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Bryan Burwell
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 3535f.html
All across the National Football League landscape Monday, you couldn’t drift off for a minute without fear of missing the firing of another embattled head coach or general manager. The rumors started before the first snowflake hit the ground just after sunrise, and before lunchtime was over, most of the shake-ups were done.
In recent years at Rams Park, the cold carnage of “Black Monday” used to be as much a part of the New Year’s tradition as cracking open a bottle of champagne. Yet for a long overdue change of pace, the NFL’s brutal business did not spill a single drop of blood in Earth City as the Rams’ regular season officially came to an end.
There may be no postseason in store for the 7-8-1 Rams, but neither is there any of the usual offseason commotion that has become so routine around here. No coaches being fired. No general managers being sent packing. Stability has finally been achieved. Normality, once oh so foreign to Rams Park, has finally replaced serial dysfunction.
“The state of the franchise is as healthy as it’s been in a long time,” said Kevin Demoff, executive vice president of football operations. “But we obviously have some things out there looming, most notably the (Edward Jones Dome) arbitration that may go on through the winter and may go on into the early spring. We have to get that resolved and put at ease people’s concerns about where we’re going to play our games within St. Louis over the next 20, 30, 40 years, and then that will put that question to rest.”
Go back and read that last sentence again very, very, very slowly.
If you are one of the multitudes of Rams loyalists who have been waiting for someone of significant power within this organization to state their desire to keep the franchise in St. Louis at all costs – particularly after the repeated public appearances in 2012 of owner Stan Kroenke, who has strategically avoided such utterances – this borders on earth-shaking.
“We have to get that resolved and put at ease people’s concerns about where we’re going to play our games within St. Louis over the next 20,30, 40 years...”
On the Rams’ organizational food chain, Demoff is the franchise’s chief operating officer. When it comes to the business affairs of the Rams, he answers only to Kroenke, which means his words have some true cachet. This is as close as we’ve gotten to anyone saying anything remotely that sounds like the Rams’ true intent is to stay in St. Louis, not race off to a pretty new yet-to-be-built stadium in Los Angeles.
In a one-on-one interview with Demoff for my new digital series “Upon Further Review” that will air in its entirety Thursday on stltoday.com, the Rams official discussed, among many things, the future of the Rams in St. Louis, the upcoming Dome lease arbitration and the possibility of building a new stadium that would involve substantial financing from the NFL and the Rams:
Q: “Could you repeat that (last sentence slowly)?”
Demoff (laughing): “I want to ease people’s concerns about where we’re going to play within St. Louis over the next 20, 30, 40 years. ... That’s really the way we’re looking at this. I know a lot has been written and said (about Kroenke’s ultimate) intentions, but our goal from the beginning has been to get a first-class facility that makes St. Louis a destination for top-tier sporting events — Super Bowls, Final Fours, Mizzou-Illinois, college bowl games, Olympic swimming trials – all the things that we’re looking to make (the Dome) a better facility for our fans not just the eight weeks we play there, but something for our community 365 days. That’s the focus of the arbitration from our perspective and I hope that goes well.”
Q: Is it possible that the outcome of the arbitration can lead you away from the Edward Jones Dome (rehabilitation) and to the construction of a new stadium?
Demoff: “That hasn’t been our focus and it’s really not what the arbitration is about. ... (But) one of the benefits of this process is … we have a neutral set of arbitrators (who will look at the Rams’ proposal and the CVC’s proposal) … and a neutral set of eyes, that independent opinion, may help bring the parties together and solve the issue. ... But if it doesn’t, then I think you can get into a more creative process, and that is a discussion that needs to be held by everyone in this region about what is best for this region. And if that discussion leads to what’s best for this region is a different site or a different concept, I think we would have to listen to that ... but we’ll cross that bridge if we wind up there.”
Whatever plan the CVC, city, county and state officials might agree to with the Rams after the arbitration, the one thing that you can expect is a big financial contribution from the Rams and the NFL. With the new stadium financing plans that are in place to help pay for new stadium construction or renovations to existing structures, it’s possible that more than $500 million in funding could come directly from the NFL’s G-4 loan program and Kroenke’s rather deep pockets.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the result of the Dome arbitration ends without a resolution, because I’m not sure anyone on either side of the negotiating table ultimately wants the Rams to be in the Dome for the next 20 years. The CVC and the city don’t want to shut down convention business while the Dome is redone up to the Rams’ higher vision. And I am fairly confident that the Rams don’t want to play in any renovated Dome that will be gussied up as modestly as the CVC wants.
But to all the sky-is-falling folks out there, it doesn’t mean the Rams are on their way to LA. In fact, a stalemate after arbitration might actually be a good thing.
“I think the one thing that is important for fans to know is that if the arbitration does not solve the issue, it’s not all gloom and doom from that point,” said Demoff. “We still have two years left on the lease before it goes year to year and then you’ll get to the point where most cities are when a lease is expiring. Then we just have to sit down and figure out how to get a new lease.”
Or a new stadium.
Count me in the new stadium crowd.
I firmly believe that a man like Kroenke who appreciates the value of developing and owning his own properties, would love to have the land and the property to develop a sprawling complex that would be similar to the massive growth around the Arizona Cardinals’ domed stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale.
Oh yes, and just be be perfectly clear, that new stadium would be in St. Louis County, not Los Angeles.
