http://www.sacbee.com/351/story/93891.html
Drive for arena gets new point man
Financier John Moag answers NBA's call to help broker a deal.
By Jon Ortiz and Terri Hardy - Bee Staff Writers
Last Updated 12:23 am PST Sunday, December 17, 2006
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
So the quest for a new arena in Sacramento has come to this: An East Coast sports financier holding court at a downtown lobbying firm with a who's who of regional power brokers, apologizing, listening, taking copious notes and a few cigar breaks.
John Moag, who honed his negotiating skills inside Washington's Beltway before moving to the sports world, is taking the point position for David Stern as the NBA commissioner puts his stature and reputation behind brokering a deal to build a new home for the Kings.
"We needed someone with experience on building matters, on financing matters," Stern said. "And because he was head of a stadium authority, he brought a background I don't possess."
Moag, 52, takes on a task that has defied some of the region's most popular political leaders. They endured on-again, off-again talks with the Maloof family, owners of the Kings, before receiving a sound thumping from voters who opposed a sales-tax funding plan on the November ballot.
While Stern's point man hasn't single-handedly pulled off a high-profile coup in years, that doesn't mean he's not up to it. People in Maryland like the chances for the man whose gravelly voice wooed Art Modell into moving the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1995. In Pasadena, though, frustration lingers because Moag didn't deliver an NFL team for the Rose Bowl.
So far, Sacramento-area leaders say they have been impressed by Moag's ability to peg the major players in town, grasp the vexing politics of the issue and absorb how hard it is to get public money for an arena project in California. Some discussions examined whether California could establish a statewide sports authority or a multi-county approach to building an arena.
Two weeks ago, Moag had ruffled the feathers of local civic leaders when he described the arena effort to date as "a little rudderless." But he recovered quickly, soothing tensions and earning glowing reviews from local leaders for his smarts, intensity and listening skills.
Jeff Raimundo, a political consultant whose Sacramento firm in 2004 worked on a plan to privately fund an arena, said Moag did a lot to calm fears that Stern's involvement was simply a prelude to moving the Kings to another city.
"This was not for show," Raimundo said. "Stern wouldn't have brought someone like Moag here if they intended to blow Sacramento off."
Moag declined to sit down with The Bee but answered a few questions by e-mail. If history is any indication, though, he can help keep a team in town -- or help it move.
"He's done both. I would be surprised if he's not looking at outside options to Sacramento right now," said Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who has met Moag and followed his career. "He'd be crazy if he didn't do that. To get these deals done, it helps to have an alternative. He knows that."
John Andrew Moag Jr. has ties to sports and business that go back to when his family lived near Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. As a youngster, he parked cars in their yard during Colts football games.
After graduating from Washington College, he took a $25-a-day job driving Steny Hoyer, who was campaigning to become Maryland's next lieutenant governor. Hoyer lost, but the Maryland Democrat subsequently won a seat in Congress in 1981. Moag became his key aide on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. (Hoyer is the incoming House majority leader.)
Moag left Hoyer's staff six years later to become the youngest partner in the history of Patton Boggs LLP, a top D.C. law firm. While there, he negotiated a deal that moved the Hartford, Conn., Whalers hockey team into a new arena in Raleigh, N.C.
In 1995, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening appointed Moag as chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, a body with power to negotiate leases, condemn land and build public projects. The new job came with no pay and a mandate to do something that had stymied the state for a decade.
"The Colts had literally packed up Mayflower vans in the middle of the night and left for Indianapolis 11 years earlier. Baltimore was still hurting over that," said Bruce Hoffman, the stadium authority's executive director during Moag's chairmanship. "John's primary job was to return the NFL to Baltimore."
At the time, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell was in off-and-on talks with Cleveland about updating 63-year-old Cleveland Stadium and still had three years on his lease. After months of secret talks, Moag offered rent-free use of a yet-to-be-built stadium; money from tickets, parking and concessions; and $75 million in moving expenses.
The two men signed the deal in a private jet on the tarmac at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in October 1995.
"Less than a dozen people in Maryland knew about it. I found out 30 minutes after the deal was done," Hoffman said. "We couldn't say a word because the people of Cleveland didn't know about it. The Browns still had games to play there."
When news of the deal eventually surfaced, Cleveland Mayor Michael White blasted Modell and Moag: "Art Modell and John Moag got together one day, got together on a secret runway, with a secret handshake and a secret knock and a secret deal. Then they conspired to break our lease and steal our team."
Cleveland officials reached for comment last week, including White, declined to talk about Moag or the Browns' move.
With his reputation as a deal maker and sports financier burnished, Moag resigned his public post and left Patton Boggs in 1999 to open a sports industry division for Baltimore-based media and entertainment investment firm Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc.
