[max]

So the owners are gonna invest $300M in a dying rustbelt market instead of keeping their money and letting Stan building is the 2nd largest market with his own money.

If I've got that right, I don't see how any businessman would do that.

[SoCalRam78]

Gotta hand it to these guys. The contortionist acts they do is quite impressive. Rather than submit a proposal with known budget sources, they've gone ahead and assumed the extra 100 million from relocation fees and worked that in.

This has been done deliberately because they had no other way to provide the last 75-100 million in public financing. The NFL said no to taking stadium revenue money and amusement taxes away from the team to pay back the bonds. Well, they were SOL, so they plugged in that extra 100 million freebie into the budget to say "look, look, the team gets to keep those now."

Sham, all it is. Regardless, even assuming that money was handed to them free of charge, the private/public split at best is now 400 million/711 million or 36%/64%.

[snackdaddy]

In the end I don't see Kroenke taking the Stl. deal. Whether that means more years in the dome or him forcing his way to LA I have no idea. Time will tell.

[bluecoconuts]

What I don't understand is what do the other owners get out of backing Spanos?

In a good ole boy club always important to have a favor or a ya owe me in your back pocket. The votes Spanos will get will come with a price he will owe each one a likewise vote on any future projects that will be in their favor and markers will be called.

Pretty much this. There's been some older stories about the Old Guard vs the New Guard.. A lot of old guard guys don't want change, they want everything to be how it was in the good ol days. They're worried about all the new guard owners, who typically have more money than the old guard guys (and technically outnumber them, although guys like McNair and Richardson align with the old guard), not having the NFL's best interests in heart.

Translating that, they're worried about all the rich guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to get more money, including changing cities, changing how stadiums are built and designed, they're worried that these new guys are going to push them out. Kroenke's move to Los Angeles, using his own money to build an extravagant experience that goes deeper than just simply the stadium threatens them three times over. A lot of these guys are probably aligning with Spanos not only because they're friends and have known him for so long, but because they're threatened by guys like Kroenke. They're afraid over their kind dying off.

[Hacksaw]

Yeahbutt,, the Rams moving back would make things like they were in the old days,,, just like the old guard like it.
This isn't just any old relocation / restoration.

[Hacksaw]

What I don't understand is what do the other owners get out of backing Spanos?

In a good ole boy club always important to have a favor or a ya owe me in your back pocket. The votes Spanos will get will come with a price he will owe each one a likewise vote on any future projects that will be in their favor and markers will be called.

I'd rather have Kroenke owe me a favor.

[majik]

So true Hacksaw, in addition, I also wouldn't want to be on Kroenke's $hit list

[Hacksaw]

I snatched a grabbed this from our friends across town to repost here. This is the real problem in StL.

https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus ... 2015.0.pdf

The owners cannot look at this survey result and force Kroenke to stay there. Especially in light of the sham funding plan they haven't submitted yet.

[dieterbrock]

Bottom line is that if the owners are siding with Spanos and expect Kroenke to take this awful deal, he may as well sell the team because they clearly dislike him

[Elvis]

Bottom line is that if the owners are siding with Spanos and expect Kroenke to take this awful deal, he may as well sell the team because they clearly dislike him

Or he can incur a little more dislike by moving his team to Los Angeles regardless...