need to sell their team and let it move where it can work in my opinion. Sorry but Ralph Wilson and Mike Brown do the bare minimum to market their team and generate revenue and I don't see why the other owners, the players or fans should suffer the loss of football because they are asshats. Let's remember...Mike Brown is no "Captain of Industry" he inherited the team and Wilson has run a virtual sweatshop for decades. Sorry but when the other 80% of the league is raking in cash and trying to advance the product and barnd I have no sympathy for those that are mucking it all up by half-assing it.

This is excellent news (from Schefter's FB Page):

"Adam Schefter
More at ESPN: If and when agreement is reached, all players with 4, 5 and 6 years of service are expected to be unrestricted free agents."

He's not tied to it in the way you're referring other than by the fact that it is relatively new for a stadium. It's only now getting into it's middle age period.

And the thing that is keeping him in the stadium more than anything is the implosion in the real estate market (since cities have figured out that stadiums are not the revenue generators they are made out to be). That land is worth a mint 10 years ago. Enough to build him a new stadium. Now...not so much.

Not all stadiums generate revenue but I'm FedEx brings in pretty good money for the 8 to 10 games palyed there. You to remember all the taxes raised off food, rooms, beer, etc... for 90,000 people. Also that land 10 yrs back was in the middle of the shit and I'd say its worth allot more today then back when the stadium was built.

48% sounds good to me. Im guessin they are going to agree to something in this ballpark so why not make it happen in the next few weeks instead of fighting for the next few months over a percent or 2.

1-2 percent would be hundreds of thousands of dollars, right?

Not all stadiums generate revenue but I'm FedEx brings in pretty good money for the 8 to 10 games palyed there. You to remember all the taxes raised off food, rooms, beer, etc... for 90,000 people. Also that land 10 yrs back was in the middle of the shit and I'd say its worth allot more today then back when the stadium was built.

What matters is how much it is worth today. He'd need the cash from it to fund building a new stadium. If he can't sell it for enough then he'll have to find other sources of funding. And the point is that cities aren't chomping at the bit to throw a bunch of money towards stadium construction/"urban renewal" projects since the revenue generated by the "renewal" has shown to be far less than expected in many cases around the country.