To the Pro-Stadium Rams Fans: A Call to Action
PostPosted:9 years 7 months ago
http://www.101sports.com/2015/11/13/to- ... to-action/
To the Pro-Stadium Rams Fans: A Call to Action
Posted by: Bernie Miklasz in Bernie Miklasz, National Football League November 13, 2015
This is a public-service announcement for Rams fans that want to keep their team, and do what they can to help stop Stan Kroenke from moving the franchise to Los Angeles to feed his insatiable lust for money.
This is a public-service announcement for Rams fans and anyone else that’s sick and tired of hearing our sports market dismissed as a “baseball town” that won’t support football — a claim that’s still ranks among the worst sports-related lies I’ve ever encountered. The falsehood continues to be perpetuated by lazy national media members that swallow the spin.
This is a public-service announcement for those who take pride in our city and should be offended — no, make that outraged — by the whispering campaign that’s still going on … with an operative employed by Kroenke going around telling NFL media and executives how St. Louis is a dying, dangerous, violent, unlivable hellhole.
The way this guy talks, you’d think Rams fans were being chased and attacked by rabid wolves and gun-toting terrorists sent here by ISIS. The way three media people (from out of town) have relayed this to me, this guy shakes his head with feigned sadness and declares that the pitiful St. Louis city must be abandoned because of the dire circumstances that make it impossible for the Rams to prosper here.
Oh, yeah?
Is that right?
Then why are the St. Louis Cardinals the most profitable team in Major League Baseball? (That, according to Forbes.) Why are the St. Louis Blues — who have never won a Stanley Cup — filling Scottrade Center to 97 percent of capacity? Go ask Bill DeWitt Jr. and Tom Stillman about their feelings on owning a successful franchise in St. Louis.
It isn’t that complicated, or difficult.
This is all about giving STL fans a good and competitive team — and engaged ownership.
You don’t even have to win a championship and the enthusiastic STL fans will be there; just ask the Blues and their resilient loyalists who are still dreaming of that elusive chalice. And you need caring ownership that wants to connect with the fans and show appreciation instead of metaphorically spitting on them.
Do the Rams meet any of the basic criteria I just described?
(I’ll pause while you laugh … )
Since Kroenke enthusiastically helped Georgia Frontiere move the team here in 1995 to seize the massive profit opportunity generated by a new stadium that was 100 percent financed with public money and set up with the sweetest lease in the NFL, the franchise ranks 27th in the NFL in winning percentage (.425). Since last making the NFL playoffs in 2004, the Rams are 31st in the league with a .318 winning percentage. The Rams are the only NFC team that failed to make the playoffs — at all — since 2005.
In a related note, the Cardinals and Blues have competed in a combined 120 postseason games in their respective leagues since the Rams last appeared in the playoff tournament. Let’s see: two teams win and are thriving at the gate. Two teams that aren’t threatening to move. Two teams that aren’t trashing the city to justify some planned escape that’s based on nothing more than pure, shameless greed. Two teams that are outstanding community partners.
And then you have the Rams.
And Enos Stanley Kroenke.
And the seemingly endless on-field futility and intentional owner-driven alienation that’s battered a fan base which hangs in there much better than the franchise deserves.
The Rams and ESK don’t do so well at this ticket-sale thing.
Gee.
Go figure.
Anyway, now that I’ve warmed you up (ahem) …
To the pro-stadium fans, here’s my appeal to you: we need a great turnout of pro-stadium Rams fans to attend the public hearing being held on Saturday morning at the site of the proposed National Car Rental Field.
The host is Alderman Steve Conway, who chairs the city’s Ways and Means Committee.
The location: 1230 North Second Street.
The time: 11 a.m.
Please participate. Let Conway and the committee know how you feel. You can make a difference.
If I sound like a pro-STL cheerleader — well, you’re absolutely right. I live in this city. I am proud to live in this city. City life can be frustrating, but I don’t care about the annoyances — I still love it. And I will always defend this city, especially when liars are attacking it.
And I believe in the overall value of the stadium project and what it would mean for downtown on so many levels.
(For my fellow city residents that oppose the project: you have the right to your opinion. And I respect your freedom to express your dissent. But as a taxpayer who has owned two different houses and lived in a city neighborhood since 1985, and as someone who has proudly supported city-related causes with my money — believe it or not, I also have a right to an opinion. And I don’t have to be “objective” about this. If I didn’t think this project was a good idea, I’d say that. But I want this to happen, and I have as much of a right as you do to speak on in favor of it.)
