NFL News: St. Louis Rams Willing To Share Los Angeles
The latest NFL news is that the St. Louis Rams are now willing to share Los Angeles with the San Diego Chargers or Oakland Raiders, according to the Daily News in Los Angeles.
St. Louis Rams Sharing Los Angeles
Generally, where there is a Walmart, there is usually some surrounding stores as well. Much of those properties are owned by Stan Kroenke, the owner of the St. Louis Rams. He knows the full value of capitalizing on a bigger entity. Kroenke has made millions of dollars using that business model. NFL teams are pretty big entities that generate a lot of cash for those associated with them. Stan wants to use that entity to make millions of dollars more in Los Angeles, one of the largest markets in the entire world.
Kroenke doesn’t want to share Los Angeles. He wants that steel jungle to be his playground and his alone. Unfortunately for the Missouri native, the NFL frowns upon that. Commissioner Roger Goodell knows that it is best for the league if there were two teams in Los Angeles. That’s why he leaned more towards letting the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers both moving there instead of the Rams. Sensing defeat, Kroenke sent a letter to Goodell to let him know that he was now willing to share the stadium with either the Raiders or the Chargers.
If Alexander Spanos and the San Diego Chargers seem a little desperate to get out of town, that’s because they are. It’s not that they don’t necessarily like the city. It’s just that they know what’s going to happen if the Oakland Raiders and/or St. Louis Rams end up in Los Angeles. They’re going to lose a lot of their fan base as a lot of people in Los Angeles and Orange County, a vastly underrated market, have been traveling to San Diego to root on the Chargers. Fans might be more inclined to stay locally if the Raiders and/or Rams are around.
Spanos and his team have found it easier to deal with Raiders owner Mark Davis than Rams owner Stan Kroenke. The reason for that is because Kroenke wants the market to himself. Even though he informed the NFL that he was willing to share the stadium, Stan has shown some hesitancy about sharing the revenue that would be generated by the surrounding businesses. If the Chargers are going to generate business in the region, then they would like to receive their fair share of the revenue.
Since Stan Kroenke is not a popular owner in NFL circles, there are those that are rooting for the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders to win the rights to relocate to Los Angeles. A lot of people sympathize with the fans in Missouri since they welcomed the Rams with open arms when things did not work out with Los Angeles back during the mid 1990s. They supported the team as they won their first Super Bowl in 1999. They even stuck around when the Rams started to falter.
Without Los Angeles, Kroenke would have to scramble. He clearly does not want to remain in St. Louis. There are even rumors that he would seriously consider selling the franchise to someone that does not mind keeping the Rams where they are. He would then try to purchase another NFL team in a more favorable market, one where he can make even further money by turning a football stadium into something much more.
Will Stan Kroenke be able to get the St. Louis Rams to move to Los Angeles?
[Featured Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images]
