[Elvis]

Hochman: NFL gives St. Louis the shaft

By Benjamin Hochman

The NFL passionately cares about aiding out-of-shape kids, breast cancer fighters and survivors, and the military, but here is an entire market, with hundreds and thousands of NFL fans, and the league essentially says: “You’re on your own.”

Is St. Louis an NFL city with an asterisk?

Saturday night, another example. The fellows over at the Los Angeles Times acquired a 48-page report, distributed by commissioner Roger Goodell to all NFL owners. The document said the proposed stadium solutions in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego are “unsatisfactory and inadequate,” which is interesting for numerous reasons, notably that Oakland and San Diego don’t even have stadium solutions.

More often than not, there are a few flaws with publicly financed stadiums, sure. But the way Rams owner Stan Kroenke, and now Goodell, have referred to this thing, it’s as if St. Louis’ stadium plan is just a bad as not having a stadium plan at all.

In The Times, they quoted Goodell’s report, in reference to the St. Louis stadium proposal. It said the financing package includes a request for league funding — $100 million — in excess of the maximum provided under current league policy.

You would think that with a sophisticated stadium plan, they could come to a compromise, compared to the helpless situations in San Diego and Oakland. Hey Goodell, you bungle so many other things, yet here’s a chance to save an entire city and market. But no, Goodell has lumped St. Louis’ stadium in with these other cities, calling them, again, unsatisfactory and inadequate.

Smart people can only guess what will happen in Houston this week, when the owners vote on which Los Angeles project will be a reality: the Rams in Inglewood or the Chargers and Raiders in Carson. Yet so many contradictory things seem like certainties, such as:

• San Diego is clearly the sentimental favorite among the owners to move to LA, because their owner is respected and they’ve tried everything, valiantly, to make it work in San Diego.

• But if Stan Kroenke doesn’t go to Los Angeles, he won’t settle for a return to St. Louis, and wouldn’t be welcomed by the fans anyway. So he’d be looking to other markets constantly.

It takes 24 of the 32 owner votes to pass a project. This is simply speculation, but here’s thinking there are at least nine votes to initially block the Inglewood project, and vote in favor of Carson.

1. The Chargers (obviously).

2. The Raiders (obviously).

3. The Panthers. Owner Jerry Richardson told the Post-Dispatch in November that he not only favored the Carson plan, but that he is in favor of the Rams staying in St. Louis.

4. The Texans. The powerful Bob McNair, the Texans’ owner, told the Houston Chronicle last month: “St. Louis, they have come up with a proposal that is getting pretty close, in my opinion, to being an attractive proposal. And if they do come up with an attractive proposal, then in my view, my personal opinion, I don’t think the Rams will receive the approval to relocate.

“So that would mean then you’d have two teams, San Diego and Oakland, that would be going into Carson. They have a partnership to build a stadium.”

5. The 49ers. You would think they’d benefit from having the Raiders out of the Bay Area. And just last week, 49ers owner Jed York held a news conference, talking about how he exhausted options with San Francisco before finally moving his team to Santa Clara. The Rams have an option to possibly stay in St. Louis, so perhaps York would see that as the option that makes more sense for the league.

6. The Jaguars. One wonders if Shad Khan’s past battles with Kroenke would mean he votes against Kroenke here?

7. The Giants. Their owner reportedly was thrilled when Disney’s Bob Iger got on board with the Carson project.

8. The Steelers. Same scenario as the Giants.

9. The Chiefs. Would they want to control the NFL in the state of Missouri?

OK. But it’s also been reported that Kroenke himself has nine total votes. So, in other words, the league’s owners would have to negotiate an outcome or compromise to get to the 24 votes for one side.

At this point, who knows what could happen. I still wonder if the league will determine that the Rams and Chargers, not the Raiders and Chargers, are the best fits for LA. Last month, we learned that Kroenke offered 50 percent of his Inglewood stadium project to a second team, but with numerous asterisks that make Kroenke the majority profiteer.