But here’s why pro-stadium fans need to post up … This comes at a critical stage of the process, with the St. Louis Board of Aldermen about to discuss and debate the merit of the city’s prospective financial commitment to the project. The city’s share is absolutely mandatory. If the Aldermen reject the proposal, and kill the stadium project, then we’re finished as an NFL town. And we lose a wonderful opportunity to keep the Rams, redevelop the neglected north riverfront, create jobs, repurpose the convention center to generate more tax revenue for the city, and attract an MLS franchise.
Saturday’s public hearing basically serves as a focus-group listening opportunity for the Aldermen. You can expect anti-stadium obstructionists to show up, and it’s important for pro-stadium fans to be there in large numbers to air out their feelings. St. Louis fans made a terrific impression in the NFL’s recent public hearing at the Peabody Opera House. The fans sent a strong message to the NFL delegation, and now we have to do it again, this time in front of the Ways and Means Committee — and by extension, the Board of Aldermen.
The irony? As one person in the know told me: our effort to keep the Rams is in better shape with the NFL right now than it is with the Board of Alderman. Man, I hate to say this … but at the moment you can make the case that the Aldermen are the biggest remaining obstacle in our bid to keep the Rams.
Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz have worked like crazy to tell our story to the NFL and key owners to gain real empathy and support — which completely upset the odds and defied the doom-and-gloom forecasts of the Rams being already gone, with no hope of keeping them.
Peacock and Blitz have achieved so much in a year, so much that even cynical and doubting NFL owners are stunned by what’s happened here. I spoke to one NFL owner about this several months ago; he basically told me that it was too little too late for St. Louis. More recently he told me that he’s amazed by the work of this task force. His view on keeping the Rams in St. Louis has changed — dramatically.
But Peacock and Blitz aren’t finished. They need help. Now that the task force has moved this this project inside the five-yard line and within feet of the end zone, the most imposing risk is having the whole thing detonated by the Board of Aldermen.
Very few people gave Peacock and Blitz a chance to win over the NFL, or to get this project off the ground. And now that they’re in place to make this happen, they could be undermined at the last minute by the Board of Alderman.
I can only imagine the national laughter and ridicule if St. Louis defeats St. Louis.
So please show up if you care … and if you can. And also use the hashtag #STLNFL on social channels to fire up your fellow Rams fans. And the labor leaders, and the business leaders, and even the soccer fans that want an MLS franchise to call their own.
Don’t let the weasels win by successfully smearing our town.
Get down to the proposed stadium site at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Give Peacock and Blitz a hand. And make your stand.
This has been a public-service announcement.
Thanks for reading…
–Bernie
To the Pro-Stadium Rams Fans: A Call to Action
Posted by: Bernie Miklasz in Bernie Miklasz, National Football League November 13, 2015
This is a public-service announcement for Rams fans that want to keep their team, and do what they can to help stop Stan Kroenke from moving the franchise to Los Angeles to feed his insatiable lust for money.
This is a public-service announcement for Rams fans and anyone else that’s sick and tired of hearing our sports market dismissed as a “baseball town” that won’t support football — a claim that’s still ranks among the worst sports-related lies I’ve ever encountered. The falsehood continues to be perpetuated by lazy national media members that swallow the spin.
This is a public-service announcement for those who take pride in our city and should be offended — no, make that outraged — by the whispering campaign that’s still going on … with an operative employed by Kroenke going around telling NFL media and executives how St. Louis is a dying, dangerous, violent, unlivable hellhole.
The way this guy talks, you’d think Rams fans were being chased and attacked by rabid wolves and gun-toting terrorists sent here by ISIS. The way three media people (from out of town) have relayed this to me, this guy shakes his head with feigned sadness and declares that the pitiful St. Louis city must be abandoned because of the dire circumstances that make it impossible for the Rams to prosper here.
Oh, yeah?
Is that right?
Then why are the St. Louis Cardinals the most profitable team in Major League Baseball? (That, according to Forbes.) Why are the St. Louis Blues — who have never won a Stanley Cup — filling Scottrade Center to 97 percent of capacity? Go ask Bill DeWitt Jr. and Tom Stillman about their feelings on owning a successful franchise in St. Louis.
It isn’t that complicated, or difficult.
This is all about giving STL fans a good and competitive team — and engaged ownership.
You don’t even have to win a championship and the enthusiastic STL fans will be there; just ask the Blues and their resilient loyalists who are still dreaming of that elusive chalice. And you need caring ownership that wants to connect with the fans and show appreciation instead of metaphorically spitting on them.
Do the Rams meet any of the basic criteria I just described?
(I’ll pause while you laugh … )
Since Kroenke enthusiastically helped Georgia Frontiere move the team here in 1995 to seize the massive profit opportunity generated by a new stadium that was 100 percent financed with public money and set up with the sweetest lease in the NFL, the franchise ranks 27th in the NFL in winning percentage (.425). Since last making the NFL playoffs in 2004, the Rams are 31st in the league with a .318 winning percentage. The Rams are the only NFC team that failed to make the playoffs — at all — since 2005.
