Clock Ticks as St. Louis Scrambles to Hold On to Rams
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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/sport ... .html?_r=1
Clock Ticks as St. Louis Scrambles to Hold On to Rams
By KEN BELSONSEPT. 13, 2015
ST. LOUIS — The hastily organized gathering in the parking lot of the Missouri Athletic Club, just a stone’s throw from the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis, had the feel of a political stump speech.
On a recent steamy Thursday evening, local luminaries including Mayor Francis Slay jumped onstage to whip up the crowd of a few hundred fans, some of whom carried homemade signs and sang songs including one with the lyrics “We’re not gonna move” to the tune of the Twisted Sister song “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
But instead of fishing for votes, Slay and the other speakers tried to drum up support for a $1 billion stadium project that they hoped would keep E. Stanley Kroenke, the owner of the Rams, from moving the team 1,800 miles to Los Angeles.
“Are you ready for football?” Mr. Slay asked to a chorus of cheers.
“We’ve got challenges, but we have a plan to keep the Rams in St. Louis and keep St. Louis a strong N.F.L. city,” he said. “You’ve got my word: We’re going to see a new stadium in downtown and see the Rams play.”
The rally came as the team’s future was turning increasingly cloudy. Despite the efforts of the state’s civic leaders, Mr. Kroenke appears eager to leave town. In January, he unveiled plans to build a sparkling $1.9 billion stadium a few miles from downtown Los Angeles. The Rams have a year-to-year lease in St. Louis, so his main hurdle is the other 31 team owners. Mr. Kroenke needs three-quarters of them to approve the relocation application that he is almost certain to file in the coming months.
That has cast a pall over what may be the final season in St. Louis for the Rams, who opened with a 34-31 overtime win on Sunday over the Seattle Seahawks — a team that once considered moving to Los Angeles as well.
In seeking a spot in the Los Angeles market, the Rams are vying with the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers, who announced their own plans to build and share a $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, Calif., several miles south of where Mr. Kroenke wants to build.
In June, negotiations collapsed between San Diego and the Chargers for a new stadium that would have kept the team from moving. Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer had hoped to put a stadium proposal to a public vote by January, but that possibility has faded.
The three teams are now jockeying for what owners and league officials say will be approval for one or two teams to move to Los Angeles as soon as next season. (The owners’ committee that is focused on the Los Angeles market will meet Wednesday in New York.) While a return to Los Angeles, which last had an N.F.L. team in 1995, would no doubt pad the league’s coffers, the process has been wrenching for fans in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego and has created the possibility of multiple lame-duck seasons.
Most of the fans at the rally were true believers. Some had bought personal seat licenses when the Rams arrived in 1995. But even they had a sense of foreboding, partly because Mr. Kroenke, who rarely speaks in public, has done nothing to dispel the notion that he intends to move.
“We’re really disappointed because Kroenke is a native Missourian, and we thought he would want to keep the team here,” said Georgia Potter, who was at the rally with her husband, their son and his girlfriend. “But we’re still keeping our hopes up, and the stadium looks like it’s well on the right path.”
Ms. Potter held a sign that thanked the Fox Sports television announcer Joe Buck, a St. Louis native, who was unusually blunt last month on Twitter when he called Mr. Kroenke disingenuous.
“Suck the life out of a team, run it down, raise prices, then say it isn’t supported and leave,” Buck wrote. In another post, he said, “Kroenke not only has the chance to cash in on LA, but punch a great city that at one point he seemed to enjoy.”
The Rams have not helped matters. They have not had a winning record since 2003, a dubious distinction that began years before Mr. Kroenke took over as majority owner in 2010.
Still, the chance that St. Louis could lose its second N.F.L. team in less than 30 years (the Cardinals left after the 1987 season) galvanized Gov. Jay Nixon in November to assemble a task force to devise a plan to build a stadium that would persuade Mr. Kroenke to stay or would attract a new team to town.
