Excuse me, Mr. Stan Kroenke.
Does the date January 17th, 1995 bring back any memories?
If not, well then how about the following quote: “I’d like to show the other owners and I’d like to show the national media that this is a football town”. How about that?
Well, if you don’t remember that either, here’s a refresher for you: on that exact date, you said that exact same quote regarding St. Louis and the soon-to-be St. Louis Rams football team. And what is so alarming about the aforementioned quote?
That it was YOU, Mr. Kroenke, who said it.
Flash forward 21 years (basically even less than that since you’ve been trying to rid the city of the team since then), and not only do you plan on building an 80,000-seat stadium in Inglewood, California whether the team you own moves there or not, but now you have the audacity to attack the city itself.
Now, for those of you who are curious as to what is being referred to above, here is the rundown:
In a 29-page document/proposal sent to the National Football League, Kroenke, who has been majority owner of the Rams since 2008, when Georgia Frontiere, the first ever female NFL owner, passed away at the age of 80, not only praised his own plans for the new stadium in Inglewood, but scathingly bashed the city of St. Louis, mostly on an economic level.
Below is one of the excerpts.
“The current Rams ownership’s investment in the on-the-field Rams team has been significant,” the document reads. “These investments have resulted in a 52 percent improvement in winning percentage over the five years before Stan Kroenke became the controlling owner.”
He also mentions how “despite these investments and engagements, Rams attendance since 2010 has been well below the league average.” Now that’s true. Like or it, the fact is true that the attendance in the Edward Jones Dome has fallen short of the league average.
But that is not because of the city it is in. It is because from 2007-11, the St. Louis Rams had a combined record of 15-65, which is the worst five-year stretch in NFL history.
Back to you, Mr. Kroenke.
When you take a shot at the franchise issues, that’s one thing. But to call out an entire city and the whole fanbase is on a whole different level.
The application sent to the league states that San Diego and Oakland are “significantly more attractive markets than St. Louis.” San Diego is the 12th most attractive metropolitan area in the country, and Oakland’s gross domestic product is expected to rise above San Francisco’s in 10 to 15 years.
Also, according to the document, St. Louis’ recent economic growth, on the other hand, “ranks 61st among the largest 64 U.S. cities, and it has the lowest rate of population growth of any major U.S. city since 2008.”
However, the biggest low blow that was delivered from the document was when Kroenke said: “We believe an Inglewood Super Bowl could generate as much as $50 million more in League revenue than the Carson proposed stadium …”
And later by saying: “St. Louis, on the other hand, “lags, and will continue to lag, far behind in the economic drivers that are necessary for sustained success of an NFL franchise.”
Now, Dave Peacock, who is the co-chairman of Gov. Jay Nixon’s riverfront stadium task force, said late Tuesday that St. Louis is a good market. The Rams’ analysis of the St. Louis plan contains “inconsistencies and inaccuracies,” he said.
Plus, the team picked St. Louis statistics they wanted to use. “And that’s probably not surprising,” Peacock said. “Their job is not to give a balanced argument.”
And Mr. Kroenke, you have given as far away of a balanced argument as possible. From a man who played a role in bringing the team to St. Louis in the first place, to now trying to stab an entire city in the back, is absolutely disappointing.
All three cities (Oakland, San Diego, and St. Louis) have the right to have a professional football team. Whether one of them loses theirs is another story.
One thing is for sure: any amount of respect people in the city of St. Louis that love their city and their football team had for you is most likely lost.
(Photo Credit: Chris Lee/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
