Crap - STL Rams GM just resigned

[eazyb81]

.....reported by Mort on ESPN.

They could actually compete with us to sign the top GM candidate.

I hope Clark has been busy on the phone the last week....

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by blueballs

I vaguelly remember some talk
about conditions not being meet

you're right and the rams let the city lapse on the clause, the st louis post website is kinda ****ed up it keeps showing me the forums not actual stories.
i had a discussion on another site at the time.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

NOPE, i'll do some research and get back to ya.

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

you're right and the rams let the city lapse on the clause, the st louis post website is kinda ****ed up it keeps showing me the forums not actual stories.
i had a discussion on another site at the time.

Don't waste your time.

I was actually 3 years early. They are locked in until 2015. 2012 was the date that the Rams and the STL Visitors Commission were going to discuss options on how to get the stadium up to snuff before 2015.

http://www.hannibal.net/sports/x4898...is-Rams-future

Posted May 21, 2008 @ 10:39 PM
St. Louis, MO —

For a town with an already fragile psyche when it comes to the NFL, news that the Rams might be on the sale block left St. Louis shaken.
But the team’s future may come down to whether there is a willingness to spend millions upgrading the Edward Jones Dome or even build a new stadium.
Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday that the Rams are being shopped for up to $900 million in the wake of the January death of longtime owner Georgia Frontiere, who moved the team from southern California to her hometown of St. Louis in 1995. Frontiere’s children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, are now majority owners.

The report raised concern here that for the second time in a little more than two decades, St. Louis could lose an NFL franchise. The Cardinals left for Arizona after the 1986 season. Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest market, remains without an NFL team.
Rosenbloom released a written statement that read in part, “I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the Rams in St. Louis ...” But the statement stopped short of saying definitively the Rams will not be sold.
St. Louis has nothing to worry about in the short term. A lease agreement requires the Rams to remain at the dome through 2015. The problem comes after that.

To lure the Rams, civic leaders agreed to a deal requiring that the dome remains among the top quarter of all NFL stadiums. The next measuring date is 2015.

Starting in 2012, both the Rams and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission can begin exchanging proposals on getting the dome to that elite status. If no deal is reached by 2015, the Rams have the option of ending the lease — and potentially moving.
Getting the dome to a top-tier level will be an expensive task, and funding will be problematic, said Brian McMurtry, executive director of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority. Maintenance and repair costs go up as the building ages, eating into any money that could be set aside for future renovations.

“There’s not going to be a pot of money,” McMurtry said Wednesday.
The dome was built strictly with public funding. Civic leaders agreed to attach it to the downtown convention center so it could be used for large shows and conventions as well as football. The state paid 50 percent of the cost, and St. Louis city and St. Louis County each paid 25 percent. The dome’s cost: $260 million.

New stadiums today cost three, four, five times that much. To be among the top quarter of all stadiums by 2015, the Edward Jones Dome would need to be on a level with the new $1.6 billion stadium for the Jets and Giants, the Cowboys’ new $1 billion stadium, new stadiums in Indianapolis and Arizona, among others.

Many observers believe the St. Louis dome ranks closer to the bottom of NFL stadiums. It has no expansive outdoor parking lot for tailgating, lacks a retractable roof and has been criticized for its sound system, lighting and for what some perceive as a sterile atmosphere.

Since the Yahoo story, much chatter on talk radio and blogs has focused on the need for an entirely new stadium. The dome will be 20 years old by 2015. The RCA Dome in Indianapolis wasn’t much older. The Colts move into a new stadium this year.

Whether hundreds of millions of dollars would be available to either upgrade the dome or build a new stadium may come down to voters. A charter amendment passed earlier this decade requires voter approval for public funding for a sports facility here.

Even the baseball Cardinals, beloved in St. Louis, couldn’t generate public support for a new ballpark. The downtown stadium that opened in 2006 was funded mostly by the team.

Mike Jones, senior policy adviser for St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, doubted there would be political support for either an expensive upgrade to the dome or a new stadium.
“It still is a building that is used 10 times a year,” Jones said. “The real question is, does the community have both the capacity and the will to raise — you plug in the number — in 2015? And if you have that capacity and that will, is this the highest priority for that kind of expenditure of public resources?”

Ed Rhode, a spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay, said civic and business leaders and the community will eventually have to determine how to move forward. “But that is still seven years away,” Rhode said. “In the meantime we have some pressing needs to address like home foreclosures and high gas prices.”

