Do We Only Have 4 Months Left Of NFL In St. Louis?

It’s going to be a tough season as a Rams fan. Well duh, it’s tough every season right?

This year will be different and more so for off-the-field reasons. We won’t know if we are officially losing our team until February. Attendance is going to drop because of the uncertainty and that is only going to help the team move. This weekend’s game has reportedly only sold around 40,000 tickets.

For the most part over the last couple years I have been an optimist when it comes to the issue of them leaving. The city and team will figure out the stadium issue. Chargers and Raiders deserve a stadium more. They are already in California. That’s because I was trying to look at it logically and with common sense.

Unfortunately, my faith is wavering and I am starting to realize they probably are going to leave.  The NFL is not going to stop it from happening. Kroenke has money. The NFL has let way worse things happen.  I welcomed the change of Commissioner in the NFL because it seemed Tagliabue had something against St. Louis (see his facial expression when Georgia talks about making the right decision in moving to St. Louis after winning the Super Bowl in 2000), but Goodell is a buffoon and isn’t going to make a decision that we are going to like.

“This was one of the most complex issues we have had to approach in years. We had to balance the interest of fans in Los Angeles and in St. Louis that we appreciate very much. In my judgment, they did not meet the guidelines we have in place for such a move. We are still hoping to avoid litigation. We are trying to be sensible and fair.” –  Paul Tagliabue

If you remember, the Rams didn’t meet the criteria to move out of Los Angeles.  Yeah their attendance was down and fan support waned… but they went through a decade of crappy play. Know the feeling? lol

The NFL, which had decided that the city of St. Louis was unsuitable as a football market, initially voted to block the Rams’ move to St. Louis in March of 1995 with 21 votes against, 3 for and 6 abstaining. The 3 votes for the move were the Rams, Bengals, and Buccaneers.  Georgia threatened to sue the league and eventually the vote was approved 23-6 (Giants, Jets, Steelers, Cardinals, Bills and Redskins remained no votes, Raiders abstained).

The Charges aren’t going to move to St. Louis. The Raiders aren’t going to move to St. Louis… if they don’t end up with a new stadium or in LA, they will probably revisit the San Antonio idea. If the Jaguars move it won’t be for at least 5 years, if that.  Expansion doesn’t seeem like it is going to happen anytime soon.

“There is no interest in St. Louis.” – Mark Davis, Raiders owner.

Honestly would we want to step back 5 or so years with the Raiders anyways? I will root for anybody in my hometown though. I was ready to root for the Stallions expansion team.  I was ready to root for the Patriots when James Orthwein thought about moving them here and renaming them the Stallions.

The slim hopes I have are that Kroenke sells the team to a group that is committed to St. Louis and goes to LA or Denver.

I guess I am just going to have to be a general football fan for awhile. I don’t feel like jumping on a bandwagon… Broncos, Packers, Colts or going with the Chiefs or Bears. I like supporting my home team, win or lose, cause losing makes winning that much sweeter. What are your plans?