[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 4d318.html

Hochman: How can St. Louis be a loser?

Benjamin Hochman

Explain to me why St. Louis has to lose in this?

That was my takeaway — or more simply, the thing I kept screaming Wednesday, each time news spilled out of Irving, Texas. For instance ...

• On Wednesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the city of San Diego, in so many words, is doomed, in regard to having a viable plan to have an NFL team. And we all know Oakland is, too. So even though St. Louis has powerful, high-placed opponents of a new stadium, at least St. Louis has a danged plan.

Yet St. Louis could somehow lose this?

• On Wednesday, we learned that Stan Kroenke has offered 50 percent of his Inglewood stadium project to a second team. Big news, for sure. Yet we know from a previous Jim Thomas article that Chargers owner Dean Spanos doesn’t have the best relationship with Kroenke. So why would Spanos leave his alliance with Oakland Raiders ownership, and the Carson project, to just jump into Inglewood? The Chargers and Raiders (and Disney) seem to be all-in on Carson. NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport asked Raiders owner Mark Davis about the Rams’ proposal of an equal partner.

“I have an equitable partner. It’s Dean Spanos,” Davis said in a manner Rapoport described as “very animated.”

Yet St. Louis could somehow lose this?

It appears that for now anyway, Spanos and Davis are like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, jumping together (but hopefully, for their sake, a different ending).

The votes are everything. If Spanos doesn’t have enough ownership votes with the Carson project, he or Davis could join Kroenke’s project, if that strategy was to save their franchise. Let’s not forget, many smart people believe the Inglewood project is just a better overall project, with so much opportunity to grow and develop, Kroenke’s signature move.

Well, now we have a date (well, two) to mark on a calendar — Jan. 12-13. That’s when the owners will vote on potential relocation.

“It’s hard to see one of the proposals as getting 24 votes,” Colts owner Jim Irsay told reporters Wednesday, adding: “I don’t think we’re extremely close right now.”

Interesting to hear. But let’s say that on Jan. 12-13, at the big vote, Kroenke is the loser (something this man seldom does). And thus, St. Louis, presumably, is the winner, because, at least for the short-term, our Rams are still our Rams. A thought is this — if Kroenke is going to go all-in, long-term, on football in St. Louis, one would surmise that he would go all-in on profiting from football in St. Louis.

So it’s hard for me to see him just succumbing to the new stadium deal, especially when he could build his own stadium in our town. Or flirt with London. Or, and no one talks about this, he could possibly be the man who saves football in San Diego. This is all speculative, but let’s not forget, that’s not some cow town. It’s a big market. With perfect weather. A lot of people just assume that all San Diego football fans will automatically root for the Los Angeles Chargers. Why couldn’t a newly arrived franchise reinvigorate San Diego? In the past, we recall, the NFL has had two teams in LA while also having the San Diego Chargers (back in the days of San Diego sports anchor Champ Kind).

Don’t know if you all caught this, but one myth is being busted this week: the idea that the NFL wants to tread slowly into LA with a lone team. Some believe the league feared about going in with two teams too soon, that they’d be biting off more then the could chew (especially if the Raiders and Chargers play like the Raiders and Chargers). But many owners appeared to appreciate Kroenke’s gesture to go “half-sies” on a stadium, as the kids say. And thus, with Wednesday’s news, it’s quite possible that Inglewood and Carson could each have two teams.

Wednesday, it was moving day — obviously not in the dreaded literal sense, regarding the Rams, but in the figurative, golf tournament sense — as the big boys swinging the big clubs made their pushes toward the top of the leaderboard.

It’s the biggest trophy in sports – LA, and all the surrounding areas, and the glamor surrounding one of the nation’s bigger markets.

And Wednesday, for the first time, we saw a little compromising in Kroenke. He’s willing to share his LA dream with a stadium partner. He presumably understands that linking up with another owner could be his only way out of St. Louis.

Which, again, brings us back to the beginning of this column — if the San Diego and Oakland owners are already hand-in-hand, and can prove they can make Carson work, why would St. Louis have to lose in all of this?

But the sobering reality is that even if St. Louis wins, it could lose, depending on how the city and state deal with Kroenke on the stadium. Stan Kroenke loves sports, but he’s in the sports business for the business part. He has one shot to make unprecedented money with a pro football team. He’s going to fight for the best profit. The Wu-Tang Clan rapped, in the song “C.R.E.A.M.,” that “cash rules everything around me.”

Well, cash rules everything around the mustache.

[Elvis]

Which, again, brings us back to the beginning of this column — if the San Diego and Oakland owners are already hand-in-hand, and can prove they can make Carson work, why would St. Louis have to lose in all of this?

Bitter rivals who play in the same division sharing a toxic land fill?

[OldSchool]

Which, again, brings us back to the beginning of this column — if the San Diego and Oakland owners are already hand-in-hand, and can prove they can make Carson work, why would St. Louis have to lose in all of this?

Bitter rivals who play in the same division sharing a toxic land fill?

Didn't you know? That's piece of land is a slice of paradise and the golden gateway for the NFL to prosper in Los Angeles! Just asked anybody in St Louis they'll tell you how great it is and how the remediation is done.

[SoCalRam78]

Anyone who says Disney is behind Carson is a moron. Because this clearly isn't the case. Guy cannot differentiate Iger from Disney. Another case of lazy journalism from St. Louis.

[dieterbrock]

I think the issue of the raiders and chargers sharing a stadium, and the investigate league reorganization to move one team to NFC has more impact than people think

[den-the-coach]

I find interesting in the whole process is the "Pro St. Louis" types have always held on to the fact of the Chargers & Raiders being the better play in Los Angeles. Now yes, there has always been stadium talk of St. Louis, however, nothing on that Kroenke has the right to move his team based on the fact that the CVC has violated the lease and they turn a blind eye to the fact that Kroenke wants to control all revenue streams at his venue including anything that is held there.

It's like their writing is playing not to lose, we keep the Rams because the league should allow the Chargers and Raiders to move. At this point I will be very disappointed if the Rams don't move for so many reasons. I just don't see St. Louis anymore as a viable sports city. Declining corporate support even Bernie wrote about all the small business, well, the numbers support St. Louis as a two team city and I believe that is true, baseball & hockey are fine, but even with a new stadium and outside at that I don't believe the Rams will have the support.

Another thing is being in Los Angeles it sets up better for the Rams, in their division for example and the Rams become more of an entity from a national perspective and in the long run that is part of ESK's vision. Kroenke has outgrown St. Louis so it's time to load up the truck and move to Beverly.

[snackdaddy]

So it’s hard for me to see him just succumbing to the new stadium deal, especially when he could build his own stadium in our town.

This is something I've been saying all along. I don't know the man, but everything I've read or heard about him says it would be out of his character to just give up. He's not playing hardball at this time because he doesn't need to. Yet. He's smart enough to know he doesn't wanna piss off other owners if he doesn't have to. But when push comes to shove, he'll do what he has to do.