Two years later he started his own sports finance consulting firm, Moag & Co. The company's Web site posts a current client list that includes someone looking to buy an NBA franchise. Moag said he couldn't discuss the client's identity but added: "It has nothing to do with Sacramento."
After the defeat of Sacramento's arena sales tax, Stern, in an unusual move, took over as the arena negotiator for the owners of the Kings and turned to Moag.
He doesn't shy away from challenging projects, as evidenced by his coup in stealing the Brownsand his willingness to sort through Sacramento's quagmire.
But not all of his projects turn out successfully.
Moag was hired in 2002 by the company that manages the Rose Bowl to bring an NFL team to Pasadena. That effort ended this year, after a host of setbacks, including a City Council decision to pull out in 2005. A citywide referendum on the November ballot, which would have charged leaders with continuing the effort, was overwhelmingly rejected.
Moag failed to deliver on promises that the process would be quick and Pasadena would have exclusive bidding rights, said Mayor Bill Bogaard. The city ending up competing with Los Angeles, Anaheim and Carson.
"I would say Mr. Moag's advice to the Rose Bowl Operating Company was optimistic and turned out not to be achievable at all," Bogaard said.
At the time, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported Moag as saying the league's decision to consider the Carson proposal had "purposely and intentionally blindsided us."
"I get upset when I lose," Moag told the Tribune.
Moag would not discuss the Rose Bowl deal or any of his previous efforts with The Bee, saying the questions "bear no relevance to the Kings and Sacramento."
Chris Holden, a member of the Pasadena City Council, said Moag did everything possible to bring the NFL to the city.
"He was able to quickly understand the dynamics of the community," Holden said. "He understood where the obstacles were and tried to minimize and eliminate them."
For instance, Moag saw that the community would be concerned about altering the Rose Bowl, so he hired a "world class preservation organization" to help with design, Holden said.
"It was a very frustrating experience," Holden said. "Moag was brought on to be part of the solution, and then the council flipped ... and didn't want to do business with the NFL."
Holden said he believes time killed the proposal: "When a deal drags on for too long, it starts to weaken the foundation."
In Sacramento, Moag arrives on the scene after local politicians and business leaders have been talking about a new arena for six years.
About the writer: The Bee's Jon Ortiz can be reached at (916) 321-1043 or jortiz@sacbee.com.
Drive for arena gets new point man
Financier John Moag answers NBA's call to help broker a deal.
By Jon Ortiz and Terri Hardy - Bee Staff Writers
Last Updated 12:23 am PST Sunday, December 17, 2006
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
So the quest for a new arena in Sacramento has come to this: An East Coast sports financier holding court at a downtown lobbying firm with a who's who of regional power brokers, apologizing, listening, taking copious notes and a few cigar breaks.
John Moag, who honed his negotiating skills inside Washington's Beltway before moving to the sports world, is taking the point position for David Stern as the NBA commissioner puts his stature and reputation behind brokering a deal to build a new home for the Kings.
"We needed someone with experience on building matters, on financing matters," Stern said. "And because he was head of a stadium authority, he brought a background I don't possess."
Moag, 52, takes on a task that has defied some of the region's most popular political leaders. They endured on-again, off-again talks with the Maloof family, owners of the Kings, before receiving a sound thumping from voters who opposed a sales-tax funding plan on the November ballot.
While Stern's point man hasn't single-handedly pulled off a high-profile coup in years, that doesn't mean he's not up to it. People in Maryland like the chances for the man whose gravelly voice wooed Art Modell into moving the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1995. In Pasadena, though, frustration lingers because Moag didn't deliver an NFL team for the Rose Bowl.
So far, Sacramento-area leaders say they have been impressed by Moag's ability to peg the major players in town, grasp the vexing politics of the issue and absorb how hard it is to get public money for an arena project in California. Some discussions examined whether California could establish a statewide sports authority or a multi-county approach to building an arena.
Two weeks ago, Moag had ruffled the feathers of local civic leaders when he described the arena effort to date as "a little rudderless." But he recovered quickly, soothing tensions and earning glowing reviews from local leaders for his smarts, intensity and listening skills.
Jeff Raimundo, a political consultant whose Sacramento firm in 2004 worked on a plan to privately fund an arena, said Moag did a lot to calm fears that Stern's involvement was simply a prelude to moving the Kings to another city.
"This was not for show," Raimundo said. "Stern wouldn't have brought someone like Moag here if they intended to blow Sacramento off."
Moag declined to sit down with The Bee but answered a few questions by e-mail. If history is any indication, though, he can help keep a team in town -- or help it move.
