Report: Redskins Minority Owner Fred Smith Looking to Buy Rams

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2009/06/22/story4.html

This would be pretty huge if he ends up selling his 10% stake in the Redskins and buys the Rams. Smith is, of course, the FedEx Guy whose three biggest contributions arguably are naming the stadium, and bringing Pepper Rodgers and Steve Spurrier here. But of the three main owners (the others being Snyder and Dwight Schar) he's the most financially sound at the moment; and he carries the most clout in the advertising/sponsorship world.

I don't think from an input standpoint, his loss would be as great as losing Dwight Schar as an owner (who I hear is pretty grounded and had as much a role as his good friend Joe Gibbs in helping settle down some of Snyder's impetuous tendencies), but still it would be interesting to see who grabs that 10% ownership should it be available.

One of my wishes is that the Skins get back into DC. How does Smith leaving impact that possibility?

Eh. Pretty meaningless piece of news in my view. Danny's Danny. Pursuit of Cutler and Sanchez shows nobody can tone him down unless the decision-making is contractually obligated to someone else - a la Gibbs 2.0.

Yeah I didn't mean to imply it would have any major impact on the majority ownership of the team. Just that it will be interesting to see who might emerge as another minority owner. First names that would come to mind are Leonsis and Gibbs...neither of whom I think would be the guys quite honestly.

freddyg12:

Danny Boy owns Fed Ex; he pays zero dollars in lease costs. He has about 10 more years of greatly reduced real estate tax to pay to PG County. Fed Ex seats almost 90K fans.

If the Skins wanted to go back to DC, Danny Boy has two choices:


1. He can build his own new stadium. Jack Kent Cooke built this one so he can do that if he wants. A modern stadium seating 90K fans costs more than $1B these days; ask Jerry Jones for details here. Then he would still own his stadium and not have to pay lease costs to anyone. But will he get the same real estate tax deal from DC? And is he ready to "go to the hip" to the tune of $1B??? Stock at Six Flags will have to go up a whole lot...


2. He can spend the next ten years kissing every politico's butt in DC to get them to appropriate about $1B of DC money to build the stadium for him wherein he will then owe them lease costs. Oh, and if they build it, they get to say what is in it, not Danny Boy. Now he would have lease costs but no real estate tax to pay. And he would still have that $1B in his pocket. But he would have chapped lips from all the butt-kissing that it would take to get the necessary votes in the City Council.


So, tell me why it makes sense for him to do either of those things as long as Fed Ex draws 70,000+ to all the regular season games? Where the Skins play now and in the future is all a matter of $$$. And until someone comes up with a way to build a new $1B stadium for nowhere near that amount of money out of Danny Boy's pocketbook, they aren't going anywhere...


Check back in 10-15 years.

SmootSmack:

Other potential bidders for the Rams - or maybe parnters for Smith? - include Stan Kroncke (sp?) who already owns a nice chunk of the team, Dave Checketts and Rush Limbaugh.

Suppose you had the exclusive tape of the first meeting between Al Davis and Rush Limbaugh as the new owner of the Rams. Do you think you could get any mileage out of that transcript? YOWZA!

Yeah I didn't mean to imply it would have any major impact on the majority ownership of the team. Just that it will be interesting to see who might emerge as another minority owner. First names that would come to mind are Leonsis and Gibbs...neither of whom I think would be the guys quite honestly.

Those would be two great names to have in the mix, even though I don't see it happening! If we could only get that lucky.

You guys think Danny will try to outdo Jerry Jones on a new stadium?

Let's pass the hat a few million times and buy up that 10%

;)

I got $5 lol