Los Angeles RAMS ? (1 Viewer)

[Ron_Mexico]

Come back home Rams....

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=413927

 

[TheFanatic]

St. Louis homer here.

The city of LA was not very nice to Georgia and her children and Rams co owners are very aware of that and have stated that if they do sell the team it will stay in St. Louis. Now a new owner can use the clause that the TWA Dome has to be one of the top 5-10 facilities in the league or they can break the lease.

Why would LA want a team back they didn't support in the 90's. What has changed in 13 years?

 

[Fullback Fro]

I'm willing to throw in some coin if we want to start a pool.

 

[Fullback Fro]

If we could get 6800 of us to throw in 100k we could do it. I could do 100K.

 

[jaybebo]

Not going to happen...the sale yes...moving back to Los Angeles no...

 

[Captain Hook]

I'm willing to throw in some coin if we want to start a pool.

The Lambs need a swimming pool?

 

[Ron_Mexico]

St. Louis homer here. The city of LA was not very nice to Georgia and her children and Rams co owners are very aware of that and have stated that if they do sell the team it will stay in St. Louis. Now a new owner can use the clause that the TWA Dome has to be one of the top 5-10 facilities in the league or they can break the lease. Why would LA want a team back they didn't support in the 90's. What has changed in 13 years?

Los Angeles supported the Rams since 1946, and there are still plentywho support the team to this day. The team played in a garbage can staduim,but most of their fans were loyal for 50 years.

 

[NoFBinLA]

St. Louis homer here. The city of LA was not very nice to Georgia and her children .....

City of Anaheim might be tho. They've been working hard to do their own thing down there.That said, I don't think the Rams would ever come back to LA/OC. As you point out - too much bad blood on both sides.

 

[cstu]

Rams owner: Team not headed back to CaliforniaUpdated 36m agoST. LOUIS (AP) — One of the new owners of the St. Louis Rams on Tuesday denied speculation the team will be sold and moved back to southern California.Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that the Rams are on the market and being shopped for up to $900 million, with a sale raising the possibility of a return to Los Angeles. The story quoted former 49ers owner Eddie Bartolo and cited other unnamed sources.Georgia Frontiere moved the Rams from Anaheim, Calif., to her hometown of St. Louis in 1995. Frontiere died in January of breast cancer. The team is now owned by her children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.In a written statement, Rosenbloom stopped short of saying definitively that the team would not be sold but reiterated that there are no plans to relocate."When a team is passed from one generation to another it becomes to some a calling card that the team must be for sale," Rosenbloom said. "So to reply to this (Yahoo) article: Nothing has changed since my mom's passing."Rosenbloom said the owners have been approached "by several people," but did not elaborate.He said that while he and his sister deal with their mother's estate, "I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the Rams in St. Louis and will have no further comment on this article."Calls to a Rams spokesman were unanswered.It wouldn't appear likely the Rams could be moved anytime soon, even if they were sold. The lease agreement with the Edward Jones Dome requires that the team remain in St. Louis at least through the 2015 season, assuming upgrades of the dome have been met, said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority.McMurtry said $30 million is currently being spent on improvements expected to be completed by July 2009, including a new scoreboard.Starting in 2012, the operators of the dome and the Rams can begin negotiations on what needs to be done at the dome to keep the team there after 2015. If no agreement is reached, the Rams' future here becomes "year to year" until a new agreement is reached, McMurtry said.The Rams' poor on-field performance in recent years has led to eroding attendance. After selling out every home game from their arrival in St. Louis until late in the 2006 season, empty seats became commonplace in 2007, when the Rams finished 3-13, their worst record since relocating.Rosenbloom and Rodriguez both live in Los Angeles but have repeatedly said the team will not move."We don't have any interest in moving to Los Angeles, is that clear enough?" Rosenbloom said at an introductory news conference in April.Rosenbloom, the controlling managing partner, and Rodriguez own 60% of the franchise, with Stan Kroenke owning the other 40%.Frontiere took over the franchise in 1979 following the drowning death of her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom.The Yahoo story quoted DeBartolo as having "slight" interest in purchasing the Rams.Of a return to Los Angeles, DeBartolo told Yahoo, "It would be something to look at ... But it wouldn't be my first choice of a franchise if I chose to get back in."A working phone number for DeBartolo was not available.

 

[NoFBinLA]