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... 3535f.html
All across the National Football League landscape Monday, you couldn’t drift off for a minute without fear of missing the firing of another embattled head coach or general manager. The rumors started before the first snowflake hit the ground just after sunrise, and before lunchtime was over, most of the shake-ups were done.
In recent years at Rams Park, the cold carnage of “Black Monday” used to be as much a part of the New Year’s tradition as cracking open a bottle of champagne. Yet for a long overdue change of pace, the NFL’s brutal business did not spill a single drop of blood in Earth City as the Rams’ regular season officially came to an end.
There may be no postseason in store for the 7-8-1 Rams, but neither is there any of the usual offseason commotion that has become so routine around here. No coaches being fired. No general managers being sent packing. Stability has finally been achieved. Normality, once oh so foreign to Rams Park, has finally replaced serial dysfunction.
“The state of the franchise is as healthy as it’s been in a long time,” said Kevin Demoff, executive vice president of football operations. “But we obviously have some things out there looming, most notably the (Edward Jones Dome) arbitration that may go on through the winter and may go on into the early spring. We have to get that resolved and put at ease people’s concerns about where we’re going to play our games within St. Louis over the next 20, 30, 40 years, and then that will put that question to rest.”
Go back and read that last sentence again very, very, very slowly.
If you are one of the multitudes of Rams loyalists who have been waiting for someone of significant power within this organization to state their desire to keep the franchise in St. Louis at all costs – particularly after the repeated public appearances in 2012 of owner Stan Kroenke, who has strategically avoided such utterances – this borders on earth-shaking.
“We have to get that resolved and put at ease people’s concerns about where we’re going to play our games within St. Louis over the next 20,30, 40 years...”
On the Rams’ organizational food chain, Demoff is the franchise’s chief operating officer. When it comes to the business affairs of the Rams, he answers only to Kroenke, which means his words have some true cachet. This is as close as we’ve gotten to anyone saying anything remotely that sounds like the Rams’ true intent is to stay in St. Louis, not race off to a pretty new yet-to-be-built stadium in Los Angeles.
In a one-on-one interview with Demoff for my new digital series “Upon Further Review” that will air in its entirety Thursday on stltoday.com, the Rams official discussed, among many things, the future of the Rams in St. Louis, the upcoming Dome lease arbitration and the possibility of building a new stadium that would involve substantial financing from the NFL and the Rams:
Q: “Could you repeat that (last sentence slowly)?”
Demoff (laughing): “I want to ease people’s concerns about where we’re going to play within St. Louis over the next 20, 30, 40 years. ... That’s really the way we’re looking at this. I know a lot has been written and said (about Kroenke’s ultimate) intentions, but our goal from the beginning has been to get a first-class facility that makes St. Louis a destination for top-tier sporting events — Super Bowls, Final Fours, Mizzou-Illinois, college bowl games, Olympic swimming trials – all the things that we’re looking to make (the Dome) a better facility for our fans not just the eight weeks we play there, but something for our community 365 days. That’s the focus of the arbitration from our perspective and I hope that goes well.”
Q: Is it possible that the outcome of the arbitration can lead you away from the Edward Jones Dome (rehabilitation) and to the construction of a new stadium?
Demoff: “That hasn’t been our focus and it’s really not what the arbitration is about. ... (But) one of the benefits of this process is … we have a neutral set of arbitrators (who will look at the Rams’ proposal and the CVC’s proposal) … and a neutral set of eyes, that independent opinion, may help bring the parties together and solve the issue. ... But if it doesn’t, then I think you can get into a more creative process, and that is a discussion that needs to be held by everyone in this region about what is best for this region. And if that discussion leads to what’s best for this region is a different site or a different concept, I think we would have to listen to that ... but we’ll cross that bridge if we wind up there.”
Whatever plan the CVC, city, county and state officials might agree to with the Rams after the arbitration, the one thing that you can expect is a big financial contribution from the Rams and the NFL. With the new stadium financing plans that are in place to help pay for new stadium construction or renovations to existing structures, it’s possible that more than $500 million in funding could come directly from the NFL’s G-4 loan program and Kroenke’s rather deep pockets.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the result of the Dome arbitration ends without a resolution, because I’m not sure anyone on either side of the negotiating table ultimately wants the Rams to be in the Dome for the next 20 years. The CVC and the city don’t want to shut down convention business while the Dome is redone up to the Rams’ higher vision. And I am fairly confident that the Rams don’t want to play in any renovated Dome that will be gussied up as modestly as the CVC wants.
But to all the sky-is-falling folks out there, it doesn’t mean the Rams are on their way to LA. In fact, a stalemate after arbitration might actually be a good thing.
“I think the one thing that is important for fans to know is that if the arbitration does not solve the issue, it’s not all gloom and doom from that point,” said Demoff. “We still have two years left on the lease before it goes year to year and then you’ll get to the point where most cities are when a lease is expiring. Then we just have to sit down and figure out how to get a new lease.”
Or a new stadium.
Count me in the new stadium crowd.
I firmly believe that a man like Kroenke who appreciates the value of developing and owning his own properties, would love to have the land and the property to develop a sprawling complex that would be similar to the massive growth around the Arizona Cardinals’ domed stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale.
Oh yes, and just be be perfectly clear, that new stadium would be in St. Louis County, not Los Angeles.