The leaders of the task force — Dave Peacock, a former executive with Anheuser-Busch, and Bob Blitz, a lawyer who was instrumental in luring the Rams to St. Louis — have unveiled plans for an outdoor stadium on the banks of the Mississippi River. Two legal hurdles have been cleared, including a court ruling that Mr. Nixon said would permit bonds to be issued to retire debt for the Edward Jones Dome and help pay for the new stadium.
The project calls for $250 million from the Rams or another team and $200 million from the league. The rest would be paid for with an estimated $160 million from the sale of personal seat licenses, $187 million in government tax credits and incentives, and the remainder from the state and city stadium bonds.
The extension of the city’s stadium bonds still needs approval from the 28-member St. Louis Board of Aldermen.
Some state lawmakers oppose the project because they say bonds cannot be issued unless there is a public vote.
Mr. Nixon, aware of the political opposition to using public money to help a multibillionaire like Mr. Kroenke, insists that no money will be spent until the Rams or another team promises to stay in St. Louis for another generation.
“We won’t float the bonds unless we have a long-term deal and the private money,” Mr. Nixon said in an interview before the rally. “We’ll be prepared in the time frames that are laid out” by the N.F.L.
He added: “We view this as a punch list when you’re building a house. Let’s knock them out.”
Despite his optimism, Mr. Nixon was uncertain whether his drive to keep the Rams would work. He said he had not spoken to Mr. Kroenke, although Kevin Demoff, the team’s chief operating officer, has been briefed by the governor’s task force. Through a spokesman, Mr. Demoff declined to be interviewed.
Mr. Nixon and Mr. Peacock, instead of appealing to Mr. Kroenke, have taken their case to N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell to show that St. Louis deserves to remain on the N.F.L.’s map. They presented their plans to league officials and met with Mr. Goodell in New York before Labor Day.
“All the meetings have been encouraging with the N.F.L.,” said Mr. Peacock, who worked with the league when he was at Anheuser-Busch, a big sponsor. “If you look at the numbers, we’re 15th in the league in corporate base, 16th in population, seventh in household income. This is a great N.F.L. market, and the league belongs here.”
Whether the owners agree is likely to be decided this season.
Clock Ticks as St. Louis Scrambles to Hold On to Rams
By KEN BELSONSEPT. 13, 2015
ST. LOUIS — The hastily organized gathering in the parking lot of the Missouri Athletic Club, just a stone’s throw from the Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis, had the feel of a political stump speech.
On a recent steamy Thursday evening, local luminaries including Mayor Francis Slay jumped onstage to whip up the crowd of a few hundred fans, some of whom carried homemade signs and sang songs including one with the lyrics “We’re not gonna move” to the tune of the Twisted Sister song “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”
But instead of fishing for votes, Slay and the other speakers tried to drum up support for a $1 billion stadium project that they hoped would keep E. Stanley Kroenke, the owner of the Rams, from moving the team 1,800 miles to Los Angeles.
“Are you ready for football?” Mr. Slay asked to a chorus of cheers.
“We’ve got challenges, but we have a plan to keep the Rams in St. Louis and keep St. Louis a strong N.F.L. city,” he said. “You’ve got my word: We’re going to see a new stadium in downtown and see the Rams play.”
The rally came as the team’s future was turning increasingly cloudy. Despite the efforts of the state’s civic leaders, Mr. Kroenke appears eager to leave town. In January, he unveiled plans to build a sparkling $1.9 billion stadium a few miles from downtown Los Angeles. The Rams have a year-to-year lease in St. Louis, so his main hurdle is the other 31 team owners. Mr. Kroenke needs three-quarters of them to approve the relocation application that he is almost certain to file in the coming months.
That has cast a pall over what may be the final season in St. Louis for the Rams, who opened with a 34-31 overtime win on Sunday over the Seattle Seahawks — a team that once considered moving to Los Angeles as well.
In seeking a spot in the Los Angeles market, the Rams are vying with the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers, who announced their own plans to build and share a $1.7 billion stadium in Carson, Calif., several miles south of where Mr. Kroenke wants to build.
