New: Latest on Kroenke, Rams and NFL in STL

[dbrooks25]

If they leave, that fact alone would stick in my craw. GF signing that escape clause into the lease would be the other. She should have known better too considering see just exploited one to leave LA.

Yeah, the city was willing to do whatever to get the team here. Damned that clause, lol.

 

[Hacksaw]

It wouldn't increase it like LA would, you're right about that, but most other places wouldn't either.

Here in-lies the rub and why SD and Oak are clamoring to get in before the door closes. Carson v Inglewood is a battle on a fair playing field (even though the 2 projects aren't). LA v StL or most anywhere else, isn't. Factor 50 years of Rams history in LA and,, well StL should have nothing to feel ashamed about.

 

[bluecoconuts]

The fact that SK blocked Shahid Khan from buying this team makes me hate the freaker even more. When Khan put his bid in he made it known that he wanted to keep the team in the Stl area and I 100% believe he would have. He seems to be a good owner who cares about the people who support his team. Damn, what could have been.

I went looking around for articles when he took over, it seems that nobody seemed to really care. There was one article that expressed skepticism about Kroenke taking over, saying he may look to move instead of commit like Khan was, but otherwise it seemed like nobody was happy or upset. I wasn't able to closely follow at the time, so I don't know how excited/disappointed people were.

Hard to say how Khan would act though, on one hand he is dedicated to Jacksonville, but he is stuck there. We'd probably have more London games. I think he would have been more dedicated to St Louis, but at the same time he has been pretty ruthless in the past, he may have gotten upset as well. I think Stan wanted to stay, but got a little pissed when the city didn't move fast enough. Now that he's seemingly made up his mind, it's harder to change it. Then again, what do I know?

 

[blue4]

I went looking around for articles when he took over, it seems that nobody seemed to really care. There was one article that expressed skepticism about Kroenke taking over, saying he may look to move instead of commit like Khan was, but otherwise it seemed like nobody was happy or upset. I wasn't able to closely follow at the time, so I don't know how excited/disappointed people were.

Hard to say how Khan would act though, on one hand he is dedicated to Jacksonville, but he is stuck there. We'd probably have more London games. I think he would have been more dedicated to St Louis, but at the same time he has been pretty ruthless in the past, he may have gotten upset as well. I think Stan wanted to stay, but got a little pissed when the city didn't move fast enough. Now that he's seemingly made up his mind, it's harder to change it. Then again, what do I know?

There was quite a lot of concern Stan would move the team, and more than a few who thought Khan was, I guess for lack of a better term, less worldly than Stan. Therefore the implication was more loyal to the town. That's speaking only from my section of the world. I've been working with the same people since 1999 so I do remember these conversations pretty clearly. I remember one old guy pounding that drum all the time, just referred to Stan as Mrs Wal-Mart lol. I thought he was nuts. Old cranky bastard must have had a crystal ball, or just years experience living in STL. Obviously that's an unofficial opinion but it was somewhat of a concern, just not taken very seriously by the PD at the time.

 

[BuiltRamTough]

Sure as hell ain't St. Louis' fault. Put a winner out there and that will increase the value as well. Oh, and moving into a new riverfront stadium would help. It wouldn't increase it like LA would, you're right about that, but most other places wouldn't either.

Some teams like the jags and Panthers have had it worse then the Rams but they're worth higher then the Rams but I get what you're saying and winning helps. I just don't understand how the Jags are higher and teams like the Titans are higher then the Rams. Look at the Forbes list you'll see. It is what it is.

http://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/list/

 

[BuiltRamTough]

I went looking around for articles when he took over, it seems that nobody seemed to really care. There was one article that expressed skepticism about Kroenke taking over, saying he may look to move instead of commit like Khan was, but otherwise it seemed like nobody was happy or upset. I wasn't able to closely follow at the time, so I don't know how excited/disappointed people were.