In a related note, the Cardinals and Blues have competed in a combined 120 postseason games in their respective leagues since the Rams last appeared in the playoff tournament. Let’s see: two teams win and are thriving at the gate. Two teams that aren’t threatening to move. Two teams that aren’t trashing the city to justify some planned escape that’s based on nothing more than pure, shameless greed. Two teams that are outstanding community partners.
And then you have the Rams.
And Enos Stanley Kroenke.
And the seemingly endless on-field futility and intentional owner-driven alienation that’s battered a fan base which hangs in there much better than the franchise deserves.
The Rams and ESK don’t do so well at this ticket-sale thing.
Gee.
Go figure.
Anyway, now that I’ve warmed you up (ahem) …
To the pro-stadium fans, here’s my appeal to you: we need a great turnout of pro-stadium Rams fans to attend the public hearing being held on Saturday morning at the site of the proposed National Car Rental Field.
The host is Alderman Steve Conway, who chairs the city’s Ways and Means Committee.
The location: 1230 North Second Street.
The time: 11 a.m.
Please participate. Let Conway and the committee know how you feel. You can make a difference.
If I sound like a pro-STL cheerleader — well, you’re absolutely right. I live in this city. I am proud to live in this city. City life can be frustrating, but I don’t care about the annoyances — I still love it. And I will always defend this city, especially when liars are attacking it.
And I believe in the overall value of the stadium project and what it would mean for downtown on so many levels.
(For my fellow city residents that oppose the project: you have the right to your opinion. And I respect your freedom to express your dissent. But as a taxpayer who has owned two different houses and lived in a city neighborhood since 1985, and as someone who has proudly supported city-related causes with my money — believe it or not, I also have a right to an opinion. And I don’t have to be “objective” about this. If I didn’t think this project was a good idea, I’d say that. But I want this to happen, and I have as much of a right as you do to speak on in favor of it.)
But here’s why pro-stadium fans need to post up … This comes at a critical stage of the process, with the St. Louis Board of Aldermen about to discuss and debate the merit of the city’s prospective financial commitment to the project. The city’s share is absolutely mandatory. If the Aldermen reject the proposal, and kill the stadium project, then we’re finished as an NFL town. And we lose a wonderful opportunity to keep the Rams, redevelop the neglected north riverfront, create jobs, repurpose the convention center to generate more tax revenue for the city, and attract an MLS franchise.
Saturday’s public hearing basically serves as a focus-group listening opportunity for the Aldermen. You can expect anti-stadium obstructionists to show up, and it’s important for pro-stadium fans to be there in large numbers to air out their feelings. St. Louis fans made a terrific impression in the NFL’s recent public hearing at the Peabody Opera House. The fans sent a strong message to the NFL delegation, and now we have to do it again, this time in front of the Ways and Means Committee — and by extension, the Board of Aldermen.
The irony? As one person in the know told me: our effort to keep the Rams is in better shape with the NFL right now than it is with the Board of Alderman. Man, I hate to say this … but at the moment you can make the case that the Aldermen are the biggest remaining obstacle in our bid to keep the Rams.
Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz have worked like crazy to tell our story to the NFL and key owners to gain real empathy and support — which completely upset the odds and defied the doom-and-gloom forecasts of the Rams being already gone, with no hope of keeping them.
Peacock and Blitz have achieved so much in a year, so much that even cynical and doubting NFL owners are stunned by what’s happened here. I spoke to one NFL owner about this several months ago; he basically told me that it was too little too late for St. Louis. More recently he told me that he’s amazed by the work of this task force. His view on keeping the Rams in St. Louis has changed — dramatically.
But Peacock and Blitz aren’t finished. They need help. Now that the task force has moved this this project inside the five-yard line and within feet of the end zone, the most imposing risk is having the whole thing detonated by the Board of Aldermen.
Very few people gave Peacock and Blitz a chance to win over the NFL, or to get this project off the ground. And now that they’re in place to make this happen, they could be undermined at the last minute by the Board of Alderman.
I can only imagine the national laughter and ridicule if St. Louis defeats St. Louis.
So please show up if you care … and if you can. And also use the hashtag #STLNFL on social channels to fire up your fellow Rams fans. And the labor leaders, and the business leaders, and even the soccer fans that want an MLS franchise to call their own.
Don’t let the weasels win by successfully smearing our town.
Get down to the proposed stadium site at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Give Peacock and Blitz a hand. And make your stand.
This has been a public-service announcement.
Thanks for reading…
–Bernie
