Posted on 01/07/2015 9:33:10 PM PST by Olog-hai
St. Louis city officials said Wednesday that the owner of the Rams isn’t returning their calls, so they plan to work directly with the NFL on efforts to keep a team—any team—in St. Louis amid speculation the Rams are headed back to Los Angeles.
Billionaire owner Stan Kroenke is part of a joint venture that announced plans Monday for an 80,000-seat stadium in the Los Angeles suburbs, a move that could soon return the NFL to the nation’s second-largest market and the home of the Rams from 1946 until they moved to St. Louis in 1995. The move would have to wait at least a year—the NFL has said no team moves would be allowed in 2015.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon isn’t giving up on the Rams.
“St. Louis is an NFL city,” Nixon said Wednesday. “I don’t think it’s too late to keep the Rams.” …
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Does “Ferguson” and all that have anything to do with this?
The St. Louis Rams wasted a draft pick on Michael Sam to please the NFL as part of the plan to get the NFL to approve its return to LA.
Los Angeles is looking better and better.
Do I particularly care if the Rams come to Los Angeles? No. Do I think that most owners would poo poo the plan? Probably - with the greater Los Angeles area being unaffiliated, all franchise merchandise sells quite well. When Los Angeles has a team, stores tend to stock mostly the local team's logo wear, which doesn't sell quite as well as the entire line does.
As well, Los Angeles not having a team is a massive stick to wave at cities to say ‘hey, do what we want, or we'll move to Los Angeles.’ The only leverage that cities have is that there's no available skybox ready stadium in Los Angeles. Sure, the Rose Bowl could be adapted, but local regulations that limit the number of events would pretty much preclude a franchise being based there. This is changing - there will likely be at least one built in the next five years.
The same “leaders” caused Bidwell to take the Cardinals to Phoenix. They wouldn’t do anything to help keep the family owned and run Cardinals in town. But they opened the vault for the Rams.
To heck with them. NO municipal or state funds should be used to bribe millionaires and their overpaid players to come to a town.
That’s just my opinion.
Oldplayer
I think Ferguson does enter into their thinking of moving. It’s becoming a hostile environment in St.Louis.
This is another reason I’m a Packers fan. No owner to move the team , or interfere in the draft, or management of the team.
Yup. Now the owners can pander to the fag mafia in L.A. and go for broke.
Good. LA is no Bastian of exemplary lifestyles...but between Ferguson and St Louis being the second most violent city in the country...others than just the Rams should be thinking about abandoning that metro area...
But he plans to built them a new stadium. That’s quite a gift for an unaffiliated city.
Good...he can take his ignorant players who don’t know that “hands up, don’t shoot” was perjury!
Let StL have the Browns! Call them The St. Louis Michael Browns.
It is a city passionately in love with a baseball team. Other sports will always be peripheral.
It is also a city going through an urban reduction, a move to the suburbs.
Unless an NFL franchise wins and creates a history and a relationship with the population, it will not gain traction in St Louis.
Perhaps I can wax philosophic about how bad the situation is in DuPage county - after all, I've only driven through there from time to time but according to your criteria that should be enough to level condemnation on your home.
BTW, Ferguson has absolutely nothing to do with the Rams situation. It has been on-going for several years now. The bottom line is that the franchise fields a piss-poor product and the people of St Louis have no interest in throwing our good money after bad, particularly when we have a perpetually winning franchise in the Cardinals.
As I recall, Bidwell was trying to jack St. Louis up for a new stadium...despite never playing a home playoff game. I’m not a fan of taxpayer funded facilities, but I think Bidwell wanted to leave.
Having grown up in St. Louis, I always thought the fans’ sport interests ran like this.
1. Cardinals (baseball)
2. Cardinals (baseball)
3. Blues (if they’re winning)
4. Cardinals offseason (baseball)
5. Blues (if they’re losing)
6. Mizzou basketball
7. Mizzou football
8. Trout season
9. Cardinals minor league teams (baseball)
10. EVERYTHING ELSE except #11
11. Cardinals (football)/Rams
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