Rams Stadium Saga: Silent Stan Speaks Loudly W/out Saying A Word (101espn)

[RamFan503]

To be fair - it took some pretty questionable tactics to knock the butts out of the seats in LA. But yeah - to even get that kind of attendance after the performance we've seen over the past decade, is pretty remarkable.

 

[blackbart]

Filling a stadium when a team is winning is easy. The difficult part is filling a stadium when a team has been on the negative side of .500 for a decade.

The fans in St Louis should be applauded for putting butts in the seats even though they have been losing.

Yeah but there have been a lot of times when half of those butts were rooting for the opposing team.

Bad attendance happened in LA when Georgia was destroying the team in order to make the move to StL look legit even though when they were winning and in the Collesium they drew more than 100K to games.

 

[RamFan503]

Yeah but there have been a lot of times when half of those butts were rooting for the opposing team.

Bad attendance happened in LA when Georgia was destroying the team in order to make the move to StL look legit even though when they were winning and in the Collesium they drew more than 100K to games.

Well - to be honest, that was two games in 50 years but they did draw well.

 

[tonyl711]

Yeah but there have been a lot of times when half of those butts were rooting for the opposing team.

Bad attendance happened in LA when Georgia was destroying the team in order to make the move to StL look legit even though when they were winning and in the Collesium they drew more than 100K to games.

I guess the first sentence works 2 ways, yes there were opposing fans in the stands, but they still paid for those tickets, and being centrally located you have a lot of teams fans that have access to St Louis, you have Green Bay, Chicago, Indy, KC and Nashville all within easy driving distance, and while Stan would surely rather have Rams fans in the seats, im sure he likes knowing that if his Fans aren't buying tickets at least someone is.
for the second part, I will say that for the first 10 years the Dome sold out every game, even with one of the worst stretches in NFL history we still have had only a handful of blackouts in 18 years.

 

[blackbart]

Avoiding blackouts does not equal butts in the seats.

I have not seen a game close to capacity in years but that is to be expected with the product they were putting out. I was a little disappointed attendance was not better vs Seattle and SF this year.

 

[tonyl711]

Avoiding blackouts does not equal butts in the seats.

I have not seen a game close to capacity in years but that is to be expected with the product they were putting out. I was a little disappointed attendance was not better vs Seattle and SF this year.

avoiding blackouts means a certain percentage of tickets are sold, does not mean that every ticket sold has to be used.

 

[blackbart]

avoiding blackouts means a certain percentage of tickets are sold, does not mean that every ticket sold has to be used.

Yes we agree on that point. To avoid blackouts many times corporations buying advertisement time and broadcasters will eat up enough to get the game on air.

I don't live near either place and would rather travel to StL than LA to see a game. But thinking a move is not a good possibility would be naive.

 

[tonyl711]

Yes we agree on that point. To avoid blackouts many times corporations buying advertisement time and broadcasters will eat up enough to get the game on air.

I don't live near either place and would rather travel to StL than LA to see a game. But thinking a move is not a good possibility would be naive.

of course it is a possibility, but IMO it is a slim possibility.

 

[EastRam]

Great as always Shane.

On a side note. Looks like the NFL owes Georgia a great big thank you for her paving the way for the NFL to keep propping the LA market up as relocation bait.

They fought her tooth and nail to keep the Rams in LA.

Now the LA market is the NFL's play toy.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Thanks for posting the article, Shane. Always a good read. This was well done.

I know the league continues to talk about football in LA... And for the fans there I HOPE IT HAPPENS! But, do you think deep down the NFL sees LA as a money maker WITHOUT a team?

How many new stadiums have been built because of the threat of LA?

I'm not directing these questions at Shane, as you may not want to go there. Just to the general group... It seems to me LA is "being used".

 

[RamFan503]

Great as always Shane.

On a side note. Looks like the NFL owes Georgia a great big thank you for her paving the way for the NFL to keep propping the LA market up as relocation bait.

They fought her tooth and nail to keep the Rams in LA.

Now the LA market is the NFL's play toy.

