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Shane Gray provides special Rams commentaries on 101sports.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ShaneGmoSTLRams.
As recently reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, L.A. Business Journal and the Los Angeles Times and later confirmed via written statement by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s Columbia-based real-estate company, The Kroenke Group, the Missouri-born and bred real estate and sports mogul has purchased a 60-acre plot of land in Inglewood, Calif. – a plot of land that has been rumored as a potential NFL stadium site since the late 1990s.
The land that Kroenke secured is a parking lot situated between The Forum – the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers during their historic Showtime Era – and Hollywood Park.
In a very real sense, “Silent” Stan’s land acquisition quite loudly and very clearly proclaimed to the powers that be in St. Louis and the key figures within the state – without the use of a single word – that it’s “game time.”
It is important to note that while 60 acres is viewed by most as of marginal size for an NFL venue and surrounding footprint in the nation’s second-largest market, Sam Farmer of the aforementioned L.A. Times points out that there are over 200 adjacent acres surrounding the property that, although currently slated to be transformed from a defunct racetrack to a modern residential community, could at least theoretically be combined with Kroenke’s purchase to form a much larger consolidated area of development.
By purchasing the above mentioned land, the Rams’ owner quickly corrected those who strangely suggested that the team had nowhere to go beyond greater St. Louis. Quite simply, when you are the second-richest owner in the NFL and share a combined husband-wife wealth of $10 billion dollars (according to Forbes’ late 2013 update, up from $5 billion in March of 2011), you can grab the land you covet and go where you want to go – assuming you desire to move and clear numerous league hurdles to do so.
When you possess the kind of paper, the kind of power and the overall level of business acumen that Kroenke does, you don’t need someone else to build a stadium for you – such as AEG’s long-proposed concept of a would-be downtown L.A. venue to be called Farmer’s Field, for example. When you are Kroenke – a man who owns one of the nation’s largest ranches – you can hire your own ranch-hands, so to speak, and build the darn thing yourself.
All that said, Kroenke is one of the 10 largest landholders in the United States, so the news of him securing a plot of land in and of itself is about as noteworthy as the sun rising in the morning. As of 2012, landreport.com listed Kroenke as the nation’s 10th-largest land owner with a reported possession of 740,000 acres. By October of 2013, Kroenke was listed by the same outlet as the country’s eighth-largest land possessor via his ownership of nearly 850,000 acres. In just one year, Kroenke’s land holdings jumped by nearly 13 percent.
Of course, this new California-based lay of land isn’t just any piece of property in some random location. No, this plot of land is located in L.A., the Rams’ former home.
As expected, the news of this purchase caused much commotion in St. Louis and Missouri.
(Please click below for much more via the full read at 101sports.com. Thank you):
http://www.101sports.com/2014/02/18/rams-stadium-saga-silent-stan-speaks-loudly-without-saying-word/
As recently reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, L.A. Business Journal and the Los Angeles Times and later confirmed via written statement by St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s Columbia-based real-estate company, The Kroenke Group, the Missouri-born and bred real estate and sports mogul has purchased a 60-acre plot of land in Inglewood, Calif. – a plot of land that has been rumored as a potential NFL stadium site since the late 1990s.
The land that Kroenke secured is a parking lot situated between The Forum – the former home of the Los Angeles Lakers during their historic Showtime Era – and Hollywood Park.
In a very real sense, “Silent” Stan’s land acquisition quite loudly and very clearly proclaimed to the powers that be in St. Louis and the key figures within the state – without the use of a single word – that it’s “game time.”
It is important to note that while 60 acres is viewed by most as of marginal size for an NFL venue and surrounding footprint in the nation’s second-largest market, Sam Farmer of the aforementioned L.A. Times points out that there are over 200 adjacent acres surrounding the property that, although currently slated to be transformed from a defunct racetrack to a modern residential community, could at least theoretically be combined with Kroenke’s purchase to form a much larger consolidated area of development.
By purchasing the above mentioned land, the Rams’ owner quickly corrected those who strangely suggested that the team had nowhere to go beyond greater St. Louis. Quite simply, when you are the second-richest owner in the NFL and share a combined husband-wife wealth of $10 billion dollars (according to Forbes’ late 2013 update, up from $5 billion in March of 2011), you can grab the land you covet and go where you want to go – assuming you desire to move and clear numerous league hurdles to do so.
When you possess the kind of paper, the kind of power and the overall level of business acumen that Kroenke does, you don’t need someone else to build a stadium for you – such as AEG’s long-proposed concept of a would-be downtown L.A. venue to be called Farmer’s Field, for example. When you are Kroenke – a man who owns one of the nation’s largest ranches – you can hire your own ranch-hands, so to speak, and build the darn thing yourself.
All that said, Kroenke is one of the 10 largest landholders in the United States, so the news of him securing a plot of land in and of itself is about as noteworthy as the sun rising in the morning. As of 2012, landreport.com listed Kroenke as the nation’s 10th-largest land owner with a reported possession of 740,000 acres. By October of 2013, Kroenke was listed by the same outlet as the country’s eighth-largest land possessor via his ownership of nearly 850,000 acres. In just one year, Kroenke’s land holdings jumped by nearly 13 percent.
Of course, this new California-based lay of land isn’t just any piece of property in some random location. No, this plot of land is located in L.A., the Rams’ former home.
As expected, the news of this purchase caused much commotion in St. Louis and Missouri.
(Please click below for much more via the full read at 101sports.com. Thank you):
http://www.101sports.com/2014/02/18/rams-stadium-saga-silent-stan-speaks-loudly-without-saying-word/
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