Court rules Rams lawsuit can be heard in St. Louis courtroom

[LARAMSinFeb.]

My .02 is that franchise removal is the worst thing that's allowed to go on in pro sports. It should be illegal, and a form of false advertising to market a team as intrinsically associated with a locality, then move without consequence. Logically, since singular capricious owners control teams more than the fans who care in more meaningful ways and whose money makes it all work, teams should just be called the Kroenke Rams, the Jones Cowboys, etc. (The Packers are the only publicly owned team, and can't be moved, which is how it should be imo.)

Franchise removal undercuts what it means to be a fan. It's a slap in the face to all fans when a team moves, by the league, by sports media who go along with it legitimizing it, and by fans who--shortsightedly--actively support stolen teams. If you think about it, fans could put an end to the musical cities nonsense by never supporting a removed franchise in its successive city, but I realize that would require a larger awareness that's rare in this world.

 

[ozarkram]

Its about the money. Plain and simple. If anyone believes the NFL owners give a flying fig about the fans then they are fooling themselves. The bigger picture I believe is how some fans want to claim some sort of fandom superiority because of location. I have never understood that. Because I have never been to LA am I a lesser fan? Or St. Louis. Which fans should we isolate the one from Alaska or maybe Oklahoma. Maybe the ones from overseas they cant be real fans can they? That's the real problem as I see it and one we need to get pasted. Apologizes if I have offended anyone not my intent.

 

[LesBaker]

Based on the details of the lawsuit, a strong argument exists that this should be decided in arbitration. Even then, one has to wonder what both the league and the Rams are trying to hide.

What they want is to not remind everyone that this was planned and plotted and the Rams and the NFL worked in tandem to screw over the city of STL. All they had to do was say "don't bother the Rams are leaving" and this lawsuit would not be happening. But they lied an are getting sued for what the lies cost the city.

They don't want any further coverage of their bad actions.

The fact is the league broke its own rules to let the Rams and Chargers move to collect the relocation fees. Neither team, under the NFL guidelines, met the threshold for relocation. The NFL owners voted to allow it because they are greedy fuckers who care about nothing but lining their pockets.

St. Louis is trying to attract other teams from other sports. Showing them that it was all a premeditated lie will help.

I don't know what other sports teams the city is trying to get but we need to remember something important.

When the Rams were winning in STL the stadium was packed and neither Stan or Georgia complained about attendance.

My .02 is that franchise removal is the worst thing that's allowed to go on in pro sports.

And not once have we seen a team move and the owner thank the fans of the city they are abandoning. Completely classless. These guys make hundreds of millions of dollars and can't even say thank you. I can't recall a single time an owner did anything but go quiet and avoid the press.

Imagine if Kroenke had written a nice letter thanking the fans of STL rather than lying and ripping them apart.........oh wait never mind LOL.

How hard would it be to simply say thank you?

 

[bubbaramfan]

Les, I agree with your assessment, Kroenke knew he was going to move the Rams back to LA. I'm not defending him, but if you're going to bash Kroenke, It should also be pointed out that the St.Louis city fathers that made the deal to bring the Rams from LA KNEW that day would eventually come when they made the signed the contract. Sen. Eagleton, one of the major players and a signee of the contract, commented that escape clause would come back to bite the city, He and all the other signee's kept quiet about it. They allowed the public to think that if they built a stadium the Rams would stay. A flat out lie. They were complicit and culpable and as responsible for the Rams moving as Kroenke.

I get tired of hearing how it was just Kroenke who was the villan. St. Louis city father who agreed and signed that contract to begin with and then the ones who perpetuated the "build a stadium, they will stay" knowing full well that was not going to happen because they knew the contract was violated.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

the writing was on the wall when the stadium didn't meet the criteria set out in the contract. an impossible criteria to meet 20 years down the track. they all knew it was coming.

to play dumb then give a halfhearted attempt at a stadium at the death. c'mon.

let's not make the sports authority look like the good guys. they entered the deal with their eyes wide open. for them to cry foul is misleading the public. they built a stadium that didn't have a tenant, became desperate and lured the witch with a horrible deal for the city that they knew wouldn't last past 20 years. it is what it is.

.

 

[LesBaker]

The city giving a dumb lopsided deal to the Rams doesn't excuse the behavior and actions of the NFL and Kroenke. 20 years down the road the guy who fucked over Los Angeles fucked over St. Louis.

Blaming the city is odd @bubbaramfan because they could have built Jerryworld Part Two and Kroenke would have left anyway. He was plotting the move years before the lease ended and years before the city offered a stadium proposal. His mind was made up well before the lease was a factor.

Moving had nothing to do with the stupid deal and I suspect even if the lease wasn't up he would have taken the team to LA. He wasn't going to sit on that land, and he wasn't going to start building a stadium while the team was still in STL as a lame duck franchise.

Remember Demoff let it slip that they had been looking for a spot to build. This was planned well ahead of time. In hindsight we know that STL had no chance and that the Rams/Demoff/Kroenke and Goodell all lied.

