Last week, it became clear that the question of whether the Rams stay in St. Louis or move to Los Angeles could hinge on whether owner Stan Kroenke is willing to accept $300 million instead of $400 million in public money. Because people who build tremendous personal fortunes don’t typically like to give large chunks of it away when they don’t have to, the politicians in St. Louis have come up with another plan, apparently.
It’s still unclear how it came to be, but it’s now obvious that St. Louis is making a $100 million power play against the NFL, addressing the shortfall not by getting Kroenke to take a crowbar to his Costanza-sized wallet but by adding the extra money to the NFL’s contribution -- and forcing the NFL to ultimately refuse to pay it.
On Thursday, Commissioner Roger Goodell tried to do just that, with a strongly-worded letter that essentially says, “Read my lips. No new $100 million.”
Goodell’s message apparently has been rejected by the powers-that-be in St. Louis.
“We are not changing this bill,” Alderman Jack Coatar said Thursday, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We are passing the bill as is tomorrow. We have the votes, and we’re moving forward.”
Thus, they’ll pass the bill on Friday (unless they don’t), and then the final proposal will be written up and delivered to the NFL by the end of the month for consideration in the special January “Who Gets To Move To L.A.?” meeting. Sure, the extra $100 million commitment from the NFL will appear in the proposal without 24 ownership votes. So what? All 32 owners are getting together to strike a global deal, which means 24 of them can then agree to kick another $100 million into the St. Louis pot, if the end result is that the Chargers (and possibly Raiders) move to L.A. and the Rams stay in St. Louis.
Considering the big picture, it’s a brilliant strategy from St. Louis, one that potentially puts the NFL in checkmate, if the NFL decides to keep the Rams in St. Louis.
There’s also a chance it blows up, with the league using the $100 million gap as the trigger for giving Kroenke a one-way ticket to Inglewood. If that happens, however, the folks who rely on votes and approval ratings will secure an important consolation prize: Political cover.
