The St. Louis Rams and their landlords, the Convention and Visitors Commission, have reached an agreement for the Rams to play one of their 2012 home games in London, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.
All they had to do was make the Dome more accessible during the season to large gatherings like political nominating conventions, Billy Graham rallies, and others groups lucrative to downtown businesses and area strippers.
Potentially renovating the Edward Jones Dome is not the only downtown St. Louis development project that St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has his hands in at the moment. The St. Louis Business Journals reported on Friday that THF Realty, Kroenke's company, and hotelier Bob O'Louglin are said to be leading the way for the redevelopment of Union Station.
So what does for the future of the Edward Jones Dome and its tenant?
On Feb. 1, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission presented the St. Louis Rams with a $124 million proposal for renovations to make the Edward Jones Dome a "top tier" facility. Of all the items in the proposal, the most important might be additional premium seating which could generate more than $2.6 million in new annual revenue for the Rams.
Would that be enough?
Roger Goodell took the airwaves in a Friday radio interview with ESPN New York. Asked about his prior comments pertaining to league expansion and moving teams, the NFL Commissioner reiterated his stance, a stance that should buoy those hoping to see the Rams stay in St. Louis.
"We want to keep our teams where they are," Goodell said. "We are working hard to make sure we either get the stadiums built or do the kinds of things that are necessary to build the fans support to make those teams successful in those communities ..."
Credit the man for sticking to his talking points. CEOs don't make $20 million salaries for going off script. Sarcasm aside, his remark about getting the stadiums built does lend it more sincerity, especially in light of the league's renewed stadium loan plan.
As for expansion talk, Goodell pushed back again on the comments he made to Bob Costas in the days before the Super Bowl.
"We are not considering expansion," Goodell said. "I've tried to make that clear when I was asked by Bob Costas recently. He said you just go to 33 teams. I said I don't think you would ever expand by one team. You would expand by two teams, but I was very clear that expansion is not something we have considered. It is something we can potentially do down the road having the kind of stability that we have, but we like our structure right now. We like the 32 teams. We think the scheduling is in a good place."
"... we'll look at the Los Angeles opportunity as it comes and try to figure out the right way to solve that problem if a solution can be determined," he added.
An open spot in Los Angeles is of great help to the league to get those stadium deals done. Should those building programs not work out for struggling teams, LA could get a team before the league does start talking about expansion.
Good thing the St. Louis Rams hired a new general manager to help run the show at Rams Park, because the team's owner, Stan Kroenke, is going to be very busy over the next week. The 11 parties bidding on the Los Angeles Dodgers, which includes Kroenke, have been asked by the Blackstone Group to submit a revised bid within the next week, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The St. Louis Rams and the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission ironed out the lease issues that prevented the team from playing one home game in each of the next three seasons in London. Ticket sales for the Oct. 28 game against the New England Patriots in London's Webley Stadium resume on Monday.
Ticket sales for the game were suspended on Thursday, Feb. 2, the day general admission seats were supposed to go on sale. The CVC issued a public statement about the lease violation issue on Jan. 27, two days after club seat tickets went on sale for the London game.
Ticket sales were suspended in a cloud of mystery. Neither the NFL or the Rams said what was at issue - TST was told the delay was due to technical difficulties - around the suspended ticket sales until Rodger Goodell dropped a telling hint in his press conference last Friday. Later that day, reports began to surface from in the British media about the possibility of the Rams being replaced for the Oct. 28 date.
TST was the first outlet to look into the suspended ticket sales after fans told us that they were unable to buy tickets.
The details of the agreement between the Rams and the CVC to allow the Rams to play the game have yet to be released. It is at least a small sign of good faith between both parties as they negotiate over the larger issue of Dome renovations to satisfy an out clause in the lease that would let the Rams walk away in 2015.
A wave of negative reaction surrounded the Rams' announcement of the London games, as it added fuel to the fires of speculation about the team's uncertain future in the city. Rams COO Kevin Demoff spent most of his time calming those fears and talking about the lease during media appearances to promote the London games.
The St. Louis Rams London date with the New England Patriots in 2012 is in doubt. As first reported on TST, ticket sales for the London game have been suspended, the day that general admission tickets were supposed to go on sale. Now, talk of Rams being replaced for the London game is surfacing.
On Jan. 27, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission threw a challenge flag over the Rams violating their lease by moving a home game to locations other than the Edward Jones Dome. Asked about the situation on Friday, NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell said, "We're going to play the London games. We hope it will be with the Rams and the New England Patriots next year. That's what we planned. "
Greg Brady of Canadian Sportsnet 590 and an NFL correspondent for the BBC says that if the Rams are not allowed to play in the UK game, the league would like to keep the same date with the Patriots. Potential replacements could be the Titans or the Jaguars.
TST has asked for additional information from the Rams and NFL UK, but, so far, has received no response.
It's hard to believe that problems with the lease went unnoticed in the decision by the NFL to award the London games to the Rams. No lease in the country has received more scrutiny in the last 12 months. I do that the Rams were a little stunned by the negative reaction to the London news among local fans.
And speaking of fans, those who had already purchased tickets - club seats went on sale Jan. 25 - have reason to be upset. It does at least sound like the league will have game in the UK in October. At least one fan in that situation expressed some dissatisfaction over the issue, using the term "false advertising" to describe it.
In a Thursday interview with Bob Costas, NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell told the host that the league would most likely expand by two teams if they moved into the Los Angeles market. He also told Costas that the league wants to keep teams where they are. In his Friday press conference in Indianapolis, Goodell recited similar talking points in relation to the St. Louis Rams, but softened his stance on the expansion talk.
Specifically, Goodell said that the league has not discussed expansion. He added that he doesn't see expansion happening in the foreseeable future, but did note a ten-year window to make something happen for the NFL in LA.
Naturally, that led to questions about LA and the Rams. Goodell said that the NFL does indeed want to go back to sunny Southern California and the country's second-largest media market. However, he also said that it was a balancing act, according to Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal.
The commissioner did reiterate his talking point that the league wants to keep teams where they are. That said, the NFL isn't above using open spots in Los Angeles to give teams leverage in favorable stadium deals. So the commish didn't blow all of Stan Kroenke's leverage in Dome talks with the CVC.
Asked about the Rams specifically by Jim Thomas at the PD, Goodell said, "we'd love to have the St. Louis Rams stay in St. Louis."
Goodell said the same thing in an interview with Bernie Miklasz of the PD on Thursday.
Like most, I go back and forth on this issue everyday. Today, I return to my gut feeling that all of it is a leverage play for Stan Kroenke and the Rams to get a sweet deal to stick around in Missouri or maybe even suburban Illinois ... with more than a little help from the public trough.
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