Three teams officially filed relocation paperwork with the NFL on Monday, as The Rams, Chargers and Raiders all seem very determined to leave their current cities for the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles.
But are the Chargers and Raiders as determined as Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams? USA Today got hold of the Rams’ relocation application, and let’s just say this: if the NFL owners don’t vote to let the Rams move, the citizens of St. Louis will chase the team out of town anyway.
To say that Kroenke doesn’t like being in St. Louis is understating things. Some highlights of Kroenke’s relocation proposal:
— Heading, in bold: “St. Louis is not a three professional team market.”
— “Compared to all other U.S. cities, St. Louis is struggling.”
— “Rams attendance since 2010 has been well below the league’s average. The combination of low attendance and the lack of pricing power has consistently placed the Rams in the low fourth quartile in gross ticketing receipts generally between 60% and 70% of the NFL average per game for the regular season.”
— “San Diego and Oakland are significantly more attractive markets than St. Louis, which is projected to be 26th in growth among NFL markets moving forward.”
— “No NFL club would be interested [in a proposed new St. Louis stadium]. Any NFL club that signs on to this proposal in St. Louis will be well on the road to financial ruin, and the League will be harmed.”
Kroenke went on to say in the application that the Rams never would have agreed to relocate to St. Louis in the first place had the city not promised a new stadium, which so far it has failed to deliver.
Kroenke wants to move the Rams into a new, privately financed $1.86 billion stadium in Inglewood, near the L.A. airport. Meanwhile, the Raiders and Chargers have worked up a proposal to share a stadium in Carson which would cost %1.7 billion, also privately financed.
The NFL says it will only support one stadium in Los Angeles, to be shared by two teams. So one team is going to be odd man out. If it’s the Rams, well, Kroenke is going to have a hard time talking himself back into the house.