BY VINCENT BONSIGNORE
Like a wary spouse trying to salvage a shaky marriage, Missouri put its best foot forward Friday in hopes of re-catching the attention of a partner that seems to have already checked out.
Problem is, the utter nonchalance by the Rams made it such a one-sided attempt at reconciliation you wonder if they really even noticed.
Or cared.
Then again, with the Rams suddenly the object of two cities desires it must be nice to know you have options.
On one hand you have the new stadium proposal presented Friday by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s two-man task force, which Nixon and other state leaders hope will convince the Rams to renew their wows with the city they’ve called home since 1995.
On the other you have Los Angeles, where Rams owner Stan Kroenke has turned an adoring eye after announcing plans to build a new football stadium in Inglewood.
Presumably to be the future home for his Rams, who played in the Los Angeles area from 1946 to 1994.
Kroenke made those intentions known – at least the stadium part – late Sunday night in a weekend bombshell that rocked the sports world.
St. Louis immediately responded Friday in the form of an open air, 64,000-seat riverfront stadium proposal announced by attorney Robert Blitz and former Anheuser-Busch president David Peacock, the two-man team appointed by Gov. Nixon in November to craft a plan to keep the Rams in St. Louis.
The St. Louis stadium will cost anywhere from cost $860 million to $985 million, with construction beginning in 2016 and completed by 2020.
Peacock said some funding would come from tax credits and other public financing, including extending current bonds used to pay off the Edward Jones Dome, the Rams’ current home. But, there would be no new tax burden.
Up to about half the money would come from the NFL and the team, the proposal states. Seat licensing fees would also help pay for the project.
It was an impressive presentation, but it was missing a key element.
The man of the hour never bothered to show.
Not only was Kroenke absent from the glitzy press conference, no one from the Rams was present either.
In fact, their only reaction was a lukewarm, watered-down statement that if you listened carefully enough sounded more like a yawn than anything else.
“The St. Louis Rams have worked for many years, with several agencies and commissions, and their senior management , responsible for stadium facilities in St. Louis. This includes multiple discussions with the Governor’s recently formed NFL Task Force. We received the Task Force materials shortly before the press conference. We will review them and speak with the Task Force representatives.”
Even of the Rams are just playing the negotiating game – and they absolutely are – the tone of the statement remained ominous and skeptical. What the Rams seem to really be saying is, “yeah, yeah, we’ve heard plenty of talk before from plenty of different politicians. And all it’s ever been is talk.”
Read between the lines whatever you like, but it sure sounds to me like the Rams want more than some nice glossy renditions and a bunch of proposed numbers on a piece of paper before they take anything seriously.
And oh by the way, 1,800 miles away in Inglewood they have the land, the money and the motivation to build a brand new stadium by ourselves.
And everything from their actions, reactions – or a lack thereof – to their wallet is screaming they want to be in Los Angeles.
The tepid reaction by Kroenke and the Rams to Friday’s developments should not be taken as they are automatically headed to Los Angeles. This is a negotiating fight that is still in the early rounds and it would be a mistake of epic proportions if Kroenke simply jumped back into the arms of St. Louis.
If his intentions are to stay in Missouri, this is just the starting point of that process.
On the other hand, there is no getting around the fact he is going out of his way to play a particularly hard-handed game of hard ball. In fact, it’s impossible not to wonder if the arm’s distance he’s created between his franchise and St. Louis – local leaders say he hasn’t returned their calls for awhile now – is his way of permanently turning his back on them as he prepares for a move to Los Angeles.
There are hurdles standing in the way of staying and leaving.
St. Louis announced a stadium plan, but there is a big difference between a plan and a politically vetted project being green lighted by state leadership, especially with the hefty bill taxpayers will assume.
As far as Los Angeles goes, even if Kroenke wants to be here he still has to prove to the rest of the NFL he has justification to relocate, and then there is that whole business of getting the necessary 24 votes from fellow owners.
With two other teams eyeing Los Angeles – the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers – and the potential road blocks they can create, there is no guarantee Kroenke gets the necessary support to move to L.A.
And he’ll have a mess on his hands if St. Louis turns a stadium plan into a guaranteed project, negating most of his justification to relocate.
No NFL team has ever moved with a viable stadium plan from their current city on the table, and if that precedent ever flips it could create some major long-range ramifications.
As the old saying goes, it’s a long way from here to there. And when we don’t even know what map the guy behind the wheel is looking at, it’s impossible to predict where he’s truly headed.
Nevertheless, if Kroenke’s silence and tepidness are any clue, it sure seems like his heart is in Los Angeles not St. Louis.