[TSFH Fan]

That's definitely the case since the CVC filed an antitrust suit against in 1997 the NFL and the other 29 teams because of the lease.

I think you've mentioned this particular lawsuit before, on another board. Sorry for not catching it. I'm working through the stuff -- this is going to take a while.

One thing early, that I've seen, the Rams initial relocation proposal did not satisfy league guidelines. Instead of stopping the relocation to StL, the league determined that it had the right to assess whatever fee they thought necessary. ("The NFL had 'the right to assess whatever fee they thought necessary' since the initial relocation proposal had not satisfied the league guidelines.")

[dieterbrock]

Here's my take from the East coast.
The Dome was built with no football team in town. It was a bare bones stripped out model and from day 1 was mediocre. Red seats, terrible turf etc.
What burns me is that the GSOT hid the fact that the stadium was sub par. I remember during the good times the turf at the Ed was amongst the worst, along with the old philly vet and indianoplis.
I get why the stadium didn't have all the bells and whistles, it was a convention center first football stadium 2nd.
That stadium wasn't going to be an allure for a potential team, it just got the right partner in Georgia. And with it came that top tier provision.
It's my belief that had Georgia not passed away that top tier wouldn't have come to fruition.
And I also believe that Stan expected the Hero's walk when he got the team. But I also think that they took advantage of him and didn't treat Stan right, and forced him to force the issue.
Once Stan bought the team, negotiations on a new stadium should have started.

[azramsfan93]

It's almost sad that what St. Louis is coming up with to "wow" everyone is pretty unimpressive. I mean, we're talking about a vision at this point and they can't even draw a top tier venue. How are they going to actually build one and have it prosper if they can't even imagine it?

THe biggest reason that the proposed dump on the river is as sad as it is - money. They cannot afford to propose a $1.5-$2.0B stadium. They cannot finance the < $1B they are proposing now.

Inglewood breaks ground in December. Game over man!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=audio+link+bill+paxton+%22game+over+man%22+aliens&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=413B7A7308A6DDE97A71413B7A7308A6DDE97A71

[The Ripper]

That's definitely the case since the CVC filed an antitrust suit against in 1997 the NFL and the other 29 teams because of the lease.

I think you've mentioned this particular lawsuit before, on another board. Sorry for not catching it. I'm working through the stuff -- this is going to take a while.

One thing early, that I've seen, the Rams initial relocation proposal did not satisfy league guidelines. Instead of stopping the relocation to StL, the league determined that it had the right to assess whatever fee they thought necessary. ("The NFL had 'the right to assess whatever fee they thought necessary' since the initial relocation proposal had not satisfied the league guidelines.")

The right to asses a relocation fee came from Raiders 1. The decision to allow the Rams relocate came from the potential antitrust suit from the Rams and then Attorney General Nixon. Whether it's true or not that's was Tagilbue testified to in the 1996 House Judiciary Committee hearings. What's interesting about the fee is that FANS Inc/St Louis/CVC had the right to walk away from the deal if the relocation fee was above 9 million but they agreed to pay 20 million. That fact was not presented to the other owners before the vote because if they knew that St Louis was paying most of it they would have increased the fee for the Rams only.

[snackdaddy]

You guys just outlined why Stan is moving and why the NFL can't do business with St. Louis again.

Thats why I think Stan will be able to move. St. Louis can't be trusted. The NFL knows that. I still think their funding plan to pay for the new stadium has a lot of holes in it. And I think the NFL knows that too. But they have to show they want to be fair to st. louis. They have to at least go through the motions. I still believe they know the Rams are leaving for LA, but they have to put on a good face so we don't have a true lame duck situation during the season.

[Elvis]

For what it's worth, here's Bernie on how the top tier clause got into the lease:

http://interact.stltoday.com/forums/vie ... p=15013409

Shaw told me that he just threw the "top tier" request out there, never expecting that Eagleton and those people would agree with it. He did it in a whim, really.

I was sitting in the American Airlines club the day after the Super Bowl in Miami, waiting for a flight back to The Lou. Shaw was also on the flight and he came into the club and we sat and talked, maybe had a drink (though I don't think Shaw drank alcohol. And told me the top-tier escape clause story.

