Rams to LA

[cmh6476 748]

Being reported with SD having the option to join them and raiduhs remaining in Oakland

[cmh6476 748]

Also sounds like usc signed off on allowing two teams to use stadium in 2016. Appears an announcement coming shortly per lacanfora's twitter

[worm 34]

Inglewood only sometimes up to no good now.

[mobb_deep 917]

Whoop! So glad it wasn't the Raiders!!

[giraldi02 470]

And they made sure to do it right before the State of the Union. PR points on that one for sure

[Vikings4ever 496]

Sucks for the fans.

 

But, for better or worse, professional sports is a pay to play industry. And this is the second time in a generation the St Louis pols decided not to pay.

[giraldi02 470]

Sucks for the fans.

 

But, for better or worse, professional sports is a pay to play industry. And this is the second time in a generation the St Louis pols decided not to pay.

I'm glad St. Louis did this. I hope more cities do this too. Screw the NFL for squeezing every penny from the community. We don't need new stadiums every five years. How about putting money into the preexisting stadium?

[Magnificent Bastard 190]

Good. More 4 o'clock games.

[Kopy 489]

The L A Rams.

I feel like I've heard that before.

[cmh6476 748]

MO governor (dem) worked with st Louis community to put a new stadium proposal together. They were going to issue public bonds to help pay for it but GOP legislature was threatening not to issue payment on any bonds sold. Be interesting to see if this plays into the governors race although incumbent is term limited

[weepaws 2,451]

Wonder if this move will make them a better football team .

[PJ_Abyss 0]

Can't believe LA got an NFL team before Cleveland did

[uwmalcolm 73]

Sucks for the fans.

 

But, for better or worse, professional sports is a pay to play industry. And this is the second time in a generation the St Louis pols decided not to pay.

As a Seattle resident and Sonics fan I can empathize with the STL (and possibly SD/OAK) fans. It's pretty brutal if you're a hardcore fan. My main source of NBA joy each year (aside from fantasy basketball related games) is when the OKC Thunder lose in the playoffs. Fock Howard Schultz and Starbucks for eternity! (I'm not bitter at all as you can tell)

[Riverdogs 2]

As a Seattle resident and Sonics fan I can empathize with the STL (and possibly SD/OAK) fans. It's pretty brutal if you're a hardcore fan. My main source of NBA joy each year (aside from fantasy basketball related games) is when the OKC Thunder lose in the playoffs. Fock Howard Schultz and Starbucks for eternity! (I'm not bitter at all as you can tell)

 

 

Couldn't agree more! Starbucks coffee sucks anyways. Go Hawks!

 

[RoadLizard 73]

I'm glad St. Louis did this. I hope more cities do this too. Screw the NFL for squeezing every penny from the community. We don't need new stadiums every five years. How about putting money into the preexisting stadium?

Right? Why should taxpayers pick up the tab for stadiums for multi-billionaires? How stupid are people? I dont remember sharing any profits with the owner/team when they rake it in? As usual, the NFL thinks its a *tad* too important.

[giraldi02 470]

Right? Why should taxpayers pick up the tab for stadiums for multi-billionaires? How stupid are people? I dont remember sharing any profits with the owner/team when they rake it in? As usual, the NFL thinks its a *tad* too important.

 

Kroenke is worth over 7 billion dollars. If I were a city politician and someone like that asked for a five dollar bill, let alone 200-300 million dollars...I'd kick them in the balls

[Magnificent Bastard 190]

 

Kroenke is worth over 7 billion dollars. If I were a city politician and someone like that asked for a five dollar bill, let alone 200-300 million dollars...I'd kick them in the balls

And his wife inherited most of that. Wal-mart money. Walton gets rich off of cheap labor here, and really cheap labor in China, passes it to his daughter and this guy gets out there and says "more". USA ! USA !

[AintNoStoppinMeNow 68]

As an NFL fan I feel bad for the people of St Louis but since it was going to happen to some team I'm ok with the Rams returning to LA. Now if this Oakland to San Antonio rumor is true I'd be pretty upset. The color scheme would fit in but everything else about the move would just be wrong.

[cmh6476 748]

except san antone is more of a destination for visiting fans than going to the sh!t-hole they call Oakland

[PJ_Abyss 0]

except san antone is more of a destination for visiting fans than going to the sh!t-hole they call Oakland

This is true. San Antonio is beautiful. Oakland is a sh1t hole

[R8RMick 242]

except san antone is more of a destination for visiting fans than going to the sh!t-hole they call Oakland

 

 

Your uneasiness is quite understandable. I'm laughing at the thought of two NFL teams playing in the LA Coliseum for a MINIMUM of two years... That's going to go over like a Lead Balloon. Also, shaking my head at the Inglewood location. That mayor is slapping his knees as Prairie Avenue and Century Blvd is hardly your bastion of civic pride. Plus it is DIRECTLY in the flight path of jumbo jets landing at LAX. Cue the Shea Stadium analogies.

