Bernie: It's no fantasy for STL, LA to both win
• By Bernie Miklasz
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/colu...cle_64fcb864-b8f5-509e-8fe6-72f36c71f7df.html
I haven’t participated in Fantasy Football since 1988, when I teamed with Tim Cowlishaw to win the Dallas Morning News League. I should have retired right there. But you’ll have to excuse me for engaging in another round of Fantasy Football.
This time, a rather complicated game features the Rams, St. Louis, Los Angeles, the NFL, another team and the rush to build new stadiums.
As much as we’d like to see this as a linear process — a straight line with owner Stan Kroenke either taking the Rams to LA or staying here — it’s more complex than that.
The natural assumption is that if the NFL is to return to Los Angeles by 2016, the team will be the Rams, Kroenke will still own them and the franchise will play in Kroenke’s planned stadium in Inglewood.
And that very well could happen. But here’s the issue for the NFL and Kroenke: St. Louis stadium task-force leaders Dave Peacock and Bob Blitz aren’t going away.
Peacock-Blitz are working hard in their quest to fund and erect a new NFL stadium for St. Louis. I’m confident in saying their rate of progress on the STL stadium front has exceeded the NFL’s expectations — at least to this stage, anyway.
If the Peacock-Blitz agenda stalls then St. Louis will be out, and Kroenke can cruise into Los Angeles.
For now, this is a race, with Kroenke and partners trying to get their stadium project off the ground before Peacock and Blitz can do the same in St. Louis.
Kroenke has a clear advantage over Peacock and Blitz in that he can do this with his own money.
Suppose the race ends in a virtual tie? What if Peacock-Blitz can complete their mission by the end of the year? Well, that would put the NFL in a jam.
I’m not suggesting that the league would cool on the idea of returning to Los Angeles. Not at all. An NFL team in Los Angeles — soon — seems inevitable. And it makes sense.
Ah, but keep in mind that the NFL is encouraging Blitz and Peackcock to get this done. NFL executive VP Eric Grubman is involved in the process here, having held multiple meetings in St. Louis and working closely with Peacock and Blitz.
If Peacock and Blitz get this done and turn a stadium plan into a reality — after being pushed to do so by the NFL’s second-most powerful executive — then how could the league abandon St. Louis?
Sure, I’m cynical about the NFL’s trustworthiness. But I doubt that even the NFL could be so rotten as to encourage an existing NFL market to build a new stadium, have a league executive participating to make the project a success — and then walk away as Kroenke pulls the Rams out of here.
NFL to St. Louis: To keep your team, you have to build a new stadium. St. Louis: OK, we’ll do it ... again. For the second time in 25 years, we will build a new NFL stadium. NFL: Great. Because as we always say when asked — we want to do whatever is possible to help our teams be successful in their current markets. We don’t want our teams to move. So we’ll help you get it done in St. Louis. And we’ll even send our point man, Grubman, to assist in the effort. You have our support. Now get to work. St. Louis: It’s been a few months, and it was a difficult job, but the STL stadium is definitely a go. The funding is in place. We’ll be able to break ground soon. We did exactly what you asked of us. NFL: Oh yeah? (Laughter). Kroenke is hauling the Rams to Los Angeles, and you won’t have a team. It’s over. St. Louis: Wait a minute. You said to build a new stadium. We’re going to do it — even though we’re still paying off the first stadium. They aren’t building a new stadium for the Chargers in San Diego, and the Chargers have been trying to get a new venue for about 15 years. They aren’t building a new stadium for the Raiders in Oakland — and the Raiders unquestionably have the worst stadium situation in the NFL. So why are WE losing our NFL franchise? This is insane. Not to mention unethical, unfair and cruel.
And I don’t believe it will happen.
I don’t believe the NFL would bail on St. Louis if the city accepts the league’s challenge and delivers on a new venue.
Grubman recently gave an interview to the Los Angeles Daily News and made this comment: “I place no higher priority in my mission statement, to creating a viable, approvable plan in Los Angeles and creating a viable plan in St. Louis. If you think an impossible scenario is created by creating a terrific plan in Market One and a terrific plan in Los Angeles — and that’s a really hard decision for owners — that’s exactly what I want. That is my job.”
This situation has a chance to get really, really interesting.
You may ask: If Kroenke is determined to have his team play in his proposed Los Angeles stadium, and if Peacock and Blitz successfully secure funding for a new stadium in St. Louis, then how does the league accommodate both parties?
That’s where the Fantasy Football kicks in.
It can be done. I’m not saying it will be easy ... but it can get done. There is so much floating around out there right now. Enough conspiracy theories to make Oliver Stone’s head hurt.
And it has nothing to do with giving Kroenke an expansion team in Los Angeles, or Shad Khan moving the Jacksonville Jaguars to St. Louis. Neither possibility is on the table. And won’t be anytime soon.
It’s best to focus on more plausible scenarios:
1. Kroenke buys the controlling 47 percent share of the Raiders owned by Mark Davis and his mother. Kroenke sells the Rams. The Rams remain in St. Louis. Kroenke moves the Raiders back to Los Angeles.
2. The NFL gives Kroenke the go-ahead signal to Los Angeles. The league directs Davis and the Raiders to St. Louis.
If the stadium race between Kroenke/LA and St. Louis ends in a tie, it’s entirely possible for both sides to win.
Again, this is Fantasy Football. Normally I’d laugh at this kind of stuff — but not this time.
If Peacock and Blitz complete their stadium mission, then multiple options will likely be in play.
And some of those options may seem crazy to you. But it’s not as much of a fantasy as you’d think.