If the league is all about business, getting the Rams and Chargers ownership to play nice and be the LA bell cows could make more business sense than wedging the less-wealthy Raiders ownership into the LA mix. But there are so many moving parts with this — and moving parts of moving parts.

So on Tuesday, the NFL and its reporters all will ascend upon Houston. The news out of there will change the landscape of America’s dominant sports league. Here’s hoping St. Louis and its fans aren’t shooed aside. But the business of the NFL is business. Not feelings.

[ramfaninsd]

but it was okay do it to los angeles. what a hypocritical bunch in st louis. they also are getting children involved, no way that little girl wasn't coached.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/adorabl ... an-kroenke

[Hacksaw]

They sure are making a big deal out of that $100M. ?
Could someone swoop in bombshell style and cover that gap?

[dieterbrock]

The shaft?
The Rams left LA on a contract that guaranteed theyd play in a top tier stadium.
It was never delivered.
Now they have a proposal full of financial flaws, but at the root is also not a top tier stadium

I feel bad for the people of St Louis that were fooled by this Peacock asshole. He has done nothing but to build his political cred. His intention was to never actually win but to pontificate about his importance
What a joke
Anyone heard from Shane Gray lately?

[den-the-coach]

Amazing the St. Louis media never writes about the clause that was negotiated by the Devil himself in John Shaw that the Rams continue to have a top tier stadium or they had the right to leave. I remember this clause back in 1994 and how Shaw fought hard to have that caveat to the lease and Thomas Eagleton and others gave it to him because they were building a stadium and had no football team coming.

Well the chickens are coming home to roost and IMO, when the Rams gave the proposal to the CVC for the 700 million dollar upgrade they knew the CVC could not shut the dome down because of other events, but the city should have partnered with ESK as soon as he purchased the remaining majority of the Rams, however, they thought they had him because he would never leave so it's not the NFL, it's the individuals in power now and in the past along with the media that has given the Gateway City the shaft and IMO the Rams can't get out of St. Louis fast enough.

[dieterbrock]

Well the chickens are coming home to roost and IMO, when the Rams gave the proposal to the CVC for the 700 million dollar upgrade they knew the CVC could not shut the dome down because of other events, but the city should have partnered with ESK as soon as he purchased the remaining majority of the Rams, however, they thought they had him because he would never leave so it's not the NFL, it's the individuals in power now and in the past along with the media that has given the Gateway City the shaft and IMO the Rams can't get out of St. Louis fast enough.

I'm so with you on this.
From an unbiased POV, thats where the blame lies. They thought Stan with all his "I'm from Missouri" bravado would just sit back and take it.
They took advantage, and took him for graanted.

[SoCalRam78]

Chuck Berry will be the only thing decent left in St. Louis by Thursday.

Enjoy playing the role of Bernie the last few days, Hochman.

[den-the-coach]

Also want to give Kudos to Max..He communicated this on many different sites that the NFL would reject all three stadium proposals and once again our very own Mas was right on point!

[snackdaddy]

but it was okay do it to los angeles. what a hypocritical bunch in st louis. they also are getting children involved, no way that little girl wasn't coached.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/adorabl ... an-kroenke

Lol, Cute kid. Yeah look at around the one minute mark when her dad asks what about the Rams. He says "We won't have any Rams, what do you think about that?" She says "thats ok". Then you can tell she was coaxed by the look on her face and changes it.

[den-the-coach]

I'm so with you on this.
From an unbiased POV, thats where the blame lies. They thought Stan with all his "I'm from Missouri" bravado would just sit back and take it.
They took advantage, and took him for graanted.

You and I have been pretty much attached at the hip on this subject being East Coast guys rooting for them to move back...We've been on different sites trying to hold back, but here we've been able to post our true viewpoints I ave enjoyed it number % and almost home brother, almost home!