 

Carson was the place to put that stadium. And I'd play in the Rose Bowl or even throw a football field on Dodger Stadium rather than deal with that group of bloodsucking pit vipers from the LA Coliseum Commission. Ha ha ha ha ha... I will never forget the time I attended a U2 concert there. Coming off the 110 looking for parking we saw two jokers with bolt cutters break their way into an empty chained lot, throw up $35 parking signs, and fill that place up.

 

Oh my what a train wreck a comin.

[cmh6476 748]

Here is the editorial in today's local paper. Most people had no idea this was going on, even Missourians outside of St. Louis unless they were really paying attention. Disaster appears to be diverted, although this does have to suck for the fans of the Rams.

 

 

 

When Gov. Jay Nixon leaves office a year from now, he likely will count among his biggest regrets the failure to keep the NFL from pulling up stakes and leaving behind his $1.1 billion stadium plan for St. Louis.

It’s funny how that is. Had Nixon gotten his way, a good number of taxpayers and legislators might well have branded that as his biggest blunder. The NFL owners have saved him from this.

There is reason for regret, particularly among Rams fans in the region. But the governor justifiably will be in the minority statewide in bemoaning the collapse of his proposal for rescuing the franchise that now is relocating to Los Angeles, per the wishes of its billionaire owner.

 

The average taxpayer could see the stadium deal was expensive for the state and should be subject to approval by either the legislature or the public. Nixon made a big mistake in ignoring this sentiment and maintaining he had the right to do this deal on his own.

Nixon appointed a task force in fall 2014 that proposed a 64,000-seat, open-air stadium north of downtown St. Louis on the Mississippi River. The new stadium would cost more than $1 billion; taxpayers would pay close to half, including $150 million financed by the state, $90 million in state tax credits and another $150 million financed by the city of St. Louis.

Nixon contended a 20-year-old state law allowed the state to extend payments it already was making on the Edward Jones Dome, where the Rams currently play, to provide much of its share of the financing. But $150 million plus interest would amount to more than $400 million for the new stadium when the commitment was fully paid off.

Whether legal or not, the push to get this part of the deal done without a vote of the public or legislature did not set well with fiscal conservatives in the legislature and many others outside of the St. Louis area.

Critics even cropped up in St. Louis, where the city’s many concerns — including crime, affordable housing and public transit — all compete for the limited available funding.

State Sen. Dr. Rob Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican, long contended the stadium deal was a boondoggle. And still, his bottom line was reasonable and widely shared: simply to require the financing to be subject to legislative or voter approval.

 

[cmh6476 748]

And it looks like St. Louis Mayor don't care if they get another team

 

 

The NFL is abandoning St. Louis again, and this time, the mayor has no interest in trying to bring pro football back.

League owners voted Tuesday to allow the Rams to move to Los Angeles starting next season. It means that St. Louis is losing a team for the second time in three decades. The Cardinals left for Arizona in 1987, and St. Louis was without football until the Rams arrived from Los Angeles in 1995.

The decision stunned some in St. Louis who thought plans for a $1 billion riverfront stadium would persuade the NFL to let the Rams stay. The stadium plan was deemed inadequate, opening the way for Tuesday's decision that also gives the Chargers the first option at sharing a new $1.86 billion stadium planned by Rams owner Stan Kroenke in Inglewood, California.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay has had enough, saying the NFL strung St. Louis advocates along while never intending to block Kroenke's move. The decision "sent a loud and clear message."

"Their home cities and hometown fans are commodities to be abandoned once they no longer suit the league's purposes," Slay said Wednesday.

Asked if he believes the city should pursue another team, Slay gave a definitive no.

"At this point I'm so frustrated and disappointed with the NFL," Slay said. "Why would anybody want to, in any way, even entertain any suggestions from the NFL after the way they dealt with St. Louis here? I mean, it was dishonest. They were not being truthful with us. There's no appetite that I have to take another run at an NFL team."

Dave Peacock, co-chairman of the St. Louis stadium task force, wasn't as adamant, but seemed resigned to life without the NFL. He said he believes St. Louis has the fan support, but "it would need to be a fully committed effort by the league and the owner." Besides, he said, the league is not planning to expand, and no teams seem poised to move.

Peacock called the interactions with NFL leadership "a head-scratcher. " He said NFL executives initially expressed support and optimism about the stadium project. In the end, he said, he realized the deck was stacked against St. Louis, perhaps the whole time.

"Having been through this process I'd say there was probably more of this that was contemplated and contrived than I realized," said Peacock, a former Anheuser-Busch executive.

With the Rams leaving, the stadium plan appears all but dead.

The plan was contentious because it would have required about $400 million in public money (with the rest coming from the league and the owner), just a little over two decades after the Edward Jones Dome was built completely with taxpayer funds. City aldermen had already approved about $150 million, but some Republican legislative leaders were pushing for a public vote on state funding. A legislative hearing scheduled for Wednesday was called off.

Slay was clearly ready to let go of the stadium plan, which would have revitalized an area of mostly vacant buildings just north of the Gateway Arch. He said land acquisition efforts at the riverfront site should continue toward "a different kind of development," though he said there are no specific alternative plans.

Across the St. Louis region, the mood was melancholy, with more than a hint of anger.

