Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Keeping Rams in STL will be a tough challenge

Rumors are swirling that the Rams are for sale. In the face of this, the Rams stadium lease has an adjuster coming due that requires St. Louis to provide the Rams a facility in the top fifteen or twenty percent of NFL stadiums nationwide. If not, the Rams are free to leave town.

New stadiums are coming in at close to a billion dollars. We're a long way from the top 20 percent now. Is St. Louis ready to pay for a massive upgrade to the Ed or a new stadium altogether to keep the Rams? In our current economy, are people ready to fund a new stadium for NFL football with public money.

Meanwhile, the team's market value is supposedly close to a billion dollars. Combine a billion dollar sale of the team with a billion dollar new venue and there aren't many mid-sized markets in the US capable of raising that kind of money for football.

We lived through the Oakland Raiders departure to Los Angeles and eventual return to Oakland. It wouldn't surprise me to see Al Davis make another move for more money. Oakland California is losing the A's, and if Davis could make a billion dollars by moving the Raiders, that'd be pretty tempting.

It's hard to imagine that the Rams owners would see things much differently.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

raiders market value surpass the rams, its international like the cowboys. cant even try to compare the raiders market to the rams.