Hard to say how Khan would act though, on one hand he is dedicated to Jacksonville, but he is stuck there. We'd probably have more London games. I think he would have been more dedicated to St Louis, but at the same time he has been pretty ruthless in the past, he may have gotten upset as well. I think Stan wanted to stay, but got a little pissed when the city didn't move fast enough. Now that he's seemingly made up his mind, it's harder to change it. Then again, what do I know?

Sureee Khan loves Jacksonville. He loves playing in front of the good people in Jacksonville. That's why they keep on playing in London. Eventually they'll be playing in Germany and Mexico. These guys want to maximize their earnings. That's what they're about that how they got to own a team. Khan is a legitimate born and raised business man. He's such a good caring guy though Bc he talks to the media. He loves Jacksonville as much he would love STL if he won the bid to buy the Rams.

 

[dbrooks25]

Some teams like the jags and Panthers have had it worse then the Rams but they're worth higher then the Rams but I get what you're saying and winning helps. I just don't understand how the Jags are higher and teams like the Titans are higher then the Rams. Look at the Forbes list you'll see. It is what it is.

http://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/list/

Nope, there isn't a team that has had it worse than the Rams in the past 10 seasons. In the past 10 seasons, the Rams have had ZERO winning seasons while the Jags have put up 3 of them and 5 seasons of at least .500 football. Also, the way a team is ran has a lot to do with their value as well. You can't convince many that Nashville and and Jacksonville are better football towns than St. Louis. There are many factors that go into a team value, so I'm not sure why exactly they are higher on the list.

 

[dbrooks25]

Sureee Khan loves Jacksonville. He loves playing in front of the good people in Jacksonville. That's why they keep on playing in London. Eventually they'll be playing in Germany and Mexico. These guys want to maximize their earnings. That's what they're about that how they got to own a team. Khan is a legitimate born and raised business man. He's such a good caring guy though Bc he talks to the media. He loves Jacksonville as much he would love STL if he won the bid to buy the Rams.

Kahn invested $20 million of his own money to help improve the stadium in Jacksonville, so I think that shows that he cares about the city some at the very least. Kahn is also a University of IL grad and I believe he is a Cardinals fan and was a St. Louis Rams fan before he attempted to purchase the team. I fully believe he would have done his best to keep the team here if he owned them. I could be wrong, however.

 

[BuiltRamTough]

Nope, there isn't a team that has had it worse than the Rams in the past 10 seasons. In the past 10 seasons, the Rams have had ZERO winning seasons while the Jags have put up 3 of them and 5 seasons of at least .500 football. Also, the way a team is ran has a lot to do with their value as well. You can't convince many that Nashville and and Jacksonville are better football towns than St. Louis. There are many factors that go into a team value, so I'm not sure why exactly they are higher on the list.

I never claimed Jacksonville and Nashville are better markets, that's why I asked why there worth more. I don't get the value of the last 15. Why is Tampa is all the way up there?

 

[bluecoconuts]

I never claimed Jacksonville and Nashville are better markets, that's why I asked why there worth more. I don't get the value of the last 15. Why is Tampa is all the way up there?

Stadium, success, brand name, etc, it all factors in. Since the NFL doesn't open up their books, there's some guess work involved.

Winning would obviously help St Louis, as would a new stadium, and better branding. The unfortunate thing, is that if they do all that in St Louis, they wont be worth as much as if they do all that in LA, just by nature of location. It's how business works, that's why my apartment in LA is 1400 a month for a one bedroom, and that's a very good price for the area. Typically apartments are closer to 2 grand, unless you want a really run down, in the ghetto, no AC apartment (which still usually run for 12-1500 a month). I was looking around St Louis and I could get so much more for half the price. Location location location.

 

[Big Willie]

Unfortunately, this is a LA money grab and the rich will get richer. History shows the common man always gets screwed, so STL better be prepared to take it in the shorts. I for one, will not bend over and have the Raiders shoved up my ass.

 

[RamBill]

How six NFL owners will change the fate of St. Louis football
• By David Hunn

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_85bbe024-ef0e-5e65-b7f1-20588b5a6597.html

PHOENIX • The face of St. Louis football walked the gilded halls of the Arizona Biltmore hotel last week, in double-buckled loafers, a blue plaid suit, aviator sunglasses and a grin.