Rams owner: Team not headed back to CaliforniaUpdated 36m agoST. LOUIS (AP) — One of the new owners of the St. Louis Rams on Tuesday denied speculation the team will be sold and moved back to southern California.Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that the Rams are on the market and being shopped for up to $900 million, with a sale raising the possibility of a return to Los Angeles. The story quoted former 49ers owner Eddie Bartolo and cited other unnamed sources.Georgia Frontiere moved the Rams from Anaheim, Calif., to her hometown of St. Louis in 1995. Frontiere died in January of breast cancer. The team is now owned by her children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.In a written statement, Rosenbloom stopped short of saying definitively that the team would not be sold but reiterated that there are no plans to relocate."When a team is passed from one generation to another it becomes to some a calling card that the team must be for sale," Rosenbloom said. "So to reply to this (Yahoo) article: Nothing has changed since my mom's passing."Rosenbloom said the owners have been approached "by several people," but did not elaborate.He said that while he and his sister deal with their mother's estate, "I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the Rams in St. Louis and will have no further comment on this article."Calls to a Rams spokesman were unanswered.It wouldn't appear likely the Rams could be moved anytime soon, even if they were sold. The lease agreement with the Edward Jones Dome requires that the team remain in St. Louis at least through the 2015 season, assuming upgrades of the dome have been met, said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority.McMurtry said $30 million is currently being spent on improvements expected to be completed by July 2009, including a new scoreboard.Starting in 2012, the operators of the dome and the Rams can begin negotiations on what needs to be done at the dome to keep the team there after 2015. If no agreement is reached, the Rams' future here becomes "year to year" until a new agreement is reached, McMurtry said.The Rams' poor on-field performance in recent years has led to eroding attendance. After selling out every home game from their arrival in St. Louis until late in the 2006 season, empty seats became commonplace in 2007, when the Rams finished 3-13, their worst record since relocating.Rosenbloom and Rodriguez both live in Los Angeles but have repeatedly said the team will not move."We don't have any interest in moving to Los Angeles, is that clear enough?" Rosenbloom said at an introductory news conference in April.Rosenbloom, the controlling managing partner, and Rodriguez own 60% of the franchise, with Stan Kroenke owning the other 40%.Frontiere took over the franchise in 1979 following the drowning death of her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom.The Yahoo story quoted DeBartolo as having "slight" interest in purchasing the Rams.Of a return to Los Angeles, DeBartolo told Yahoo, "It would be something to look at ... But it wouldn't be my first choice of a franchise if I chose to get back in."A working phone number for DeBartolo was not available.

Darn you CSTU - you and your facts have ruined more speculation - now what will we do the rest of the day??Seriously though - good find - wierd how one person is quoted as saying 'never' and others are saying 'well PROBABLY never'.I still don't see the Rams coming back anytime soon - though interesting that the attendance in St Louis is down given what some in this thread has said about LA not being able to support a team. Seems like the Rams faithful are a little frustrated in StL as well. But - and I say this often - I would rather have an expansion team if anything - I hate to grab another cities team - even if like the Rams, they were in SoCal first.

 

[HMH]

Looks like the Rams do have an out, and could potentially move...LA or somewhere else?

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories.../19/story1.html

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

 

[TheFanatic]

Rams owner: Team not headed back to California

Updated 36m ago

ST. LOUIS (AP) — One of the new owners of the St. Louis Rams on Tuesday denied speculation the team will be sold and moved back to southern California.

Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that the Rams are on the market and being shopped for up to $900 million, with a sale raising the possibility of a return to Los Angeles. The story quoted former 49ers owner Eddie Bartolo and cited other unnamed sources.

Georgia Frontiere moved the Rams from Anaheim, Calif., to her hometown of St. Louis in 1995. Frontiere died in January of breast cancer. The team is now owned by her children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.

In a written statement, Rosenbloom stopped short of saying definitively that the team would not be sold but reiterated that there are no plans to relocate.

"When a team is passed from one generation to another it becomes to some a calling card that the team must be for sale," Rosenbloom said. "So to reply to this (Yahoo) article: Nothing has changed since my mom's passing."

Rosenbloom said the owners have been approached "by several people," but did not elaborate.

He said that while he and his sister deal with their mother's estate, "I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the Rams in St. Louis and will have no further comment on this article."

Calls to a Rams spokesman were unanswered.

It wouldn't appear likely the Rams could be moved anytime soon, even if they were sold. The lease agreement with the Edward Jones Dome requires that the team remain in St. Louis at least through the 2015 season, assuming upgrades of the dome have been met, said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority.

McMurtry said $30 million is currently being spent on improvements expected to be completed by July 2009, including a new scoreboard.

Starting in 2012, the operators of the dome and the Rams can begin negotiations on what needs to be done at the dome to keep the team there after 2015. If no agreement is reached, the Rams' future here becomes "year to year" until a new agreement is reached, McMurtry said.

The Rams' poor on-field performance in recent years has led to eroding attendance. After selling out every home game from their arrival in St. Louis until late in the 2006 season, empty seats became commonplace in 2007, when the Rams finished 3-13, their worst record since relocating.

Rosenbloom and Rodriguez both live in Los Angeles but have repeatedly said the team will not move.

"We don't have any interest in moving to Los Angeles, is that clear enough?" Rosenbloom said at an introductory news conference in April.

Rosenbloom, the controlling managing partner, and Rodriguez own 60% of the franchise, with Stan Kroenke owning the other 40%.

Frontiere took over the franchise in 1979 following the drowning death of her husband, Carroll Rosenbloom.

The Yahoo story quoted DeBartolo as having "slight" interest in purchasing the Rams.

Of a return to Los Angeles, DeBartolo told Yahoo, "It would be something to look at ... But it wouldn't be my first choice of a franchise if I chose to get back in."

A working phone number for DeBartolo was not available.

Darn you CSTU - you and your facts have ruined more speculation - now what will we do the rest of the day??Seriously though - good find - wierd how one person is quoted as saying 'never' and others are saying 'well PROBABLY never'.

I still don't see the Rams coming back anytime soon - though interesting that the attendance in St Louis is down given what some in this thread has said about LA not being able to support a team. Seems like the Rams faithful are a little frustrated in StL as well.

