Rams moving back to LA? Does LA even WANT them?

[spydre]

Okay, Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams, purchased 60 acres of land in Inglewood, CA. It was originally owned by Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart couldn't get permission to build, so they sold it (I'm betting he knew about the property being for sale because his wife is the daughter of one of the Wal-Mart founding Waltons, plus, they inherited about a $6 million stake in Wal-Mart). Stan Kroenke bought it within the last month. So far, the Kroenke Organization simply made an announcement confirming that they bought the land, and they aren't saying what they are going to do with it.

The major investments Kroenke has are sports related - and his majority rights to the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche he has to give up by the end of this calendar year, according to his deal with the NFL when he bought out the rest of ownership of the Rams when Georgia Frontiere died.

The only businesses that he's involved with OUTSIDE of sports is real estate that builds the strip malls surrounding Wal-Mart stores (yeah, sorry, he really scored with marrying Bob Walton's daughter), and a Napa Valley winery.

So of course, because after the 2014/2015 season, the Rams can walk away from St. Louis scott free because when they moved here, since the convention and visitor's bureau built the stadium, and owns it, there was a caveat in the contract that after that season, the stadium must be a "top tier" stadium (top 25% of NFL stadiums) or the Rams can walk away from their lease, and just go to a year to year lease. They started negotiating last year over improvements to the Dome, and were literally millions of dollars apart (about $5 million, IIRC). It even went to arbitration and the arbitrator ruled for the Rams, but the Convention and Visitor's Bureau is refusing to make the upgrades (let's face it, the Rams want $7 million in upgrades, and really, it needs it, the place is kind of a dump, but are the Rams WORTH $7 million in upgrades?), so yeah, the Rams could walk.

And would 60 acres even be enough to hold a stadium and all the parking required? I'm thinking not, but I wouldn't bet against them being able to buy up the surrounding property - however, why would Kroenke be willing to build the stadium himself instead of a publicly backed stadium (as in St. Louis, and as SOOOO many NFL stadiums are now as well)?

http://www.ksdk.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2014/01/30/stan-kroenke-plot-of-land-california-st-louis-rams/5069985/

[Mrwaylon]

It's all about the money

[spydre]

Well, the news tonight said no, it's definitely not big enough for a stadium (I mean, that's what I thought - the size of a Wal-Mart + the accompanying strip mall in no way compares to the footprint of the Edward Jones Dome. There is double speculation in St. Louis tonight. Since it was purchased through his real estate holding company, either it's going to be used for one of his real estate/strip mall ventures, or he bought it hoping it would "scare" the Convention and Visitor's Bureau into paying for $7 million in improvements to the Dome. Granted, Rams' attendance numbers are down GREATLY, mostly because they haven't had a winning season in so long. Over last 10 years (I think that's the entire time the Rams have been here), their record is 57 games BELOW 500, and that's including the two seasons they made it into the Super Bowl where Kurt Warner was on fire all season long. Attendance isn't down because of the condition of the stadium, it's down because of the "product".

The fact of the matter is, the Kroenke's are worth a couple of BILLION dollars in their own right - not sure how much the Rams are actually worth. But they have a publicly financed Dome (which the taxpayers of the City of St. Louis still owe $100 million on out of the couple of billion in bonds taken out), and they get a couple of million in goods and services - like all the things private business owners have to pay for, such as trash pick up, sewer, water, electricity, gas - for free (which happens with a lot of publicly financed NFL stadiums, from what I hear).

The general consensus among the St. Louis sportscasters is if he bought the property to "scare" the Convention and Visitor's Bureau into fixing up the Dome, all it's done is piss them, and the City and the Metro residents, off. They also don't think, if he were to want to move back to the city that Georgia Frontiere (while Kroenke was a minority shareholder) ABANDONED in favor of St. Louis, he wouldn't get the votes needed by the other team owners to allow him to move. Besides, LA isn't likely to have any higher attendance rates than we have here because the Rams SUCK right now.

Edited February 1, 2014 by spydre