After Anheuser-Busch, should we brace for the NFL Rams’ departure?
The SportsBusiness Journal reports today that the St. Louis Rams “have hired an investment bank to find a group of possible buyers; the Jacksonville Jaguars are once again testing the market; and well-publicized infighting among the five Rooney brothers could imperil their family’s 75-year-ownership of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Does it mean that we should be steeling ourselves for another blow to civic pride?
Our follow-up story, which says that Chip Rosenbloom is insisting that the team is not for sale, also notes the following:
Chip Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, split the 60 percent ownership they inherited when their mother, Georia Frontiere, died Jan. 18 at age 80 after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. Stan Kroenke retained his 40 percent share of the team. The NFL requires all teams to designate a managing partner, and Rosenbloom is filling that role.
Rosenbloom has been steadfast in declaring his desire to keep the Rams in St. Louis. But his comments never have dismissed the possibility of a sale, presumably to an individual or a group that would agree not to relocate.
On April 25, in his first public appearance here since assuming his new duties, Rosenbloom told reporters at Rams Park, “I think that St. Louis is a great home for the Rams. I think St. Louis is as committed to the Rams as the Rams are committed to St. Louis.”
In May, Yahoo Sports quoted former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo as saying, “Georgia’s kids have decided to sell the team. I’ve talked to some people who are brokering things, and they’ve told me about the price and what the deal might entail.”
We’ve talked about this topic before, but this is a new development. Is it a development worth worrying about? Are we headed down a path that’s likely to end up in the team’s departure from the Gateway City? Or are the players sincere in wanting to keep the Rams here?
Kurt is the director of social media for the Post-Dispatch, where he has worked since August 2002. He's been a journalist since 1982, covering municipal government, courts, education and two hurricanes as a reporter before becoming an editor. 
Maybe the Chinese will buy the Rams? We sell pieces of our country to the rest of the world all the time. Think about it Chip…the Shanghai Rams, or how about the Brussels Rams? The Belgians seem to be in a buying mood. Whatever it takes to make a dime and sell out on your country, right?
By the way, I spent a year in Belguim while in the Air Force, and Stella Artois is skunk juice for beer.
Call me bitter, but this is what we ALL have to look forward too as corporations sell us out to the highest bidder no matter who it is.
If you think the Rams will not move then you probably still belive that AB is not looking at a buyout offer.
The Rams will eventually leave due in large part to the lack of corporations in the region and the high dollar salaries that come with it. As business leaves, the corporate big wigs go as well thus resulting in fewer seats being filled, and the more lucrative expensive seats sitting empty. When the so called “Rams Fans” sold their tickets last year to the Packer and Steeler fans, this was proof that STL is not a football town and just a Cardinal town. True die hard fans stick with their temas through good, bad, and transitional times. You would never see Packer or Chicago Bear fans dumping tickets and making asses of themselves on national tv like the way STL fans did. You are a bandwagon town people. STL is not a big city, it is a medium city who is getting passed up by cities like Nashville, Charlotte, KC, Denver, and Minneapolis for business, conventions, and job growth. Untill the boundaries surpass west of McCausland this region will be absoloutly irrelevant to the world of business and national perception. Sorry for being so crass but the truth hurts, and ST.Louis inhabitants are very laconic individuals, very unwelcoming of new faces (insert high school question here) and all about their lawn and lawn chairs on the driveways with the baseball game on. This folks is not life, and bitching about I-64 does not help either. The traffic there is a joke compared to places like Nashville, Minneapolis, and Denver to name a few. Either change, embrace the city or continue to fall from national prominenece, everyone has a stake in the city’s success, it does in fact affect all of you like it or not.
The city of Oslo is in talks to tender an offer to the City of St Louis for the Arch, Dade County Community College is in talks to move Washington University to Miami and Ted Drews will soon become part of General Foods. The Baseball Cardinals have accepted an offer to relocate to Ft Wayne Indiana where they will enjoy a new stadium and condo complex and Union Station has been sold to a small Arizona town with an active interest in significan architecture.
The B.S. that they hired a company to screen calls is absurd, if someone calls to inquire about buying you simply say “the team is not for sale” and hang up, that should take all of about 10 seconds. Do they really think we are that studid? I guess they do.
