[Elvis]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp ... story.html

Stan Kroenke introduces himself to L.A. Rams fans

A few minutes into Stan Kroenke's first news conference as owner of the Los Angeles Rams, he cleared his throat and gripped the lectern inside the Forum with both hands.

"It's been a long road back," Kroenke said. "It's been a long road. But we made it."

His chin trembled. Tears welled in his eyes.

The 68-year-old billionaire stood in front of a fabric background featuring the familiar Rams logo ... except that the text read "Los Angeles" instead of "St. Louis."

Kroenke paused. He let cheers from approximately 200 Rams supporters, many wearing blue and yellow throwback jerseys, wash over him.

"Love you, Stan!" someone shouted.

Other fans chanted "L.A. Rams!" and "Thank you Kroenke!"

The news conference, announced early Friday morning by the Rams, lasted 40 minutes and reintroduced the team to the region it departed following the 1994 season. Earlier this week, NFL owners approved the relocation at a special meeting in Houston.

"But this is all about football, really," Kroenke said to loud cheers. "This is [about] a great history of the Los Angeles Rams."

He put extra emphasis on "Los Angeles" to roars of approval.

Rams Coach Jeff Fisher and General Manager Les Snead sat in the front row. A slew of former Rams players attended too, including Hall of Fame linemen Tom Mack and Jackie Slater, quarterback Jim Everett and running back Wendell Tyler.

James T. Butts Jr., mayor of Inglewood, where the Rams plan to build a multibillion-dollar stadium on the site of the old Hollywood Park racetrack, beamed. He mentioned a letter he had written to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell eight months ago — long before owners approved the stadium project — asking that Inglewood play host to the Super Bowl in 2020.

"Every time you guys see me I'm going to remind you that we're in the city of Inglewood, California," Butts said.

The man overseeing construction on the 298-acre site, Hollywood Park Land Co. development manager Chris Meany, noted that "Los Angeles will have a new landmark."

http://www.latimes.com/la-sp-stan-kroen ... video.html

And Kevin Demoff, the Rams top executive who owned an Everett jersey and poster while growing up in the L.A. area, called the move "an opportunity of a lifetime" and received robust cheers.

"It's been a long process and a dream come true, especially for someone who grew up right here in L.A.," he said. "And when I look at the [Rams] alumni sitting there today … it is a pleasure to bring their team back home and to begin the process of representing Los Angeles with pride."

The Rams showed a minute-long video showcasing the planned stadium and its connection to the L.A. community — the same video they showed NFL owners during a meeting in August.

The feel-good event took an unexpected turn when Demoff mentioned the likelihood of sharing the stadium with another team. The San Diego Chargers have a year to decide whether to join the Rams in L.A. If they pass, the Oakland Raiders will have an identical option for one year.

"We can't wait for the day to welcome a second team into our building to help have a true AFC-NFC rivalry which will be special," Demoff said.

That possibility didn't sit well with the crowd. Boos and catcalls echoed through the arena and caused Demoff to briefly stop until his words could be heard.

The murmurs of discontent resurfaced a few minutes later when Kroenke was asked about the Chargers moving to L.A. More boos almost drowned out the question.

"We don't want them!" several fans shouted.

Kroenke noted that the willingness to host a second team was part of the deal approved by NFL owners.

"We're immediately engaged [with the Chargers] talking about what some kind of deal might look like," Kroenke said. "We've offered several iterations of that, so we'll see where that goes."

After the answer, a shout broke the silence.

"Stay in San Diego!" a fan said.

The Rams can't start selling suites or personal seat licenses until February 2017 unless a second team joins them earlier in L.A. But they can sell season tickets for their temporary site, which is expected to be the Coliseum until the new stadium opens for the 2019 season.

At 10 a.m. Monday, the Rams will launch WelcomeHomeRams.com. The site will allow fans to pay a $100 refundable deposit to add their names to a temporary stadium ticket wait list. Although that will not guarantee the right to buy season tickets, members of the wait list will have priority over the general public and will be assigned a priority group based on when the deposit was received. Each account holder can purchase eight season tickets.

Sales are scheduled to start in the spring. Ticket pricing has yet to be determined.

"The ticket prices starting off this year will be very comparable to what we had in St. Louis," Demoff said. Season ticket prices per seat in St. Louis ranged from $300 to $1,750 for the 2015 season.

People who purchase season tickets in the temporary stadium will be given priority to evaluate seat options in the new Inglewood stadium before the general public.

After the cheers faded and the news conference ended, guests munched on cake with a rendering of the stadium imprinted on the frosting.

"While it is great the 10 Sundays a year we will be playing in Inglewood, we will be part of this community 365 days a year," Demoff said. "We can't wait to bring the power and passion of the NFL to this community to make sure that we activate great fans."

[ramsman34]

10 Sunday a year eh. You talking reg season and hosting 2 playoff games Kevin, or 2 preseason and 8 reg season???

Better be the former. Gotta be the former as preseason games aren't usually played on Sundays!!!

Hoping you all caught that

[Hacksaw]

I guess Stan is rather po'd at "that other place we used to play". Not a mention by name

Remember when GF bragged that winning the SB was proof that moving to the Loo was the right thing to do. I wanted to go postal. I can't imagine what some of those StL diehards are feeling.