But - and I say this often - I would rather have an expansion team if anything - I hate to grab another cities team - even if like the Rams, they were in SoCal first.

You mean the Cleveland Rams that moved to LA?Yeah, attendance is down. The real problem with attendance is not the team it's the friggin dome. It blows. They cater to the rich, fare weather fan. The guys that show up midway through the 1st and leave midway through the 4th. The guys that are pissed off that you are standing up and making noise when the Rams are on D and are themselves making noise when the Rams are in the redzone.

In breaks in the action the fans in attendance are pacified by commercials on the jumbo tron, not pumped up by loud music and garish graphics.

SJax complained about the atmosphere and got ripped for it. I agree with him. It was a crime to make the stadium a dome. It should be an open air stadium and it should be loud.

I guess part of the problem was when the Rams were the greatest show on turf they didn't win with D and Rams fans just don't know how to react at an NFL game properly.

I went to the Ramsd/Packers game this last year where Favre became the leading passer in NFL history and despite being a HUGE Favre fan, when the Pack was in the Red Zone I was on my feet making some serious noise. The people around me looked at me like I was wearing paper pants and handing out flowers....Of course I was comped these seats by a vendor and they were in the lower bowl. I could see the people in the upper bowl going crazy. The people in the lower bowl were more worried about spilling their beers than pumping up the team....

 

[reg]

Looks like the Rams do have an out, and could potentially move...LA or somewhere else?

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories.../19/story1.html

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

interesting

 

[braven112]

interesting

You just quoted that enitre 20 page article. And all you had to say was

interesting

That's Classic.Seriously though, great article, being from Seattle right now puts an interesting perspective on it.

 

[ChampBailey24]

Looks like the Rams do have an out, and could potentially move...LA or somewhere else?

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories.../19/story1.html

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

BYLINE: Christopher Tritto

Civic leaders lured the Los Angeles Rams to St. Louis in 1995 with a sweetheart deal and the promise their stadium would remain among the National Football League's elite.

But there will be no money available for the hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades expected to be necessary to meet that "first-tier" standard at the next measuring date in 2015, and no plan is in place to address the projected shortfall.

"I can only say right now we will not have that pot of money at the 20-year mark that we had at the 10-year mark," said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RCSCA), which owns the Dome. "Somewhere around that time, the CVC will have to go back to the sponsors (the city, county and state) for more money."

Going back to the well will be a tough task considering the funding and political participation required.

"The notion of either spending $100 million or building a new stadium for an activity that is only used eight to 10 times a year for 60,000 people at a time stretches my public imagination," said Mike Jones, executive assistant to St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley.

"Even if there was the political will in this community to raise that level of resources, I would not argue that would be the smartest thing for this community to do based on what I consider more pressing needs," Jones said.

The Rams lease agreement with the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission (CVC) requires the Edward Jones Dome rank among the top eight stadiums in the 32-team NFL on the Dome's 20th birthday in 2015. If first-tier status is not met, the Rams lease would switch to year-to-year terms a decade ahead of schedule and the team would have the option to leave St. Louis.

"It would be prudent for both the community and the Rams if at some time in the next couple of years we have a thorough debate at least at the city and county level," Jones said. "I think a snowball has a better chance in hell than we have in getting the state to participate again."

Big bucks required

The politically appointed RCSCA built the Dome with $280 million in public funds and collects $4 million a year ($1 million each from the city and county, and $2 million from the state) for building preservation and capital improvements.

Renovations, including some $30 million in facility upgrades currently under way using accumulated preservation funds, convinced the Rams to let the Dome's first scheduled measuring date slide on the lease agreement's 10th anniversary in 2005. But the cost of renovations is expected to rise dramatically for the next round seven years from now.

"That will be a tougher order than it was in 2005," said Dan Dierdorf, CVC chairman and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "It will require a community-wide effort to get ready for that. Everybody will need to be involved. It was $30 million this last go around; $30 million will not do it in 2015."

In Miami, the Dolphins completed $250 million in renovations in 2007 to transform their now 21-year-old stadium. Extensive renovations to the Kansas City Chiefs' 36-year-old Arrowhead Stadium are expected to cost $375 million for completion in 2010.

About $250 million of Kansas City's costs are being raised through a sales tax increase approved by Jackson County voters in 2006. The remaining $125 million is coming from the family of the late Chiefs founder, Lamar Hunt.

But at the CVC, which operates the Dome and subleases it to the Rams, no long-term planning is happening.

"Everybody is really focused on getting this first 10-year mark completed successfully," said Bruce Sommer, director of the America's Center convention complex and the Edward Jones Dome. "To look at a major task down the road doesn't make much sense right now."

Economic impact

If the lease agreements can't be met and the Rams were to leave St. Louis, the economic fallout is debatable.

The CVC maintains and operates the Dome as part of the America's Center convention complex with an approximately $12 million annual budget. That budget is funded by a 3.75 percent tax on hotel sleeping rooms in St. Louis city and county. Ironically, the Rams' eight regular-season home games on Sunday afternoons generate little revenue for the local hotels that pay that tax.

