With the dramafest that the NFL relocation has caused it is time to look at the argument that is in front of all of us invested in this issue here in St. Louis. Currently Rams owner is pulling his best version of Rachel Phelps (Watch Major League to get that reference) by putting zero effort into his current home in hopes of a mega city making him rich. The Rams supporters mainly wants their team to stay and are willing to build another stadium to do so.
But lets be frank, or george, or mike, or whomever. When your wife files for divorce and is trying to take the thing you love with her across the country to some hot guy she has been courting for years… you don’t buy her a new Lamborghini and beg her to stay.
Yes that’s right, Stan Kroenke is our metaphorical wife in this situation, trying to take the thing we love away to a city (the man in this metaphor) that is the hot thing right now.
So how do we stop our loving wife Stan from taking our beloved Rams away to L.A.? One solution few have seriously mentioned is we find somebody or somebodies to replace Stan. That way we can keep our beloved team here, and not have a spouse with a foot out the door.
Enter a few names I have seen zero mention of since this whole thing began. Jack Taylor, John Morris, and Pauline MacMillan Keinath.
Who are they?
Jack Taylor is the richest Missourian and founder of Rent-A-Car who’s family is worth nearly $13B.
John Morris is the owner of Bass Pro Shop worth $5B and it should be noted he is only in his 60’s.
Finally Pauline MacMillan Keinath and the Cargill family own Cargill, Inc. It is the largest privately owned company in the US. Though the families specific earnings are not known, Pauline’s worth is estimated near $5.2B, with the rest of the family obviously having a larger sum as well.
I bring up these names because currently all three of these people who are from Missouri could potentially buy the majority share of the Rams from Stan with change to spare, yet I have not seen or heard of any report of the question being asked if some of Missouri’s other billionaires being called upon to rally finances and financial leaders to take action to keep a team here.
The teams valued around $1.4B but I’d bet it would end up being slightly higher than that if Stan sold the Rams.
Obviously I am not saying a blanket statement of ‘we need to force the rich to buy the team.’ They got rich being smart and stayed rich being smart, but it would be nice to know the stances of some of Missouri’s richest residence on their interest with being an investor/owner of an NFL team.
The Taylor and Keinath family reside locally in St. Louis so perhaps they have more interest than the Morris family (who are based out of Springfield and the Ozarks).
ALL OF THIS IS JUST SPECULATION AND THOUGHTS OF A SPORTS WRITER AND SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY (yet)… but really I am curious on what these people think.
I am simple putting this out there that there are other voices we in the public have not heard from in regards to an alternate route to keeping the Rams in the STL.
@scottcriscione