 

[bubbaramfan]

If I were a St. louis taxpayer I would be mad a hell at city politicians for spending money on a proposed stadium and lying to citizens that that would keep the Rams in town. They knew it wouldn't but they did it to deflect their own culpability. Where's the public outrage in that?

 

[LesBaker]

If I were a St. louis taxpayer I would be mad a hell at city politicians for spending money on a proposed stadium and lying to citizens that that would keep the Rams in town. They knew it wouldn't but they did it to deflect their own culpability. Where's the public outrage in that?

Here's the thing though, there is no reason for outrage towards the city. They were doing what was being asked of them.

The Rams were negotiating remember..........they told the city to give them a proposal. They declined it and gave the city a counter proposal. So they were essentially telling the city and the people that they would stay if a deal got done to their liking. What else do you take away form the team working with the city towards "resolution". The two sides were talking. Though we know now that it was all smoke and mirrors.

Goodell even stepped in and told the city to do its very best. There was even hope that the NFL would add an extra $100mil to the already available G4 money to bring it to $300MIL.

Yes it was a stupid lease but Kroenke could have built a stadium of his own in STL.

In fact I was figuring that he was going to leverage the city when he got out of the lease by getting some free land and free rent at the dome while he built a stadium in STL.

 

[bubbaramfan]

There was dishonesty on both sides but most folks from St. Louis refuse to see it that way. Oh well, believe what you want. I do think the PSL people need to be reimbursed.

 

[SuperMan28]

I must say the whole relocation mess really made me admire the fact that the Green Bay Packers are the NFL's only publicly owned team. So jealous. Obviously there is a lot of messy situations they never have to worry about when it comes to having to keep a billionaire owner happy. How different would the NFL look if every team but the Packers were publicly owned? All well.

 

[Ram65]

St. Louis made a bad deal, to begin with, and made it worse by not getting a proposal for a new stadium done well before the lease ran out.

I can't get over the ongoing denial by Demoff about the Rams moving. Now, he as talked about wanting and planning the move for a long time.

Let them go to courts. I think Stan can afford to pay some money to the fans and St Loius for not being upfront about the move.

 

[LesBaker]

There was dishonesty on both sides but most folks from St. Louis refuse to see it that way. Oh well, believe what you want. I do think the PSL people need to be reimbursed.

How was the city dishonest during the negotiations that they thought were real and sincere?

I'd like to know.

St. Louis made a bad deal, to begin with, and made it worse by not getting a proposal for a new stadium done well before the lease ran out.

I can't get over the ongoing denial by Demoff about the Rams moving. Now, he as talked about wanting and planning the move for a long time.

Let them go to courts. I think Stan can afford to pay some money to the fans and St Loius for not being upfront about the move.

First of all giving the Rams a lopsided deal doesn't give the Rams/Demoff/Kroenke the right to do what they did. Second, paying out settlements is fair, and he shjould pay the city back for their expenditures just like he had to pay the PSL owners back for money he took from them.

I'm a lifelong diehard Rams fan. But what the team's spokesman and Kroenke did in STL was flat out wrong.

 

[Ram65]

First of all giving the Rams a lopsided deal doesn't give the Rams/Demoff/Kroenke the right to do what they did. Second, paying out settlements is fair, and he shjould pay the city back for their expenditures just like he had to pay the PSL owners back for money he took from them.

I'm a lifelong diehard Rams fan. But what the team's spokesman and Kroenke did in STL was flat out wrong.

Whoa...I never stated it gave them the right to do what they did....

I did say St Louis made a bad deal, to begin with, and made it worse by dragging their feet later on a new stadium.

Please reread my post.

 

[OldSchool]

It's so fun when this drama keeps getting brought up for no damned reason.

 

[ozarkram]

The marijuana thing is a non issue for me don't care. Politics and religion if allowed should have their own place but it would be a really bad idea. The location threads well its still in the news so there is that. I believe it speaks more to the morals and ethics problem the NFL has as a whole. From the present all the way back to the cheating scandals of the 2000s. Sadly lines are drawn and people are dug in. Personally I would like to see the door to the NFL flung open and the light of day shown on it. But I also understand that many would rather not look under that rock.

 

[LesBaker]

I did say St Louis made a bad deal, to begin with, and made it worse by dragging their feet later on a new stadium.

They didn't drag their feet. Both sides met deadlines for all of the things they had to.

The only blame the city bears is a bad agreement to lure the Rams to town in the first place. It was stupidly written for sure.

All of the rest of the blame, as in every single bit of it, for the fiasco lays at the feet of the Rams AND the NFL, specifically Goodell when I say NFL. Remember Goodell was encouraging STL to continue to make efforts to keep the Rams even though he knew what Kroenke's plan was and what was going to happen.

Again. I'm a Rams fan forever. But ownership and management handled this as poorly as possible. They lied through their teeth through the entire process. A simple "thank you for a great 20 years, we are going back to LA" rather than the stuff they did would have been a better way to handle this.

People like to whitewash what happened in STL, or they just don't care because they are happy the team is back in LA. But that doesn't change the facts.

 

[CGI_Ram]

This one has run its course.