"We see good foot traffic in our bar and restaurants pre- and post-game, but not a lot of overnight rooms," said Dan Boyer, director of sales and marketing at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand and Suites Hotel across the street from the convention center. "Most season ticket holders are local. They come to the game and then go home. If the Rams were to leave town, it would not be devastating to us."

Cashing in on Rams games also can be elusive for downtown restaurants.

"Economically for the restaurants it's a negligible factor," said Pablo Weiss, owner of Kitchen K on Washington Avenue near America's Center. "I am a Rams fan and St. Louisan first. However, with all due respect, if the Rams left, it would not have a deleterious effect. In fact, I could potentially get more convention business."

The Rams lease makes the Dome available for conventions only one weekend a month from August through January. If the CVC could bring in additional outside groups on those game weekends, it would have a bigger impact on downtown businesses, many said.

"Conventions are my lifeblood. Without them the equation doesn't work," Weiss said. "I can be the busiest restaurant in St. Louis on a Monday night in the middle of January, save The Cheesecake Factory, because I'll have 2,000 people next door and they need to eat."

Sommer confirmed the CVC and the St. Louis region can generate more new sales taxes from out-of-town visitors through a convention than a Rams game. But the CVC nets about $1 million a year from the Rams after operating and maintenance expenses. That's the equivalent of about 10 major conventions, he said. And even on game weekends, the CVC has the rest of its exhibit halls available.

It's more difficult to measure the indirect revenue and economic intangibles the Rams provide, supporters said.

Vince Bommarito, owner of Tony's restaurant downtown, provides food for the Rams' owners suite and club dining even though his restaurant is closed Sundays. He points to the jobs the Rams support, and the gas stations, grocery stores and other businesses that benefit from tailgating and other game-day activity.

"If you want to crank out numbers that show the Rams bring a billion dollars to St. Louis you probably could," Dierdorf said. "You could probably also crank out numbers that show the Rams have cost the city money. But having an NFL franchise goes beyond dollars and cents. You are a big league city if you have an NFL franchise and you are not if you don't."

Jones disagrees.

"The last time I looked, L.A. was a big league city," Jones said. "And I don't know if the Raiders have made Oakland a big league city."

Growing competition

Even if St. Louis comes up with the money to invest in first-tier renovations at the Dome, the challenge will be great. Twenty NFL stadiums have been built or extensively renovated since the Rams relocated here. Several more state-of-the art facilities are in the works. The Indianapolis Colts are set to move into their new, $700 million Lucas Oil Stadium in August. The Dallas Cowboys are constructing a $1 billion stadium set to debut in 2009. The New York Giants and Jets are working together on a new $1.7 billion stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. And the San Francisco 49ers are in talks with officials in Santa Clara, Calif., about building a new stadium there.

Essentially, 24 or more newer, bigger, brighter, flashier stadiums will have an edge on the Edward Jones Dome by 2010. By the time the Dome is measured against its peers in 2015, it will be one of the oldest stadiums in the NFL despite being just 20 years old.

When the RCSCA and CVC realized retaining first-tier status would not be possible with the funding available at the time of the first measuring date in 2005, they struck a deal with the Rams. First the date was postponed, and later it was eliminated through a formal amendment to the Rams lease signed last Sept. 20.

In exchange, the CVC and RCSCA committed $30 million for upgrades to the Dome, ranging from new LED video and scoreboards, to improvements to the statisticians booth where coaches sit, to technology upgrades at concession stands. Those improvements must be complete by July 31, 2009.

"That was a heck of a deal," Sommer said. "If we had measured every component and had to make sure everything was first-tier, we would have had to spend a lot more than that."

Next time, however, the Rams might not choose to waive the first-tier review. The CVC and the Rams are scheduled to exchange plans for first-tier upgrades in 2012 and settle on a plan, through third-party arbitration if necessary, by the end of that year.

Nearly all available capital improvement funds are going toward the current $30 million renovation plan, said RCSCA's McMurtry. That means $24 million more will accumulate from 2010 through 2015. But most of that will be needed for annual preservation costs as the Dome ages, he said.

To keep up with its peers, the Dome would likely require expensive new technologies and physical expansion to offer more space for concourses and amenities beyond the seating bowl, said Dennis Wellner, a senior principal at HOK Sport in Kansas City and the Dome's original architect. By 2015, such modifications would cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Over time the buildings themselves have grown in gross area, and everything is larger than it used to be or the configuration is different," Wellner said of newer NFL stadiums. "The limitation that exists at the Edward Jones Dome is the fact that the building is built adjacent to the streets that exist there. The site is tight. The ability to expand, as is the case in Kansas City and a project we did in Miami where we extended the building outward, is not possible."

Owners' options

During a visit to St. Louis in April, the Rams' new managing owner, Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, said he has no interest in relocating the football team. St. Louis treated his late mother, longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, well, he said. Although Rosenbloom grew up and lives in Los Angeles, he has family roots and connections here. And the Rams lease terms he inherited may be too good to give up.

In the deal St. Louis made to lure the Rams, the team pays $250,000 in rent each year but keeps most of the revenue from ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships, national NFL television deals and local advertising. The Rams reported revenue of $178 million in 2007, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous year. Forbes magazine valued the franchise at $908 million in its latest review of NFL teams.

