BY VINCENT BONSIGNORE

With the threat of the Rams relocating to Los Angeles growing more real by the day, Missouri leaders on Friday unveiled a plan they hope will permanently keep the franchise along the banks of the Mississippi River.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s two-man task force headed by former Anheuser-Busch president Dave Peacock and attorney Bob Blitz revealed a dual-sport, open-air riverfront stadium Friday at a 12 pm press conference that will hopefully be the new home of the Rams and a professional soccer team.

The proposal comes just five says after Rams owner Stan Kroenke made public his partnership with the owners of the land at the old Hollywood Park Race Track sight in Inglewood to build an 80,000-seat stadium. Presumably, the Inglewood stadium will serve as the new home of the Rams, who played in the Los Angeles area from 1946 to 1994.

Missouri leaders have counted with Friday’s stadium plan, which will cost at least $860 million.

Private sources and seat licensing fees would pay for more than half, while other funding would come from tax credits and other public financing.

There will be no new tax burden for the 64,000-seat stadium, to be built over four years.

The ball, as they say, is now in Kroenke’s court.

If the new St. Louis stadium is approved, it seems unlikely Kroenke will have justification under the strict NFL relocation bylaws to move his team to Southern California.

No team NFL team has ever relocated from one city to another when a viable stadium plan in their current city was in place.

The next few months – and how far St. Louis gets politically with the new stadium proposal – will make clearer what Kroenke’s options are. One of which is simply moving his team to Los Angeles without NFL approval – he needs 24 out of 32 votes from league owners – and fighting the NFL in court.

If so, Kroenke is taking on one mighty fight against a very powerful league.

Needless to say, we are a long way way from knowing where exactly this is all headed.