At the close of last week’s annual meeting of National Football League owners, there was no longer any doubt: Stan Kroenke wants to move the Rams to Los Angeles.

On Monday, a league executive briefed teams on Kroenke’s plans for a glamorous, 80,000-seat, $1.86 billion stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Afterward, a group of key owners and league executives made another thing clear: Moving the Rams will be difficult if St. Louis planners nail down a proposal to build a new football stadium downtown.

And that shifts the fate of St. Louis football out of the enigmatic owner’s hands and — temporarily — into those of St. Louisans.

Eventually, the decision will come down to a room and the NFL’s 32 owners. “At the end of the day, it’s an owners vote,” said Pittsburgh Steelers owner and NFL stadium committee chairman Art Rooney II. “That’s where this will wind up. It’s got to get 24 votes.”

But St. Louis’ chance won’t get that far if local planners can’t cement the details of their riverfront stadium proposal.

The fight for a team in Los Angeles changed battlefields last week. The debate moved from the public forum into a private and much more managed setting: owners committees. One such committee will research, debate and eventually write recommendations on a move to the LA market.

There is no longer real discussion of whether owners will try to relocate. Only which teams will go. And which cities will lose a team.

“This could come to a vote in a year,” said Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants. The NFL has made it “very clear,” he said — St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland need to “get their proposals to their respective teams sooner rather than later.”

“Is it crunch time? Is it a two-minute warning yet? No,” said Tisch. “But ... those three cities are kind of in the fourth quarter.”

‘SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE’

The NFL governs itself much as does any large company or association. A chief executive — Commissioner Roger Goodell — runs the organization and reports to the board — the owners. The owners break into small working committees, which tackle major tasks and make recommendations to the full board. While the full board votes on final decisions, those committee recommendations carry weight.

And the first stop for each of the stadium plans will be the newly formed Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities.

As the Phoenix meeting stretched into the week, the Post-Dispatch tracked down all six team owners Goodell appointed to the LA committee.

All but one — Kansas City Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt — spoke about their task. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, New York Giants co-owner John Mara, the Houston Texans’ Bob McNair, the Carolina Panthers’ Jerry Richardson and the Steelers’ Rooney each emphasized their commitment to keeping teams in local markets.

“I mean, when we put these relocation guidelines in place, again, it was with the intent to create stability, to create a bias for keeping a team in the home market, if at all possible,” Rooney said. “And I don’t sense that there’s any big change in that thinking in the league.

“We never wanted to be a league that had teams moving all over the place at the drop of a hat,” Rooney continued.

But they each also stressed that only applies under one condition: if hometowns mount real plans.

“We’ve got to remove the uncertainty,” Richardson said.

The owners’ declarations are heavy with meaning. The San Diego Chargers have been asking for a new stadium for 14 years, and yet the city isn’t scheduled to present a proposal to the team until mid-May. “It’s kind of getting to the point where something has to give,” Chargers owner Dean Spanos told the Post-Dispatch.

And Oakland regional officials have been at such odds with each other, they didn’t even vote to begin working together on a project until last week. Their proposal won’t be ready until August.

“If you want to consider that progress, that’s what it is,” Mark Davis, owner of the Raiders, said Tuesday. “Yeah, we’ve been at it for six or seven years now.”

The Chargers-Raiders two-team, $1.7 billion stadium proposal in Carson, Calif., announced just a month ago, is quickly gaining ground on Kroenke’s plan. But it’s still in second place.

And all of that leaves St. Louis planners in a unique position. Yes, they face an owner with means and momentum. But they are front-runners, too.

If St. Louis planners can hammer out the financing and market feasibility of their 64,000-seat, $985 million riverfront proposal, then perhaps they can persuade NFL owners that the region doesn’t deserve to lose a team.