Although the Rosenbloom/Frontiere family has been in the football business for decades, Rosenbloom has a separate career in Hollywood as a screenwriter, director and producer. He is founder and owner of Open Pictures, an independent production company that makes family-friendly motion pictures and documentaries. He and his wife, Kathleen, have two children.

Since Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez, inherited a 60 percent joint ownership stake in the Rams, Rosenbloom has had to make adjustments. He said he already turned down a directing job scheduled to start this fall so he can attend to the Rams as they kick off the 2008 season, and he is still getting a feel for the ownership role.

"The transition will be challenging. This season we're taking a watch, wait and see approach. We're learning," Rosenbloom said.

He plans to be a present owner, but not a hands-on one like the Cowboys' Jerry Jones or the Washington Redskins' Daniel Snyder. And football decisions will remain in the hands of team executives, headed by the Rams' president and longtime Frontiere confidant, John Shaw.

"We're much more interested in the community and in supporting the people we have who know a lot more about running a football team," Rosenbloom said.

Shaw sat next to Rosenbloom and Rodriguez during their introductory visit with members of the St. Louis press last month at the team's Russell Training Center. Shaw has given no indication he intends to leave the Rams after more than a quarter-century as Frontiere's key adviser. But should he decide to resign or retire in the coming years, it's possible it could affect Rosenbloom's interest in holding on to the team.

Minority owner Stan Kroenke, who holds a 40 percent stake in the Rams, has more experience as a controlling partner. He owns a sports empire in Colorado that includes the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, the National Lacrosse League's Colorado Mammoth and a one-third interest in the Arena Football League's Colorado Crush, in addition to the Altitude Sports & Entertainment regional television sports network. NFL cross-ownership rules would require he sell his stake in the Nuggets and Avalanche, however, if he strikes a deal to take control of the Rams.

Kroenke maintains strong ties to the St. Louis region. He graduated from the University of Missouri and serves as chairman of St. Louis-based commercial developer THF Realty. Should he or another owner take control of the Rams, however, he might scan the sports landscape to see if the Rams could find a more lucrative home elsewhere. Ironically, the largest market that does not have an NFL team but has been throwing around stadium proposals with the goal of luring a franchise is Los Angeles, the Rams' old stomping grounds.

(endit)

good stuff, thanks.

 

[NoFBinLA]

You mean the Cleveland Rams that moved to LA?

Forgot about that - now I get to use THIS icon - My point stands that I would prefer a new team not someone else's.What you describe in terms of the people going is the same problem many new stadiums seem to have - I know Staples here in LA can be like that. You hang in the upper deck - far above the blue bloods - and it can get crazy.Down near the floor you can get a ton of people who are just there to be there. The seats cost so damned much and the affordable (I use that term loosely) seats are so far from anything that the hard core fans are sometimes too far away from action to make a difference.

 

[Red Apples]

could an uneven 17 regular game schedule necessitate a 33rd team?

 

[HMH]

Joined: 12 Apr 2005

Posts: 13379

PostPosted: Wed May 21, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: Burwell Live: 5/21/08 'Are the Rams for sale? Leaving town?' Reply with quote

http://www.stltoday.com/discussions/

sports/bryan-burwell-live/LD052008351/all

Bryan Burwell Live

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Ken Seufert: Kroenke has an option to buy. Why hold the option unless you intend to exercise it. Why keep a minority interest if you aren't going to exercise the option if offfered. Yes he has other franchise interest he would have to dispose of but why wouldn't he? Isn't the NFL the crown jewel? How do you live in Mid-missouri and be the person who allowed the NFL to leave St. Louis. It is easier to get rich and be the heroe then it is to get rich and be the villain.

What is this all about? A new Stadium, open air and out of the most dreadful place for football, i.e., downtown St. louis. I say give the RAMS a new stadium with lots of room for tail gating and partying with a real NFL atmosphere. Remember the Cardinals new stadium; remember how that started; how they got just what they wanted. This just more of the same. It started about 8 yeats ago. Get ready For the shakedown here it comes. Pay up or be prepared for the highest bidder to take the RAMS off our hands.

Regardless, Downtown is just atrocious for football. Sooner we get out of there the better. Let Baseball crowd have downtown. Give the Rams fan there very own NFL venue in St. Louis. Preferably, some place that is open and flat with lots of parking. Tail gaiting is football; Try to do that in downtown St. Louis. It is a joke.

Ken, PSL Holder from the beginning.

Bryan Burwell: kroenke has a good reason to remain a minority owner. he owns the building in denver along with the pro basketball and hockey teams (plus i believe there are interests in some minor league operations as well).

as to the ultimate shakedown you predict, it's in the lease with the city. STL must provide a stadium that is one of the eight best in the NFL, and they have until 2015 to make sure that happens. If that means we'll have to build a new stadium eventually (it does) then do it. look what happened to indianapolis, they built a newer dome and now they have a super bowl.

===========

Andy: Bryan,

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions from the (suddenly very nervous)civilians in Rams Nation. I always enjoy your columns and your television work, and your insight is greatly appreciated.

I'll do my best to put a different slant on this (since you can only ask the question, "Will the Rams stay in St. Louis, or won't they?" so many different ways): IF I understand the situation right (and that's a big IF), the Rams can only void their lease and leave town if the Dome is not in the the top quarter of facilities in the league by 2015. Any chance enough improvements are made by then to improve the Dome's standing and render the issue moot, or is the Ed just too obsolete?