"He's done both. I would be surprised if he's not looking at outside options to Sacramento right now," said Dennis Coates, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who has met Moag and followed his career. "He'd be crazy if he didn't do that. To get these deals done, it helps to have an alternative. He knows that."
John Andrew Moag Jr. has ties to sports and business that go back to when his family lived near Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. As a youngster, he parked cars in their yard during Colts football games.
After graduating from Washington College, he took a $25-a-day job driving Steny Hoyer, who was campaigning to become Maryland's next lieutenant governor. Hoyer lost, but the Maryland Democrat subsequently won a seat in Congress in 1981. Moag became his key aide on the powerful House Appropriations Committee. (Hoyer is the incoming House majority leader.)
Moag left Hoyer's staff six years later to become the youngest partner in the history of Patton Boggs LLP, a top D.C. law firm. While there, he negotiated a deal that moved the Hartford, Conn., Whalers hockey team into a new arena in Raleigh, N.C.
In 1995, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening appointed Moag as chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, a body with power to negotiate leases, condemn land and build public projects. The new job came with no pay and a mandate to do something that had stymied the state for a decade.
"The Colts had literally packed up Mayflower vans in the middle of the night and left for Indianapolis 11 years earlier. Baltimore was still hurting over that," said Bruce Hoffman, the stadium authority's executive director during Moag's chairmanship. "John's primary job was to return the NFL to Baltimore."
At the time, Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell was in off-and-on talks with Cleveland about updating 63-year-old Cleveland Stadium and still had three years on his lease. After months of secret talks, Moag offered rent-free use of a yet-to-be-built stadium; money from tickets, parking and concessions; and $75 million in moving expenses.
The two men signed the deal in a private jet on the tarmac at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in October 1995.
"Less than a dozen people in Maryland knew about it. I found out 30 minutes after the deal was done," Hoffman said. "We couldn't say a word because the people of Cleveland didn't know about it. The Browns still had games to play there."
When news of the deal eventually surfaced, Cleveland Mayor Michael White blasted Modell and Moag: "Art Modell and John Moag got together one day, got together on a secret runway, with a secret handshake and a secret knock and a secret deal. Then they conspired to break our lease and steal our team."
Cleveland officials reached for comment last week, including White, declined to talk about Moag or the Browns' move.
With his reputation as a deal maker and sports financier burnished, Moag resigned his public post and left Patton Boggs in 1999 to open a sports industry division for Baltimore-based media and entertainment investment firm Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc.
Two years later he started his own sports finance consulting firm, Moag & Co. The company's Web site posts a current client list that includes someone looking to buy an NBA franchise. Moag said he couldn't discuss the client's identity but added: "It has nothing to do with Sacramento."
After the defeat of Sacramento's arena sales tax, Stern, in an unusual move, took over as the arena negotiator for the owners of the Kings and turned to Moag.
He doesn't shy away from challenging projects, as evidenced by his coup in stealing the Brownsand his willingness to sort through Sacramento's quagmire.
But not all of his projects turn out successfully.
Moag was hired in 2002 by the company that manages the Rose Bowl to bring an NFL team to Pasadena. That effort ended this year, after a host of setbacks, including a City Council decision to pull out in 2005. A citywide referendum on the November ballot, which would have charged leaders with continuing the effort, was overwhelmingly rejected.
Moag failed to deliver on promises that the process would be quick and Pasadena would have exclusive bidding rights, said Mayor Bill Bogaard. The city ending up competing with Los Angeles, Anaheim and Carson.
"I would say Mr. Moag's advice to the Rose Bowl Operating Company was optimistic and turned out not to be achievable at all," Bogaard said.
At the time, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported Moag as saying the league's decision to consider the Carson proposal had "purposely and intentionally blindsided us."
"I get upset when I lose," Moag told the Tribune.
Moag would not discuss the Rose Bowl deal or any of his previous efforts with The Bee, saying the questions "bear no relevance to the Kings and Sacramento."
Chris Holden, a member of the Pasadena City Council, said Moag did everything possible to bring the NFL to the city.
"He was able to quickly understand the dynamics of the community," Holden said. "He understood where the obstacles were and tried to minimize and eliminate them."
For instance, Moag saw that the community would be concerned about altering the Rose Bowl, so he hired a "world class preservation organization" to help with design, Holden said.
"It was a very frustrating experience," Holden said. "Moag was brought on to be part of the solution, and then the council flipped ... and didn't want to do business with the NFL."
Holden said he believes time killed the proposal: "When a deal drags on for too long, it starts to weaken the foundation."
In Sacramento, Moag arrives on the scene after local politicians and business leaders have been talking about a new arena for six years.
About the writer: The Bee's Jon Ortiz can be reached at (916) 321-1043 or jortiz@sacbee.com.
