RSS
Home
Attention Rams fans: Please come in off the ledge
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The city of St. Louis has had a rough football history with more losing than winning through the years. On top of that rough history this city has already lost a football franchise once in a nasty divorce. As in real life one divorce you can get over, but there is a certain stigma associated with getting that second one. Rams fans don't want to become "that city".
Everyone knows that there most likely won't be a third marriage so it is perfectly understandable the outrage and panic that has been going on for the past 36 hours since the news of the Rams being for sale has been made to the general public. But now that everyone has been able to digest the news I ask everyone to please calm down for a moment and let's look at why everyone should just relax and realize that all of this is more likely to end in a positive outcome instead of the doomsday scenario.
The first reason everyone needs to relax is that it is still entirely possible that a local ownership group could come forward. As I talked about in yesterday's article the list of billionaires in this city is short but the list of multi-millionaires who could get in the game is a bit longer. NFL franchises print money, even in this bad economy. I would have to think that someone with the means in this area would have interest in making something happen.
Another reason everyone needs to calm down is because of Stan Kroenke. Kroenke has to approve whomever the Rosenbloom family decides to sell to. I can't believe that Kroenke would approve a sale to someone who wants to move the team out of St. Louis as long, and these are two very important points, as the fan-base remains strong and the stadium situation will eventually be fixed and not stall out in the future.
Last, and I think most importantly, is even if someone in the Los Angeles area wants to knock the Rosenbloom family over with an offer there are two major hurdles for that to happen. First, until Los Angeles gets their stadium issues in order the NFL will never approve moving back to the area. As badly as the NFL would like to get back into that market they know that it is a soft pro football market and they need to have a good stadium situation for a franchise to succeed. If they do get the stadium situation in order that will bring a long list of teams that would have interest. I still believe that the Chargers would love to move up the coast and the Jacksonville Jaguars would love to make the jump long before the Rams could make the move in 2015.
The second reason that the LA scenario is unlikely is that the Rosenbloom family remembers how poorly the city of Los Angeles treated their late mother Georgia Frontiere on the way out of Anaheim. They have long memories on that. From everything that has been said about Chip Rosenbloom he is an honest and good man who wants to do the right thing. He wants to keep the team here but he is a businessman too. He needs to open up the process so he can settle up with the IRS and finish handling his late mother's estate.
There are lots of reasons to think this is all going to end badly but there are plenty of reasons to think that this will end up working out fine for the city of St. Louis. The city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana just came up with a lease agreement, in these horrible economic times, that will keep them there through 2025. If they can do it in New Orleans than there is no reason to believe things can't be worked out here.
It is frustrating, as a Rams fan, not to have any control over the situation. The best thing to do at this point is to continue to support the team and continue to hold out hope that things will all work out for the best. Nobody, including the Rams franchise, wants to go through a second divorce.
Related Articles:
Comments