McMurtry agreed there’s plenty of time to come up with a solution. And he points out that other NFL cities have found ways to make existing stadiums work. “Kansas City did a major renovation to an old stadium,” he said. “Green Bay did a major renovation. I think it’s plausible here.”

[SAUTO]

trust me OTW there's an out, trust me. kroenke will end up being the maj owner and the team will be moved to la

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

trust me OTW there's an out, trust me. kroenke will end up being the maj owner and the team will be moved to la

Trust you, or trust the person who's lived here his entire life, who knows more about the workings of that team than anyone on this board due to having a friend of the family working in the front office?

But feel free, waste the next eleventy-billion hours of your time looking for an out that doesn't exist until 2015.

[bowener]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

trust me OTW there's an out, trust me. kroenke will end up being the maj owner and the team will be moved to Bentonville, AR.

FYP

The kicker is, he will make it mandatory that all local Wal-Mart Co. employees own season tickets, and the Bentonville Rams will automatically be removed from the NFLPA, and paid 80% of the going rate as well as given no incentive laden contrats.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by beavis

Man that freakin' dome sucks, even as far as domes go. I went there for the first time this year for the Mizzou/Illinois game. For only being 15 years old, it sure it's very modern.

It's nice enough as far as just the amenities, imo. That being said, I was going to Rams games there during their best seasons after Trent got hurt and Warner was the QB, and the atmosphere of that place during its golden years doesn't beat out the atmosphere at Arrowhead during its roughest times.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Trust you, or trust the person who's lived here his entire life, who knows more about the workings of that team than anyone on this board due to having a friend of the family working in the front office?
But feel free, waste the next eleventy-billion hours of your time looking for an out that doesn't exist until 2015.

i wouldnt be too sure about that, but i wont argue about a team i care NOTHING about.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

i wouldnt be too sure about that, but i wont argue about a team i care NOTHING about.

You're not to sure that I have a friend of the family that works in the FO?

Is that a nice way of calling me a liar?

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

You're not to sure that I have a friend of the family that works in the FO?

Is that a nice way of calling me a liar?

no i'm not too sure you know more than someone else about the rams, if i thought you were a liar i'd say it i fixed above post sorry for the confusion

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

no i'm not too sure you know more than someone else about the rams, if i thought you were a liar i'd say it

Does anyone else have any connections inside the organization other than NewPhin?

It's the two of us, AFAIK.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Does anyone else have any connections inside the organization other than NewPhin?

It's the two of us, AFAIK.

ok cool

[Mojo Jojo]

I have two very close friends that work there, and I have sat through several Rams/St. Louis Preservation Board meetings. Right now the monies scheduled for 2015 are being used over the next two seasons in order to bring the Dome to current standards. At that point the Preservation Board will need to come up with additional funds to meet the outlined projects that will come due in 2015.

In short the Rams are forcing the Boards hand, and if they can't meet a "state of the art indoor" facility then the agreement is void. The dome must be in the top 10% of indoor facilities, and the two sides are arguing if retractable roof stadiums can be considered indoor facilities. The Rams say yes the city says no. If it is yes then Houston, Phoenix and Dallas really seal the deal for the Rams to move.

[Bull]

I hear Charlie Casserly is available, LOL

[whoman69]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I think the Chiefs job, at present, is a better job than the STL job.

Ownership in STL is still very much up in the air. Nobody's really sure if STL will stay in St. Louis (as outlined above). If they do stay, the fanbase is incredibly fickle, their stadium sucks and they have even less in the cupboard than we do, with some equally onerous contracts.

We oughta be able to beat out STL for the top guy (Doug Whaley...)

I would agree. As a franchise right now the Chiefs are much more attractive. They have a proven devoted fan base that will come out if you put a decent product on the field. More revenue is available in KC, and its not like they're in competition with the Royals for the hearts and minds of their fans. The Rams are transplanted and haven't found a base that far outside their local area when KC brings in fans from many neighboring states. The Rams run into competition from all sides except perhaps Arkansas. KC also has more talented players than the Rams. On the field the Rams haven't been competitive for a few years now. Their stars are aging or have moved on. The only thing that could even make it close is that the Rams have shown more willingness to put their money behind their team.

[StcChief]

Originally Posted by blueballs

I hear they have stadium issues
Rams owner wants to go LA
that may even out

surprise, they really didn't wanna leave to begin with, fans wouldn't watch the losers.

STL should have had JV or Carolina in expansion.