They will not sell the team until after this coming season, they have plans to honor their mother this season. Next year, the sold sign will be hanging over the Earth City offices.
They are going to have a HUGE tax bill to pay, they can delay it for 5 years and just pay the IRS the interest due on the inheritance and that can be paid by the Rams orginization.
The only hope I see in this team staying here long term is for Kroenke to find a way around the NFL rules of ownership in other professional teams. I don’t know of any other local individual that would have the captial to buyt the Rams and asure they stay here. As we all know lawyers can find loops holes in anything and my guess is the NFL rule against mulitple ownership probably wouldn’t hold up in court. The NFL is not very successful in court in stopping francises from moving even though they have By Laws prohibiting such moves without 2/3 majority of the owners voting for the approval.
The other big force working against St Louis is the NFL REALLY wants another team in LA. We can only hope that Jacksonville or Minnesota two other teams not happy with their stadiums or not doing well in their markets(Jacksonville had to reduce the seating capacity of their stadium bacause they could never sell out)move their first.
I have been a season ticket holder from the beginning and I do not want to lose another team, but I am afraid the writing is on the wall and it is just a matter of time.
Pretty amazing we are giving up on our team after we won the Super Bowl less than ten years ago and went to it only 7 ago. We had ONE miserable season, yes, and we are fine with taking our team somewhere else? St. Louis might not be “the best sports city” that I thought it was. Try going to Cleveland, who haven’t tasted Super Bowl in ages, and see what they would think about losing their team again…I bet it would be a little different…
Bring back the Big Dead. Someone get Bidwell on the phone…
Are you people all crazy? Where is the loyalty to our football team? You bunch of crybabies make me sick! If you don’t care any more about our team than what your comments suggest, then why would you even waste your time commenting about it. Rams, there are some loyal fans in St. Louis that would be devastated if you left town. The Rams have given us some great times, and some distressing times. But that is what being a sports fan is about. I’m sure that some of these same people who are on here with their ‘I don’t care’ attitudes were celebrating at the super bowl parade 8 years ago, and cheering the Rams on in their super bowl loss 2 years later. Bandwagon fans are the worst.
TimB
I think St Louis is a good sports city and a good NFL city. The football Cardinals sold out 95% of their home games, yes attendance dropped dramitcally the last year but that happened after they basically were gone.
The Rams string of sell outs is quite impressive as well. They didn’t sell out every game last year but were very close. The last few thousand seats that don’t sell are not very good. They are in the corners and high and don’t offer very good sight lines and I wouldn’t pay for those seats to watch a bad team either.
Comparing Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Green Bay/Milwaukee to name a few to St Louis as football towns is liking comparing St. Louis to those towns in respect to baseball. Those cities don’t support their baseball teams like St Louis supports the Cardinals.
As far as fans selling seats to Green Bay and Steelers fans, well, that is free enterprise. I placed my tickets on Stub Hub for those two games and I had someone pay me $110 per ticket for my $44 seats for the Green Bay game and had someone pay $66/per ticket for the Steeler game. I took the money placed it my savings and applied it to my seasons tickets this year. I also figured I saved about $80 per game in parking and concessions as well.
I don’t think that makes me a bad fan, I saw an opportunity to help pay for this years seats and I took it. If the Rams record was reversed I would not have sold for the prices listed above.
Anyone who thinks this is just about football, then you are nuts. If the Rams, leave the dome and that entire sector of downtown will become a haven for crime with nothing but empty office, retail, and wearhouse space.
This city is falling apart, not one brick but one wall at a time. The Soulard neighborhood is already shattered by the loss of AB. The same will happen to the landing and the whole area around the dome should there not be a tenant. No ballpark village either so this city is nothing but a baseball team and some makeshift bars that surround it. Pathetic. Do any of you travel? Downtown St. Louis has fallen behing the Onaha’s, Kansas City’s, and Indianapolis’ of the world. We went from America’s Best Sports City to Americas Biggest Armpit. Oh yeah, but we do not have the Sporting News here anymore either to try to publish something positive about the city.