‘GOOD TO SEE YOU’

The first Kroenke sighting came late Monday afternoon. A throng of reporters chased him down the Biltmore hallways. Rams operations chief Kevin Demoff flanked his left. “We’ve got to run,” Demoff told them. “I’m sorry.”

The Post-Dispatch caught up. Kroenke smiled, then chuckled upon hearing the name of his team’s hometown paper.

“Good to see you,” said Kroenke.

“We’ll keep walking,” said Demoff.

By the meeting’s end on Wednesday, Kroenke’s timeline was clearer: Los Angeles stadium plans due to Goodell at the end of April. A potential vote at the next owners meeting, in May in San Francisco. And proposals for hometown stadiums this spring.

Goodell has praised the progress in St. Louis. And it has been substantial, by all accounts.

Gov. Jay Nixon’s two-man task force has directed the Edward Jones Dome Authority to hire Doug Woodruff and his team at Downtown STL to assemble land north of downtown. The authority refused to release Woodruff’s contract, citing real estate exceptions to Missouri public records laws. But Woodruff said they’ve already cut a few checks to land owners.

Designs are progressing. Demoff, who is attending task force meetings — as requested by the NFL — is helping advance the stadium’s design. Local design firm HOK is consistently updating stadium plans.

And the Pennsylvania venue management firm SMG is already assessing the market, stadium financing deals, and possible lease agreements with a team, at a cost of $200,000 to the Dome Authority.

Former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock, the face of the local effort, says he and his team have made multiple presentations to the league and to the Rams.

But the NFL owners are looking for certainty. And the St. Louis plan isn’t yet that.

“We still have to get ducks in a row on our side, in our community,” Peacock said last week. “There’s still homework being done. People way smarter than me are looking at this.”

A contingent of taxpayer-funded stadium opponents insist Nixon will need voter approval in St. Louis and St. Louis County to “extend” the payments on the Edward Jones Dome so they could cover as much as $350 million of the new stadium, too. The Missouri Senate recently passed a bill requiring legislative or voter approval to extend bonds for a new stadium.

An NFL-commissioned market study is another question mark. The study sent 30-minute online surveys to a database of thousands of Rams fans and corporate sponsors, with the goal of determining just how many will buy season tickets, fancy suites and the like.

Peacock said he wasn’t worried. But some owners and NFL executives privately said they were.

Peacock said he understands what he’s up against. “We have to do our job to keep a team,” he said.

“We’re acting with urgency.”

In the meantime, Kroenke is on a bullet train to LA.

He ran into reporters one last time as he left the Biltmore Wednesday afternoon.

He said hello, chuckled again, and paused, for a moment.

Then he patted a reporter on the side, turned.

And left.

Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

 

[blue4]

Stadium, success, brand name, etc, it all factors in. Since the NFL doesn't open up their books, there's some guess work involved.

Winning would obviously help St Louis, as would a new stadium, and better branding. The unfortunate thing, is that if they do all that in St Louis, they wont be worth as much as if they do all that in LA, just by nature of location. It's how business works, that's why my apartment in LA is 1400 a month for a one bedroom, and that's a very good price for the area. Typically apartments are closer to 2 grand, unless you want a really run down, in the ghetto, no AC apartment (which still usually run for 12-1500 a month). I was looking around St Louis and I could get so much more for half the price. Location location location.

1400 a month? I may be losing a football team but you're the one taking it in the shorts.

 

[den-the-coach]

Inglewood hires firm to assess security risks of proposed NFL stadium

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sport...fl-stadium-security-risks-20150326-story.html

A month after a report by former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge questioning the safety of a proposed NFL stadium in Inglewood became public, the city has retained a security consulting firm to assess the $1.86-billion project’s risks.

A memo from Police Chief Mark Fronterotta to Mayor James T. Butts Jr. and City Council members Tuesday detailed spending up to $70,000 for San Jose-based TAL Global to conduct a “multi-phased risk assessment” that includes “mitigation strategies.”

Stan Kroenke ready to show NFL owners detailed Inglewood stadium plans
The memo blasted the AEG-commissioned Ridge report, which called the proposed stadium a potential safety risk and terrorist target because of its proximity to flights arriving at Los Angeles International Airport.