"Money walks," read a banner sports page headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Kroenke turns his back on St. Louis."

On social media, many fans fondly remembered the "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams who were dominant from 1999 through 2003, winning one Super Bowl and losing another, before going on a 12-season run of non-winning seasons that included a 7-9 finish in 2015. Many expressed anger with Kroenke.

The loss of football will hurt the region economically. Team jobs will move to Los Angeles. The stadium project would have created hundreds of jobs in construction, design and other fields.

The city, St. Louis County and the state are still paying off bonds that built the dome through 2021. Slay said the city's annual $5 million bond payment had been offset by revenue generated by the team. Not anymore.

The dome is part of the city's convention center, so there are no plans to alter it — except for the removal of Rams memorabilia and property. By Wednesday, large banners featuring Rams players were still up outside dome and on the interior rafters.

Slay said the loss of the Rams is a "short-term blow" to the city's ego, but St. Louis will survive.

"We're going to move forward," Slay said. "We're going to do very well without NFL football in St. Louis."

 

[cmh6476 748]

also, a Ram is a focking sheep with horns. What a terrible focking mascot.

[Magnificent Bastard 190]

And a Royal is a quarter pounder in Amsterdam

[cmh6476 748]

i give you a C- for effort

[R8RMick 242]

And what's wrong with the Stadium in St Louis now lol...? Two decades old? Plus the taxpayers were willing to front another $400 billion for a NEWER stadium? What a focking jam job. I sincerely hope the Rams players enjoy playing in that cesspool called the LA Coliseum, where their gallant forebearers wasted away in front of 90,000 indifferent folks weekly. Howie Long used to complain of the large sections of the fans being up to a 1/4 mile away from the action. How the delayed roar the players would hear was one of the great anomalies of sports.

 

And then there is the dump itself. Have a fun three years!

[cmh6476 748]

And what's wrong with the Stadium in St Louis now lol...? Two decades old? Plus the taxpayers were willing to front another $400 billion for a NEWER stadium? What a focking jam job. I sincerely hope the Rams players enjoy playing in that cesspool called the LA Coliseum, where their gallant forebearers wasted away in front of 90,000 indifferent folks weekly. Howie Long used to complain of the large sections of the fans being up to a 1/4 mile away from the action. How the delayed roar the players would hear was one of the great anomalies of sports.

 

And then there is the dump itself. Have a fun three years!

willing? this gubnah was trying to jam it down our throats

[R8RMick 242]

willing? this gubnah was trying to jam it down our throats

Apologies, I thought the people had voted on it. Still don't understand what was wrong with the old stadium.

[cmh6476 748]

Apologies, I thought the people had voted on it. Still don't understand what was wrong with the old stadium.

structurally or simply to hold butts, nothing. Problem is that is was built in the 90's when it was more about volume and numbers, and now they want more amenities and luxury suites so they can make more money off the games. Supposedly the stadium had to remain in the upper 3rd or something in the NFL and it has slipped past that point.

[R8RMick 242]

structurally or simply to hold butts, nothing. Problem is that is was built in the 90's when it was more about volume and numbers, and now they want more amenities and luxury suites so they can make more money off the games. Supposedly the stadium had to remain in the upper 3rd or something in the NFL and it has slipped past that point.

Thanks for the reply. As a football fan, as a Raider fan, I've always required just a few things.

 

Ample parking and tailgate space.

Good sight lines from seats.

Reasonable ticket prices.

Short beer lines.

Clean heads.

 

To be honest I am perfectly fine with Oakland Alameda Stadium as a fan, though I keep hearing it's the biggest dump in the NFL. It may indeed have that honor, but only until the Rams start playing in the LA Coliseum. BTW, for anyone who has not attended football there you are going to be sorely disappointed.

 

I've been to football games at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, and it's like watching a football game inside an airport. Glass doors, marble walkways, padded seats... who needs that shite? To me, it takes away from the feel of the game.

 

I get the whole luxury box concept, it's critical to a team. But any high-fa-lootin palace is just going to raise ticket prices too.

[bonkbonk 5]

Zeus walks up to Khnum, who’s chilling on a corner. Khnum is glowing.

 

Zeus says “ Damn man what's up with you? You look good.”

 

“ Yea man. My ship came in.”

 

“What! Grats man!”

 

“You want in? I got room for you. You have been there before.”

 

“Hmmm maybe next year. I got to figure some out, plus I never know what I am doing. Ya, next year i’ll know what to do. “

 

Right then The Flying Spaghetti Monster appears next to them. And we all know that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. Pirates are revered as the original Pastafarians.

 

Zeus and Khnum are caught off guard and and try and hide their valuables.

 

FSM belows “Fucks going on here? You know i get a piece of everything right?”

 

Khnum calmly replies “FSM your powers have faded. I call the shots now!”

 

All the righteous and rigor fade from FSM.

 

“You're right I am a bit lost. I don’t have a home but I do have a good base to build on. I really need some love. A hug would help.”

 

They hug it it out. FSM lifts both their billfolds. Khnum asks “ What you going to do?”

 

FSM “ I am going to VEGAS BABY!”