In June, negotiations collapsed between San Diego and the Chargers for a new stadium that would have kept the team from moving. Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer had hoped to put a stadium proposal to a public vote by January, but that possibility has faded.
The three teams are now jockeying for what owners and league officials say will be approval for one or two teams to move to Los Angeles as soon as next season. (The owners’ committee that is focused on the Los Angeles market will meet Wednesday in New York.) While a return to Los Angeles, which last had an N.F.L. team in 1995, would no doubt pad the league’s coffers, the process has been wrenching for fans in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego and has created the possibility of multiple lame-duck seasons.
Most of the fans at the rally were true believers. Some had bought personal seat licenses when the Rams arrived in 1995. But even they had a sense of foreboding, partly because Mr. Kroenke, who rarely speaks in public, has done nothing to dispel the notion that he intends to move.
“We’re really disappointed because Kroenke is a native Missourian, and we thought he would want to keep the team here,” said Georgia Potter, who was at the rally with her husband, their son and his girlfriend. “But we’re still keeping our hopes up, and the stadium looks like it’s well on the right path.”
Ms. Potter held a sign that thanked the Fox Sports television announcer Joe Buck, a St. Louis native, who was unusually blunt last month on Twitter when he called Mr. Kroenke disingenuous.
“Suck the life out of a team, run it down, raise prices, then say it isn’t supported and leave,” Buck wrote. In another post, he said, “Kroenke not only has the chance to cash in on LA, but punch a great city that at one point he seemed to enjoy.”
The Rams have not helped matters. They have not had a winning record since 2003, a dubious distinction that began years before Mr. Kroenke took over as majority owner in 2010.
Still, the chance that St. Louis could lose its second N.F.L. team in less than 30 years (the Cardinals left after the 1987 season) galvanized Gov. Jay Nixon in November to assemble a task force to devise a plan to build a stadium that would persuade Mr. Kroenke to stay or would attract a new team to town.
The leaders of the task force — Dave Peacock, a former executive with Anheuser-Busch, and Bob Blitz, a lawyer who was instrumental in luring the Rams to St. Louis — have unveiled plans for an outdoor stadium on the banks of the Mississippi River. Two legal hurdles have been cleared, including a court ruling that Mr. Nixon said would permit bonds to be issued to retire debt for the Edward Jones Dome and help pay for the new stadium.
The project calls for $250 million from the Rams or another team and $200 million from the league. The rest would be paid for with an estimated $160 million from the sale of personal seat licenses, $187 million in government tax credits and incentives, and the remainder from the state and city stadium bonds.
The extension of the city’s stadium bonds still needs approval from the 28-member St. Louis Board of Aldermen.
Some state lawmakers oppose the project because they say bonds cannot be issued unless there is a public vote.
Mr. Nixon, aware of the political opposition to using public money to help a multibillionaire like Mr. Kroenke, insists that no money will be spent until the Rams or another team promises to stay in St. Louis for another generation.
“We won’t float the bonds unless we have a long-term deal and the private money,” Mr. Nixon said in an interview before the rally. “We’ll be prepared in the time frames that are laid out” by the N.F.L.
He added: “We view this as a punch list when you’re building a house. Let’s knock them out.”
Despite his optimism, Mr. Nixon was uncertain whether his drive to keep the Rams would work. He said he had not spoken to Mr. Kroenke, although Kevin Demoff, the team’s chief operating officer, has been briefed by the governor’s task force. Through a spokesman, Mr. Demoff declined to be interviewed.
Mr. Nixon and Mr. Peacock, instead of appealing to Mr. Kroenke, have taken their case to N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell to show that St. Louis deserves to remain on the N.F.L.’s map. They presented their plans to league officials and met with Mr. Goodell in New York before Labor Day.
“All the meetings have been encouraging with the N.F.L.,” said Mr. Peacock, who worked with the league when he was at Anheuser-Busch, a big sponsor. “If you look at the numbers, we’re 15th in the league in corporate base, 16th in population, seventh in household income. This is a great N.F.L. market, and the league belongs here.”
Whether the owners agree is likely to be decided this season.