Also, do you think all of this speculation will have a trickle-down effect? Could this matter effect the on-field product in 2008, or would those types of things only manifest closer to the time of an actual move?

ST. LOUIS Rams FOREVER!!!!!

Bryan Burwell: you are correct about the lease agreement. The Rams are putting in new improvements already, with new artificial surface, bigger and improved scoreboards and improvements along the concourses..... but eventually, the dome will become obsolute and the city will have to either build a new dome or else....

I don't think this talk will affect the on-field product.

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Buckster: Okay, we should have expected something like this when Georgia passed (God rest her soul). The unreal amount of value Forbes has attached to this franchise makes it a simple thing. If I was Chip and wasn't interested in being an aggressive owner-SELL. Sorry but thats the simple math of it all.

By the way, can anyone tell me what is "endearing" or loveable about the dome? It is sterile, cold, dank, dark and dusky. It has no personality whatsoever? I love the NFL and the Rams and the old Cardinals but it seems we rushed to build something that would not stand the test of time, long-term and now we see, short term. The dome is a horrible facility and doesn't do anything for downtown (not that anything would). If they leave, bye bye and thanks for the memories and a huge debt. They basically got a free ride here. We cannot give anything more to keep them.

Bryan Burwell: i disagree with your "see ya later" sentiments. If A-B wanted tax breaks or capital improvements around its plant would you tell them to hit the road? Nope. So why would you do that to another major business that is part of the lifeblood of downtown revitalization? If this city doesn't have pro sports, and there was no dome, the Washington Ave. loft revitalization would never have happened.

I think Indianapolis is the perfect guide to STL in how sports can become a major industry for a mid-sized city like ours

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bash-on: Now that both Jake Long and Matt Ryan have been signed, (Long for 57+ million over 5 years with 30 mil guaranteed and Ryan for 72 million with 30 some odd million guaranteed), what would be a reasonable contract offer for Chris Long and how is it going to sit with the teams established players? They can't be happy watching a snot-nosed, (if likable), kid come in and get the richest contract in team history without proving anything! Crazy. When is this going to change... (and I hope he gets everything he can).

Bash-on Regardless

Bryan Burwell: there's no such thing as a reasonable contract. you get what you can get. that's how you negotiate. He'll end up with guaranteed money in the $25 million range at the very least, probably more.

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JB: Bryan, thanks for contacting Rosenbloom and getting a much more specific statement regarding the Rams.

After reading that original statement, it made me worry even more about the Rams future here. I'm glad you were able to get Chip to clear things up.

Thanks again,

JB

Bryan Burwell: JB,

please understand that ultimately Rosenbloom and his sister may sell the team regardless of what he says today. With estate taxes being so harsh to the surviving family members, unless they are flushed with about $225 million, they may have no choice but to sell off shares of the team to pay the estate tax. But at least for now, rest easy. This team is here for at least the next nine years (2015 plus one year), and the lease is through 2025.

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Armen Dacity: One name that intrigues me as a possible #3 QB is Byron Leftwich, who is currently unemployed. I assume he'd be relatively inexpensive, and he certainly has more experience and potential than Brock Berlin. What do you think?

Bryan Burwell: Oh yeah, then the Rams would have three brittle, immoble quarterbacks on their roster who are one hard hit away from the funny farm

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Mark in NY: Bryan, nice to see you having chats... love your work.

Are the Rams for sale? Of course they are for sale. Do people really think a LA movie producer and his sister are interested in owning a football team? I think the only reason Georgia kept the Rams was because it gave her the publicity and fame and wealth she always craved. People say it was about family, but it didn't stop her from firing Caroll Rosombloom's son John when he was president, or moving the Rams from So Cal and breaking millions of fan's hearts.

Chip says people disrespected her and no one supported the football team. Well, what do you expect when you put a lousy product on the field. I remember when the Rams were a good football team with Jim Everett (right after the Dickerson trade), and all the fans were wearing melons on their heads! Georgia asked all the football players to wear some stupid necklaces during games for good luck!

Everyone made fun of her... the team started playing poorly (it happens), so she hires John Shaw to run the team, flips the good people of LA the bird, and then tells the nation, after the team wins the Super Bowl, that that "proves" it was the right decision (like the move had anything to do with it). IMHO, she always felt "disrespected" from the NFL about moving from that HUGE market (but it was still easier than trying to fix a football team - and she got what... a guaranteed profit of 15 million annually from St Louis?).

Lastly, now I know why Linehan is still there... because "she liked him". Is that any way to run a football team? Personally, I think the best thing for the Rams and their fans would be for them to sell the team. Any family would be better, and it doesn't matter where they are located.

I'm sorry to rant but this has been building up for many years. Am I wrong about this?

Mark

Bryan Burwell: Hey Mark, no problem, consider me Doctor Phil and this is our couch. Vent baby. Expose your feelings. I'm sensing some abandonment issues with you....