Man - interesting take. And IMO - very true.

 

[RamFan503]

Thanks for posting the article, Shane. Always a good read. This was well done.

I know the league continues to talk about football in LA... And for the fans there I HOPE IT HAPPENS! But, do you think deep down the NFL sees LA as a money maker WITHOUT a team?

How many new stadiums have been built because of the threat of LA?

I'm not directing these questions at Shane, as you may not want to go there. Just to the general group... It seems to me LA is "being used".

Sadly - you are correct. I also hate to say it but from the people I have talked to, they are not interested in Jax or even an expansion team. Many believe the only team that makes sense is the Rams. Granted, I'm talking mostly to current or former Rams fans or those that tried to become Raiduh fans but...

You might even be surprised at how many Charger and SF fans used to be Rams fans.

It would seem that the ONLY benefit for an expansion team vs a relocation (for the team owner) would be the $200 mil in G4 money. Considering the long history of a team like the Rams, is that worth more than $200 mil? Just throwing that out there. LA is either viable or it is not. I personally don't think the free interest on $200 mil in the grand scheme of things is a tide turner.

 

[RamFan503]

Hey @ShaneG -

Did you happen to see this part of JT's Q&A? If so, do you think there is any real substance to it? It was troubling to me but maybe it's nothing or a smoke screen.

I heard from a friend who's interning in Jeff City that the rumor is nobody in the State Legislature intends to do anything to keep the team in Saint Louis, and they're only focused on making the bare minimum amount of lip service to keep people someone satisfied. Hopefully it's just a rumor, any journalistic insight? And when will we finally know?

I don't sense any groundswell of support to keep the Rams in St. Louis, that's for sure.

 

[Rambitious1]

Hi Shane, more good work keep it up.
I appreciate it.

Keep us informed as things go my friend.

Take Care.

 

[fearsomefour]

Filling a stadium when a team is winning is easy. The difficult part is filling a stadium when a team has been on the negative side of .500 for a decade.

The fans in St Louis should be applauded for putting butts in the seats even though they have been losing.

We should thank Bears, Whiner and Hawk fans also then.

 

[fearsomefour]

The money is LA is massive, the population is massive, LA Superbowls would be a given and huge (I am disappointed St Louis did not get a SB after the dome was built).
All of that said the biggest thing getting in the way of LA getting back in the NFL game is LA. If anything the politics and division is worse than 10 years ago.
If I am to be honest I would love the Rams to back to LA, but, at the end of the day I don't see it happening.
St Louis cannot be arrogant about it though.

 

[Boffo97]

All of that said the biggest thing getting in the way of LA getting back in the NFL game is LA. If anything the politics and division is worse than 10 years ago.

This is why I think, contrary to opinions of others, that a team (not necessarily the Rams) is going to move to L.A. rather than L.A. getting an expansion team.

With an expansion teams, it's the local politicians who need to get organized. With a move, it's just the team's owner.

 

[rhinobean]

I believe the STL metro area will chip in for the new stadium. State legislature won't do much as it's run by people from outside the metro area and they don't like STL much!

 

[Thordaddy]

I believe the STL metro area will chip in for the new stadium. State legislature won't do much as it's run by people from outside the metro area and they don't like STL much!

You mean the Missouruh crowd don't like the eastern part of the state?
I'm shocked,shocked I tell you.
I was about to post that yesterday, the resentment towards St Louis goes back to when the city was the only place in the state to go on daylight saving time,or at least that was a big contributor,the big city small town resentment is pretty pervasive too.

 

[den-the-coach]

Good point.
Have they both made the playoffs in the same year?
I still see possible scheduling conflicts come playoff time.
As Shane said, it's certainly not an ideal situation.
Isn't Kroenke all about owning all the facilities?

The Jets & Giants have been sharing a stadium for like 30 years and yes they have both made the playoffs without issue. IMO according to Shane if the league expands they will add two teams in Los Angeles, they will have to make it an even number.

Also if Kroenke was able to benefit financially with another team sharing I don't see that as a problem, I see it as another benefit.