St. Louis Rams Rumors: The Team May Be Staying Put While Owner Stan Kroenke Moves To Los Angeles
The St. Louis Rams have faced rumors for the past few years that owner Stan Kroenke will be picking the team up and moving it to Los Angeles, but new reports suggest that may only be half true.
Kroenke has been open about his desire to move to Los Angeles and build a new stadium on land he owns in Inglewood. This has led many to believe the team’s future will almost certainly lie outside of St. Louis.
But there may be a way to allow Kroenke to build the stadium and still keep the Rams in St. Louis. The city of St. Louis has put together a task force to look at the idea of a new stadium for the team, and the co-chair appears to have a suggestion that would allow the team to stay while allowing Kroenke to make his move to the City of Angels.
“It’s possible we have different ownership of the [Rams] because I think [Kroenke] is really committed to Los Angeles,” said task force co-chair Dave Peacock this week, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I’m not against Stan going to Los Angeles, I just don’t want our team there. This is why we’re spending most of our time with the league — we think this is an NFL issue.”
If the rumor is true, the St. Louis Rams might be staying put while Kroenke is free to move forward on his plans for a new team. As the Los Angeles Times noted, his proposal is much more than just a football field and could be a boon to the league.
“Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who bought 60 acres adjacent to the Forum a year ago, has joined forces with the owners of the 238-acre Hollywood Park site, Stockbridge Capital Group. They plan to add an 80,000-seat NFL stadium and 6,000-seat performance venue to the already-massive development of retail, office, hotel and residential space, Stockbridge and the Kroenke Group told The Times.”
Civic leaders in St. Louis had been busy on their own plan to keep the team, and put together plans for a nearly $1 billion stadium project in an effort to get Kroenke to stay. These same leaders had been criticized in the past for failing to come together on a proposal that would ensure the team’s future in St. Louis.
They seem to have help from the NFL’s most powerful man — league commissioner Roger Goodell.
“Goodell won’t let Stan move to L.A.,” an NFL owner told ESPN. “Because Goodell would catch holy hell for moving a team from a market willing to spend hundreds of millions to keep a team.”
Whether the St. Louis Rams rumors turn out to be true or not, they are certain not to leave in the immediate future. Goodell has said that no team would be relocating this season, so leaders have at least another year to come up with a long-term plan for the team.
[Image via Traity]