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Tackleberry: If the Rams have another miserable season they would be crowned the worst franchise in the NFL. This team has a deteriorating fan base, an antiquated stadium, and a front office who seems destined to steer this franchise into the ground. I realize that it was Georgia's last wish that Linehan remain as head coach but that might be the ruin of this team. A friendly suggestion to Chip Roseblum: if this season is anywhere less than 8-8, get out your mop,bucket, & broom, and clean house. Send the cronies & phonies packing and get some real people at the helm of this sinking ship.

Bryan Burwell: I'll let you in on a little secret. Chip Rosenbloom is a smart man. He genuinely cares about this franchise from the initial conversations I've had with him. He cared enough to respond when he was told his answers weren't clear enough. Give him big points for that. But I also think he's smart enough as a business man to not come in and start moving furniture around without truly understanding what's going on. he will use this first season to observe and then backed by hands-on knowledge, he will do what is appropriate if things go south with the team on the field.

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Greg Gibson: Greetinigs Bryan...as much as it seems just like yesterday that The Ed was built it looks as though another stadium may be necessary in 5-10 years. I am informed that the Rams lease agreement calls for The Ed to be competitive with the top eight stadiums in the NFL. We the addition of the new stadium in Dallas, the new stadium in Indy, the one just completed in Arizona...the bar has been raised. Will taxpayers be asked to pony up for a new building? Where is the money going to come from? Any clues?

Regards,

Greg

Bryan Burwell: Greg, you're absolutely right. This is the cost of doing big business. As a friend of mine who used to be an NFL executive used to tell me, "If you're going to do big business, do big business." In other words, no half steps, no short cuts. By my count, the city of STL has some work to do between now and 2015, because by then there will be new stadiums in NY, Dallas and Indy up, and that would mean that at least 12 NFL stadiums would be considered superior to the Edward Jones Dome (my estimation: Arizona, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, New England, Indy, NY, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Washington).

If we want an NFL franchise to stay here, we need to find a way to keep them in a building that is world-class.

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brstjames: Please consider that Stan Kroenke has a right of first refusal in the event the Rams are put up for sale, which he would undoubtedly exercise in order to finally become majority owner of the team. Please also consider that unless your name is Al Davis it is very difficult to move NFL franchises, that L.A. is not the panacea for football that some people think it is, that there are few, if any media markets bigger than St.Louis that do not already have NFL teams (it is all about the television revenue), and that the Rams have a sweetheart lease to play at the dome, and that we would make it even sweeter if the Rams make any noise about moving the team. What do you think?

Bryan Burwell: Kroenke isn't going to sell off his interests in Denver. He owns the building and is in charge of two highly successful franchises in the NBA and NHL and the money flow goes into his pockets and he doesn't have to share.

I firmly agree that the city will do whatever it has to contractually to maintain a world class facility to keep an NFL team here.

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Rampage88: Hey Bryan! Nice article in the paper today. I think St. Louis would be pretty dull if the Rams left. I am not the biggest baseball fan, and couldn't care less about hockey. That said, do you believe the Rams will remain for the long term? What are the odds that they will get a state of the art stadium in the future? Also, how soon could this happen? I would love for the Rams to get a new stadium with a retractable roof. The current stadium is lacking when compared to most other teams in the league.

Bryan Burwell: I think they'll be here as long as the city maintains a world-class stadium among the top eight in the NFL. Right now, they've already fallen behind probably 10 to 12 stadiums by my count. So over the next eight or nine years they will have to make major improvements. I also think that it's inevitable that a new stadium will be constructed within the next 15 years.

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Rita from South County: Hi Bryan,

It's so nice of you to do these chats. Welcome to the online community!

I am so sick and tired of this topic. I can't believe the gall of people who continue to think that we in St. Louis must/will tolerate this chronic notion that the Rams will move, and if so, back to Los Angeles. We as a community have paid much for the team to move here, and we continue to support the franchise.

Are we happy that they are having losing seasons? No, of course not.

I couldn't care less if LA ever gets another football team, and I know a number of people who agree with me. LA has lost multiple football teams, despite having a larger population and a higher per capita income than St. Louis. What business person in their right mind would want to invest in a team for that market?

If and when Chip/Lucia decide to sell their team, it's their right to do so. However, I seriously doubt that they would come to St. Louis, in the high-profile manner in which they did, meet the media, thank the community for its support of their mother, and then turn around and sell the team. They do not strike me as the kind of people to conduct themselves in such a manner.

As for the CVC, of course they will take the position that there's no money in the pot for dome improvements. What else are they supposed to say? "We have a bottomless pit of cash. Come and get it".

The dome needs improvements. It's going to cost a lot of money to make the improvements. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. It will be said, by a number of people, that there's no money to pay for the improvements. There will be talk of the team moving elsewhere. Then, in the end, money will be found to make the improvements, if the powers that be want the Rams to stay here.

I hope, for everyone's sake, that the Rams have a winning season this year. I hope Chip and Lucia keep this team, because they appear to be very nice, humble people. I hope the Rams stay in St. Louis forever. I hope the people who keep stirring this pot shut-up and go find a life.

Bryan Burwell: Hi Rita, and thanks for the welcome wagon into my new humble internet home.

I'm with you. I hope the Rams stay here forever, and I hope that Chip and Lucia are the ones who keep them here. But the key to insuring that STL always has an NFL franchise is for the city to provide the best possible venue to the team to play in. They've done everything they were supposed to do over the past 13 years and I suspect they will continue to do so.

