Rams, Let Me Help You Load The Moving Vans

A letter to the editor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch definitely caught my eye. This letter stuck it into the eye of ownership of the St. Louis Rams.

The author stated if the Rams are going to demand that St. Louis provides a top tier stadium, then the Rams ought to sign an agreement to provide St. Louis with a top tier football team by 2015.

Like fellow fans, I have grown weary of the Rams putting a substandard football team on the field. It seems like ages ago that they brought to town a Super Bowl championship.

Back to LA-LA land?

This team is no better off (and perhaps substandard) than the Bill Bidwell teams of the 1980s. They draft no better prospects than when George Boone was making a mess of things with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Dare I say, take this team and move it back to Los Angeles? Let their ownership experience LA in the 1970s and 80s when the Coliseum was a sea of empty seats on Sundays.

Al Davis moved his Raiders in and out of LA, only to settle for second-rate deal in Oakland with its decrepit stadium. That’s how bad it was on weekends when fans in California fled to the beaches and the mountains rather witness the NFL.

Now, the Rams have the audacity to say they are going to take a game a year for three years to London. I say make them permanently the London Rams. See if the Brits with trade their undying passion for soccer to fill Wembley Stadium every weekend.

Rams President Kevin Demoff has fed St. Louis a line: Going to London will increase exposure to St. Louis.

Huh?

There was a mighty discussion on the mighty MOX, KMOX Radio about that. Charlie Brennan said Rams interest in London would be like saying we all love New York because of the Rockettes, or we are going to patronize Washington DC because they have the Redskins.

A shorter season

The Rams play just eight regular season games at home and a couple of fan forced exhibition games on top of that. Now, you are taking away almost 15 percent of the regular season home schedule. Do I detect refunds for season ticket holders who will get shortchanged with a briefer schedule?

The St. Louis CVC already put forth its Edward Jones Dome upgrade plan, replete with skylights, a three-story beer garden, club seating upgrades and other nonsense. The Rams officials are grumbling because they went public with their plans too quickly.

Trust me, whatever St. Louis offers, it will NOT be good enough for the Rams. Their minds are made up. Team owner Stan Kroenke, who’s made millions in this town, is quite noticeable by his deafening silence.

The whole Georgia Frontiere deal to bring the Rams to St. Louis in the first place stinks. St. Louis was blackmailed by having to build a $250 million dollar stadium; and in return, we don’t get any revenue from ticket sales, concessions, parking and only a tiny bit from display signage.

What gives? All St. Louis can hope for financially is some residual revenue for bars and restaurants around the dome. Most places are closed on game day due to lack of business.

I’m tired of pie in the sky plans that fool the fans and that never happen.

Where's the beef?

We’ve been promised a Ball Park Village, a Chouteau’s Landing Redevelopment project downtown, and now a competitive football team in our dome. We have none. The completion of the Arch grounds is yet to occur.

Truth is, the dome makes more money off cars shows and conventions than NFL games.

So it's time for St. Louis to call the Rams' bluff. Remember the late Jerry Clinton’s Purple Stallions who ended up being the Jacksonville Jaguars?

I’d rather have nothing; a Purple Stallions expansion team or something else. Rams, go ahead and pack up and move to LA.

I personally would not shed a single tear.