Stadium broker on the defense

Coliseum-project planner lashes out at NFL’s criticism

OAKLAND — Floyd Kephart, the businessman seen as Oakland’s best chance to keep the Raiders, found himself on the spot Wednesday as his shadowy efforts to build a stadium drew criticism from the NFL and impatience from the city’s mayor.

In an early morning speech to a business group, Kephart lashed out at the league’s top stadium official for telling a Southern California radio station that the city’s stadium plan had “gone backwards.”

“Every time he comes, there is a backward step,” Kephart said of NFL Executive Vice President Eric

Grubman, who was in Oakland last week. “And if he would just stay the hell out of here, we might actually get a deal done.”

Kephart also dismissed the city of Carson’s approval this week of a $ 1.7 billion football stadium 17 miles south of downtown Los Angeles for the Raiders and San Diego Chargers, saying it is nothing more than a ploy to extract concessions out of Oakland and San Diego.

“The chances of the Raiders and Chargers joining together and having a stadium in Carson is about the same as you watching me levitate out of here right now,” Kephart said.

Mayor Libby Schaaf quickly distanced herself from Kephart’s comments about Grubman.

“I agree with the NFL. This is not moving fast enough,” she said. “We are also anxious for the Raiders and Kephart to come up with a project.”

While Kephart doesn’t speak for Oakland, he has an exclusive contract with the city and Alameda County to put together financing for a multibillion- dollar transformation of the 120- acre Coliseum complex into a dense urban center with thousands of homes, shops, offices, a hotel and room for new football and baseball stadiums.

The proposal has the support of the City Council, but Kephart has not received a commitment from the Raiders and has been rejected by the Oakland A’s. He also hasn’t shown how the project would be funded or whether it is financially viable.

Unlike many cities that have kept their NFL teams, Oakland is unwilling to help pay for construction of a new stadium estimated to cost about $ 1 billion. Instead, it wants profits from the homes, shops and offices to help fund the stadium — an approach that NFL officials have opposed.

While the NFL’s Grubman wasn’t specific in his criticisms of Oakland’s efforts during a Tuesday radio interview on 980- AM in Los Angeles, he indicated that he had more confidence in San Diego’s relatively recent push to get a stadium built for the Chargers than Oakland’s Coliseum City initiative that began in 2012. “I have had multiple visits to Oakland,” Grubman said in the interview, “and in those visits each of those past three years … I feel like we’ve gone backwards … and that usually doesn’t bode well.”

Meanwhile, the Raiders and Chargers are moving ahead with the Carson stadium, and the St. Louis Rams are trying to build a stadium just outside of Los Angeles in Inglewood, which could also wind up housing the Raiders.

“Is there pressure being put on the East Bay entities? Absolutely,” said Andy Dolich, a former executive with the A’s, Golden State Warriors and San Francisco 49ers. “I don’t believe the discussions with Carson and Inglewood are a drill anymore.”

Dolich said Kephart’s tough talk will “accomplish absolutely nothing ” with the NFL.

“In my view, it underscores the ongoing questions the league has about a new football stadium in Oakland,” Dolich said. “Do you have a plan to finance it? Do you have an agreement in principal with the team? The answer is you don’t.”

Kephart said he will begin presenting the early framework for financing the stadium and surrounding development to the Raiders and local officials within the next few weeks.

His initial reports are due by June 21.

The league is scheduled to consider applications by teams to move to Los Angeles in January.

Kephart peppered his remarks before the Airport Area Business Association with one- liners Wednesday but said afterward that he took umbrage with Grubman’s tone at last week’s meeting. “You don’t come to a city and threaten it with ‘ I’m going to take your team away. We’ll move to Carson if you guys don’t do something,’ ” he said. “Instead of saying how we can work together to get this done, it was really a negative approach.”