Poll: How Should The St. Louis Region Respond To The Rams?
The CVC has until June 1 to accept or reject the Rams’ proposal:
The Rams’ proposal was released against their wishes on Monday, a response to the dome improvement plan submitted by their landlord, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, in February. And the discrepancy is wide: The CVC plan called for $124 million in upgrades, 52% of which would be paid for by the Rams; the team’s plan called for a complete overhaul estimated by the city to cost more than $700 million, and it wasn’t clear how it would be funded. (USAtoday.com)
My post from Tuesday is here, it includes a link to the proposal. Who holds the cards in the negotiations?
Los Angeles is really the only viable remaining market in North America that would potentially support an NFL team and help the league generate greater revenues. If they don’t build a facility, or if they do but another franchise beats Kroenke to the punch, then Kroenke’s negotiating leverage versus the CVC will be weakened. (Forbes)
Well we’ve got great negotiators here in St. Louis! We got the Kiel Opera House 20 years ago and that vibrant Ballpark Village in 2006. Oh wait…
The poll this week asks how the St. Louis region, via the CVC, should respond. I say we wish them well wherever it is they move after the 2014 season.
– Steve Patterson
The thing to remember is that the Rams’ proposal is just their opening stance in the negotiations and not their final offer. The price tag and full scope of the overhaul is likely to come down significantly during the negotiating process.
If the Rams don’t budge significantly, then sure, let them walk. However, if the cost does come down significantly and say we get a strong commitment from the NFL to hold a Super Bowl here, then that might be a different story.
I question if football has any tangible impact on the STL region. It may address an appetite of a handful of football fans, but otherwise its repercussions are fairly minimal–which is why I support any proposal that would place the financial burden squarely and solely on the shoulders of the team owners, the NFL and the season ticketholders, where IMO it belongs. Any public money used in this regard to promote private gain and private empires is grand larceny.
A handful of football fans? The NFL is the largest sports business in the country.
GMAN262:
Maybe you’ve spent too much time in the huddle, not enough time in Reading Comprehension 101. Reference to the handful of football fans was made in context, referring to the STL region. The point was that in STL football fans appear to be in the minority. Therefore, your reference to the NFL, its status etc., is irrelevant. Football may be met and received with amusement and enthusiasm in other areas of the country, but probably not so much here in STL.
Just because the Rams are less popular than the Cardinals doesn’t mean they’re not popular.
Pro football is by far the most popular professional sport in the United States. By far. The Super Bowl is probably the most popular single sporting event in the entire world. If St. Louis goes dark in pro football, it will be a big loss to the region. Well, then again, there is lingerie football starting soon at the Family Arena!
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/story/_/id/7468174/the-nfl-ratings-continue-surge-dominating-all-programing-path
Not to argue with you, Eric. But football in STL is about as popular as high school band. It appeals to a select group, Eric. And I’m not interested in subsidizing it with my tax dollars, Eric.
How should the CVC respond? Assemble a list of moving companies and forward it to the Rams.
Dollars, plans, civic identity, corporate headquarters destination, prestige, bundle of amenities, national exposure, fun, hometown pride…
Rick my hometown of Oklahoma City only recently got it’s only pro team, the OKC Thunder (NBA). they had civic pride, corporate HQ, etc before then too.
Yeah, but how much national media attention do they get? What’s the last story to make the national news out of Oklahoma City? Why would anyone move there? What do they have over St. Louis? Not NFL football (for now at least…)
There’s a big difference between a team and a region getting “national media attention”. Day-to-day, the attention any team receives, nationally or locally, centers on the team – players, injuries, stats, wins, losses, etc. – and the city’s name is very much secondary, if mentioned at all, and is used primarily to differentiate that team from the other teams in the league. It’s only when there is a nationally-important event – Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby, Final Four, Daytona 500, etc. – that that city itself gets a little (and way less than 5% of the total) coverage of the event. Much like how a small, but significant, number of fans here still root for the football Cardinals (after the Rams, of course), if the Rams were to leave, most fans would simply shift their allegiances to another team. Would it be painful? Yes. Would it be fatal? No, absolutely not. The good people of Little Rock, Des Moines, Austin and Omaha seem to be doing fine without their very own NFL teams, and probably better than many people who live in Detroit, Cleveland, Green Bay or Oakland.
Welcome to the new class of St. Louis sister cities!
Well, Rick, one thing Oklahoma City has over STL is a much lower crime rate. That’s pretty good, Rick!
To all the people who think we should use public money to help the Rams build their new stadium, where do you propose the money should come from? None of the proponents have offered a realistic source of money. I know why: there is none. This whole discussion is academic because the CVC will never come up with enough money to even compromise with the Rams.
Kroenke could put in some money and so could the NFL.
Kroenke, and every other wealthy owner/owner group, could–and should–finance their own facilities for the use of their respective franchises. The process by which public money is taken to use for private gain should be called what it actually is: extortion. “Hey, you either give me 200/400/700 millionUSD, or we’re gonna have to take our act on the road.” Why some people think this process should be called bargaining is beyond me. Kroenke–and the fabulously and criminally wealthy Walton family to which he married into–can pay for 3 domes with gold-plated bathroom fixtures in the private suites, and still have money left over for a heliport for all the other wealthy parasites to arrive in their mother-of-pearl encrusted helicopters.
This region and this country can no longer afford these grandiose buildings, especially if the public is on the hook for such a significant portion of the bill. I don’t suppose anyone has noticed, but we’re in the hole for about 2 TrillionUSD for the Iraq/Afghan/Yemen/Libya wars. At least. So far; and the tally hasn’t stopped. Don’t get me started on how much TARP and the “quantitative easing” at the Fed have cost this country. Oh, and don’t forget how much money has been sucked out of the economy by the way in which the millions of fraudulent mortgages have been handled since the meltdown.
I think a good ol’ fashun tar-and-feathering is in order for these predatory capitalists.
By “some money” you mean 100%? St. Louis doesn’t need and can’t support three pro sports.
Some means a portion, not 100%. St. Louis needs and can support three pro sports.
Do the words “Go f*** yourself” give anyone any ideas? Howsaboot “Don’t let the Dome hit ya’ where the Lard split ya’!”? “Take a long walk off a short pier”? I can hear the Weavers singing “So Long It’s Been Good to Know Ya'” bouncing around in my head. That’ll work, too.
Is it a shame or smart moves that teams come to the taxpayer to get the money, but then they recede into the woodwork while the politician takes the heat or tries to convince the taxpayer of the ‘need’ to help mulit-millionaires and billionaires. They are so out of touch with the real world and so are the people that will pay in excess of $100’s of dollars for tickets….after all, if a few people will do it, surely everyone will. It is long past time that the politicians stand up and say: Look, you want the taxpayer to pay….you go convince them. If you can’t, you are on your own.
I don’t believe the Rams stand a good chance of being in this city after 2014. I still root for the Big Red, so I don’t care about the Rams, but I also don’t believe that our city can’t support 3 professional sports teams. I think there is a differnce between ‘need’ and ‘can support’.