The Ridge report, the memo said, was “unsubstantiated” and “poorly sourced.”

“The NFL and other entities that potentially would occupy our stadium have read this risk assessment and at present, it hangs in the air, uncontested,” the memo said.

Butts didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

• Tom Ridge was a Republican senator. Philip Anschutz has been a huge campaign contributor to Republican candidates. Should the report against the Inglewood stadium proposal come as a shock?

Chris Furlow, president of Ridge's consulting firm, Ridge Global, released a statement to The Times.

 

[bluecoconuts]

1400 a month? I may be losing a football team but you're the one taking it in the shorts.

No kidding, that's why I'm so excited to move to St Louis. My girlfriend's mom gave us a house (paid off, and she has moved in with her boyfriend), I'm gonna finally have time and money, so I'll be a bit bummed if I don't have my Rams to watch too.

 

[dbrooks25]

No kidding, that's why I'm so excited to move to St Louis. My girlfriend's mom gave us a house (paid off, and she has moved in with her boyfriend), I'm gonna finally have time and money, so I'll be a bit bummed if I don't have my Rams to watch too.

Make sure you get directv in case they do move, lol.

 

[Hacksaw]

I know this question has been asked ad nauseum but let me ask it again as I can't figure it out.

a. Cost of stadium = $987mm
b. Extnd bonds (if) - $350 mm
c. G4 NFL loan (if) - $200mm
d. ESK $$$ (big if) - $250mm
e. Corp's and PSL's - $187mm
St Louis Municipal Riverfront Stadium

That said, line C would likely be offered and available if ESK agrees to assume that debt. . Line D though seems like an unenforceable requirement that also requires the owner to agree.

So, is it reality that StL is going through all of this to put together a stadium plan relying on the whim of an owner who is already investing elsewhere and has created an offer that the league will have a had time refusing?

Now if corporate, PSL revenue and other private funding can come up with an additional $450 mm (totaling$637 mm) to cover the G4 / ESK's portions, I can't see how the owners could vote against that keeping the Los Ramos in St Louis. This is assuming the bonds are extendable.

What are the realistic odds of any of this really happening now that we know Stan want's to bolt?

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_85bbe024-ef0e-5e65-b7f1-20588b5a6597.html

 

[BuiltRamTough]

For those who say Stan doesn't talk to the media


View: http://youtu.be/OZvLUiXgLnQ

 

[den-the-coach]

For those who say Stan doesn't talk to the media


View: http://youtu.be/OZvLUiXgLnQ

WOW has Stan evolved or what? It's truly hard to believe that it has come to this. The expansion St. Louis group led by Walter Payton in the 90's lost their money person and had to withdraw their offer to the NFL, Kroenke was brought on last minute to save the expansion opportunity for St. Louis, however, the owners felt Kronke was a yokel (past articles) and decided they liked Wayne Weaver instead and went with Jacksonville.

Charlotte and St. Louis were always the favorites especially St. Louis because of Payton and the stadium, but all went south and St. Louis was left with a Stadium and no football team. Kroenke could not save day mainly because the owners did not think he was one of them. Fast Forward till now and not only is Kroenke one of them, he's the envy of many...Money is a great equalizer no matter how parlay it.

 

[LesBaker]

I'm not gonna lie, I would take the NFL moving the Rams into St. Louis as a slap in the face. It's like they would look at us like we are so damned desperate for an NFL team that as long as they plant one in the city we would be happy. It's like giving a hungry dog dinner scraps and the city of St. Louis would be that hungry dog. If they really cared about doing the right thing, they would find a way to keep the Rams in St. Louis and figure out a solution for LA, which hasn't even had a team in 20 years. If that market is so lucrative, what difference would it make if they had the Chargers or Raiders there? But we're not talking about saints, we're talking about the freaking greedy ass NFL. Seriously, who in the freak talks about letting a team relocate from a city that is willing to build not one, but TWO freaking stadiums in 20 years?