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kdunlap: What are the chances another team will fill the void in LA before the Rams are sold or are able to weasel out of their lease? I am thinking about Jacksonville, San Diego or New Orleans (the Superdome is over 30 years old)

I think if a team goes there then the likelihood the team leaves is much smaller.

Bryan Burwell: good question.... Jacksonville and San Diego are the most likely in my view. San Diego has been slow to do anything about the old and outdated stadium it has and the NFL has made it clear that they'll never get another Super Bowl without a new stadium. Jax is another one depending on if the owner finally decides to sell. He keeps hinting he will, but then changes his mind when it looks like his team is going to make a super bowl run.

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Ruben: Bryan,

Thanks for taking our questions. I was a LA Rams season seat holder for 9 years before they left for St. Louis. I still follow the team and will always follow the team, no matter where they are. The current situation reminds me, at the beginning stages, of the Rams move. There were a lot of rumors and talk about the options for the team. This situation is slightly different as the ownership has passed to very loyal children. The last thing they want is to hurt their mom's wishes, but their mom would not want them to be burdened with any financial or personal commitment, if they are unable to handle it.

Any good negotiator will rarely tell you he wants to or needs to sell. If I were Chip, I would do whatever I could to increase the price. That being said, if you had to go out on a limb, do they sell the Rams in the next 3yrs?

Bryan Burwell: Anything is possible, even when people say they are not selling. I am going to say that the team might be sold over the next five years, but it will remain in St. Louis.

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Steve Roberts: Thanks for answering our questions Bryan.

Do we have any idea what the Rams currently pay via the lease agreement? Why is it assumed that if the Rams void the lease (which they obviously have a financial interest in doing) that they won't just renegotiate a far more lucrative lease for the team?

Thanks

Bryan Burwell: I don't know what they're dishing out, but there are some shortcomings to it, like the Rams don't get to wet their beak on stadium parking because the dome and convention center doesn't own the parking concession surrounding the dome. the key to this deal is what improvements on the stadium will the city continue to make on the dome. They have already upgraded the playing surface, put in new scoreboards and improved the concourses and painted the place. I'd still love to see a hall of fame statue plaza for football like busch stadium has for its baseball legends.

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feet: Bryan

Thank you for your exposing the Pats and Bill Belichick in your article last week. I think you were one of the few who supported many of us Rams fans who felt this was an injustice. When the Walsh tapes were giving to Goodall, he was more than too egger to declare this over and sweep it under the rug. Many around the country and here were trying to say tapes and the Pats conduct was business as usual. Only you in this town came out and called it what it; cheating.

Since then, some like the Ryan article and the Specter press conference have questioned the NFL motives and cast doubts about the Pats integrity. Same stuff you said, but you said here and you said it first.

Kudos and keep up the good work

feet

Bryan Burwell: Feet don't fail me now.

Thanks for the compliments. I'll keep sniffing around

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Ruben: Bryan,

Here is my prediction with this situation. We will hear very little about the sale over the next several months. The talk will begin again around Oct./Nov. 2008. By the end of the playoffs, Rams will annouce they are selling the team. (Buyer is already found) Before the draft, new ownership is introduced and will keep all vital staff during transition. Ownership in 2010 begins talks with stadium group and asks for over $150 million in upgrades to improve stadium. Stadium group says $50 million. There is a legal tussel and a buyout settlement is negotiated. Rams head back to Los Angeles for the 2012 season with a new owner, office personnel and back to their old colors. What do you think?

Bryan Burwell: Ruben, it's a lovely story, but it's sheer fiction. This team is locked into St. Louis at least through the 2016 season. It's an ironclad lease. Period.

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Andy: This one is unrelated to the potential sale of the Rams, but I've already seen a couple of off-topic question, so, while you're here...

What do you think of Chavous? A lot of fans and pundits keep calling for his head, but the Rams' decision-makers obviously feel compelled to stick with him. They didn't even draft an EVENTUAL heir, which I thought they would. Even if Chavous is good to go for awhile, he can't last forever. What do you think? Will Chavous maintain a high level of play for awhile longer?

Also, do you know if Long has the ability to slide inside on obvious passing downs? On a predraft radio show, Jim Hannifan suggested this might be a possibility. Assuming Little regains his old form, imagine a pass-rushing front four of Witherspoon-Long-GZlover or Carriker-Little. That could be a spectacle!

Bryan Burwell: I think the Rams coaches value Cory's leadership as much if not more than his on-field abilities. He is a critical voice and presence in that room who is unafraid to lead.

And yes, Long probably will get a few looks as an inside rusher on ocassion.

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Tom O'Sullivan: Bryan;

L.A's already lost two NFL franchises. If L.A. was a viable market there'd be a team there by now. Hell, it's been 14 years. Where would you move the Rams? San Antonio? Las Vegas? Portland? Those cities couldn't do better than St. Louis!

Bryan Burwell: Another very good point. No one has conclusively shown NFL owners that putting a team back in LA would be a smart business decision. The reality is the Rams are here for at least nine years, period.

Thanks for hanging out with me this morning. The intelligent level of questions was impressive and reinforces what I've believed since I arrived here seven years ago: STL is a very under