Me being such a smart fellow (ahem) I said to John: "That's crazy. This can't be good for St. Louis, am I right? Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Shaw, at Georgia Frontiere's request, had just waived the Rams' right to enforce the clause -- just for several years, to put it off, because GF was apparently upset by the conflict. I believe that's how the escape claus was pushed back to the end of the 2015 season.

Shaw suggested that St. Louis had nothing to worry about, because GF had been treated so well in St. Louis -- financially and otherwise -- and she thought the fans here were great to her. She didn't want to threaten to move the team to put pressure on the CVC/city/state to sweeten the lease.

John told me that Georgia didn't want to hurt the city or the fans, so she would just let it go, and keep going. I think Shaw was ticked in a way, because he wanted to go hardball. Anyway, Shaw said something to the effect of "As long as she owns the Rams, and she'll never sell controlling interest, she won't move the team." (Not an exact quote but it was something along those lines.

But we know what happened, and GF wasn't going to live forever. So when she passed away, the fate of the team became less than certain. Chip Rosenbloom told me (many times) that he had no desire to move the team, and he anticipated having to sell at some point, but he was hopeful that Kroenke would buy the percentage controlled by Chip and his sister Lucia. Or, if not that, Stan would exercise his right to match any formal offer. Chip didn't view Stan as a threat to move the team; nothing Kroenke told him would suggest it. (Stan holds his cards close, eh?)

This concludes another interesting story from my adventurous newspaper career.

Oh. And for the guy who posted something quoting a Wikipedia page or something about the circumstances of the Rams move to STL ... that's the sanitized version, the NFL's version of history. I don't think the league was comfortable with facing a lawsuit, but the NFL always had a price for allowing a move. So when the negotiations on what that price should be didn't go well, the league voted to reject the move. But when GF agreed to meet the league's desired price ... It was a miracle!!! The league convened another vote and this time the relocation was approved. The NFL knows it couldn't come out and say "We weren't going to let that team out of there until Frontiere paid up" so the "We had no choice because we were being threatened with legal action" narrative. Which was junk. The league had no problem with the STL market and would have put the second expansion team here ... But there was a huge battle over the lease, with Jerry Clinton holding the dome lease and refusing to sell it to the Civic Progress guys (with the largely unknown Kroenke in place as the money man.) The NFL had no desire to get in the middle of a legal battle here, and so the second expansion team went to Jacksonville. On the day of the vote in Chicago, the NFL had two different banners and two different helmets, and the logos ready to be displayed during the news conference announcing the decision. The NFL was waiting to hear from St. Louis, hoping that there'd be a resolution of the brouhaha over the stadium lease. But the idiots kept fighting, and that was that. Several NFL staffers went into the ballroom and removed the St. Louis banner, helmet and logo. And put the Jacksonville stuff on the stage instead.

In reading the little excerpt posted here, I laughed at the part about how the NFL found the St. Louis market "unsuitable" to explain why the league initially voted against the Rams' move. The only thing "unsuitable" was the financial offer made by Frontiere in her attempt to gain league approval. When the Frontiere (with Shaw doing the negotiating) agreed to pay what the NFL wanted to green-light a move ... shockingly STL was "suitable" after all.

Didn't mean to tell another long story there, so I'll get on out of here. Almost bedtime.

Thanks.

-B

[TSFH Fan]

One of the things I've believed is that Stan would never have to sue to move to LA and would never need to go rogue, that he could simply go FIFA, er, I mean, just pay the amounts demanded by the NFL and buy his way into LA, if need be. Bernie's PD post seems, to me, to support that -- the NFL believes that what makes the most sense, is what generates the most cents.

[den-the-coach]

[The Ripper]

Bernie the fiction writer. Scheduled maintenance of some sort was mandatory. The other fabrication by Bernie is that unless Taglibue committed perjury than the main reason the NFL allowed the Rams to move is the threat of a lawsuit.

[Hacksaw]

The StL guys seem to have a Chip (not Rosenbloom) on their shoulder. A short man complex or something. I find they constantly are defending StL as if it is disrespected.