A few thoughts on STL Task Force submitting stadium term sheet to NFL

As first reported by Daniel Kaplan, the St. Louis task force in charge of coming up with a stadium plan intended to keep the Rams in Missouri submitted a deal term sheet to the National Football League on Tuesday.

It’s a positive step for Missouri leaders, obviously. There was growing concern within the NFL last week at the Fall Owners meetings that the task force kept delaying submittal of the term sheet. So it’s significant they finally delivered on their promise.

Ultimately, though, it might not matter much.

At least as it relates to keeping the Rams.

While the term sheet provides key financial details about the proposed deal, it still needs to clear a significant hurdle getting the public money involved approved by state leaders.

St. Louis city officials have pledged $150 million of the proposed $1 billion needed to build the stadium. But that agreement must be written into legislation, voted on by the city Board of Aldermen, and signed into law by Mayor Francis Slay.

Until that happens – and there is no guarantee it ever will – it remains simply a proposal.

On top of all that, keep in mind there is a reason the task force is dealing directly with the NFL and not the the Rams – much the same way San Diego leaders are working with the NFL and not the Chargers on their stadium plan.

The Rams want out of St. Louis, and are now focused on moving the Los Angeles to play in a stadium Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke is proposing in Inglewood.

The Chargers, no longer confident San Diego can get the necessary public support to help finance a new stadium, have turned their attention on the joint stadium project they are proposing along with the Oakland Raiders in Carson.

At this point, you have three teams highly intent on moving to Los Angeles and three home markets trying to come up with plans to keep them in their current homes.

For St. Louis, that might be an uphill climb as it’s obvious Kroenke has set his sights on moving to a bigger market.

So, even though Missouri leaders might get the stadium deal finalized, that doesn’t mean the Rams will agree to sign off on it. In fact, it seems highly unlikely they will.

No matter what Missouri comes up with, expect the Rams to follow through on plans to submit relocation papers to move to Los Angeles.

That doesn’t mean Missouri efforts are for naught, though. They are obviously trying to plead to a higher court, and that is the NFL and the 31 other team owners.

The Rams relocation hopes rest on what the owners think, and it will take 24 yes votes from owners to grant that wish.

The NFL hopes to decide between the Rams Inglewood project or Raiders and Chargers Carson project by early January.

Nothing short of the future of the NFL in St. Louis – and Oakland and San Diego and Los Angeles, rests in the outcome.