I don't get the silent Stan thing. Seems to like to talk just fine. Salt in the StL wound.

[bluecoconuts]

Yeah, Stan has been talking a lot..... Although he probably shouldn't, because he is an awful public speaker. Gotta put some salt in the wound for St Louis fans who hardly got a peep. Although I get the feeling this will be it for quite a while.

[Hacksaw]

Nice to get a little feel for our newest owner. He may not be CR but he's a ton better than madame Ram.

[RamsFanSince82]

Today, I thought he did a lot better job of expressing himself compared to the other times that I've heard him speak.

[Elvis]

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/2016011 ... um=twitter

Owner Stan Kroenke shows how much moving Rams back to LA means to him

By Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News

For the briefest of moments, Stan Kroenke’s lower lip began to quiver and his eyes began to moisten. On the verge of tears as he talked about the long journey of bringing the Los Angeles Rams back home from St. Louis, Kroenke cleared his throat, gathered himself and carried on.

“It’s been a long road back,” Kroenke said. “It’s been a long road. But we made it.”

And with that, the window into the soul of the Rams owner closed.

But for anyone who attended the Rams’ welcome back party at the Fabulous Forum on Friday, it was clear as day.

Imagine that.

Stan Kroenke actually has a heart. And it was beating loudly, clearly and proudly as he and the Rams made their first official appearance in the region they once called home for 50 years.

“You have to understand how much this means to him,” said Rams CEO Kevin Demoff, the Harvard-Westlake High grad who helped pilot the Rams back to L.A. “This is his vision. And that quest to return the Rams home and this project to build a world-class venue here in Inglewood is a legacy moment he’s poured his heart and soul into. ”

It’s amazing how one city’s villain is another city’s hero.

Back in St. Louis, Kroenke is public enemy No. 1, the man responsible for ripping out the hearts of fans who spent the last 20 years growing to love the Rams. Right up to the moment the National Football League approved the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles, St. Louis knelt at the NFL alter praying owners would rule their beloved team had to stay put.

But that didn’t happen, obviously. And now Kroenke’s name is dirt in the state he grew up in.

Nearly 2,000 miles away in Inglewood, Los Angeles Rams fans chanted his name in thanks and praise. And as he smiled broadly, if a bit shyly, it was obvious the moment meant something to him.

“We’re happy to be here,” Kroenke said. “It’s quite a privilege. We’re looking forward to moving ahead on this. The fun part for us really starts, coming in here today and being received like this is wonderful.”

I’m not here to defend Kroenke. He’s a shrewd businessman who took advantage of a naive promise St. Louis made upon luring the Rams to Missouri back in 1994. And when St. Louis didn’t deliver on that promise, Kroenke legally seized the chance to point the Rams back to Los Angeles, where an open, available, 300-acre opportunity awaited to build an NFL Disneyland in the second-biggest market in the country.

That’s what businessmen do.

That it came at the expense of the good folks of St. Louis is the unfortunate collateral damage of a flawed NFL relocation process that made bashing the home markets an unnecessary prerequisite to building a case for relocation. Kroenke wanted nothing to do with the stadium plan St. Louis was pushed and encouraged by the NFL into delivering, and everyone in the league knew it.

Yet the NFL kept pushing St. Louis leaders to proceed, building their hopes that the league would have their back, only to predictably side with their colleague and allow him to do exactly what he wanted when he set out on this quest more than two years ago.

When the charade was over, Kroenke was the heartless scrooge who ripped the Rams from St. Louis and kicked his former home in the gut in a scathing relocation request that read like a war document.

It wasn’t necessary, and the Rams took no satisfaction in doing it. But in the NFL’s quest to push and prod and extract every last penny from at least one of St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego, the Rams had to rip down St. Louis to prove they were more worthy of relocation than the Chargers and Raiders.

Incredible.

Back in L.A., Kroenke is the benevolent hero who righted a 20-year wrong by bringing the Rams back where they belong.

The different perceptions of the two cities could not be more pronounced.

Somewhere in the middle rests the real Stan Kroenke. And in time, we’ll likely get a better read.

When we do, it’s more likely he’ll emerge exactly what he appears.

[den-the-coach]

Rams owner Dan Reeves (not the coach) was voted into the Hall of Fame because of bringing football to the West Coast and I believe Enos Stanley "Stan" Kroenke will go into the Hall of Fame bringing football back to the City of Angeles and also being part of Four Super Bowl Victories.

[Hacksaw]

StL is a semi-big city in a smaller state. He is public enemy#1 with the diehard StL Rams fans. Not the overall citizenry of the state of MO. His business' will go on successfully even today. The sports community for which he is involved will have a larger number of mad citizens per capita, but in time , and after another Rams Superbowl, they will learn to accept it. Like we did with GF. It won't be the same but the vitriol will settle down.
I can't imagine this is a 100% win for ESK on a human emotional level. For some reason he didn't even bring himself to mention the words St Louis out loud.

One thing for sure, the shield had the same feeling about what GF did by moving them to her hometown, that we did. I for that I am eternally grateful.

[dieterbrock]

I will say this, in looking back from 2010 to now, it looks like Kroenke has aged 100 years. Hopefully now he can enjoy the fruits of his labor and not be destroyed by it.
Well done Stan, take a bow!!