NFL Merry-Go-Round: Relocation Roundelay

[STL FANATIC]

You guys want to hear something hilarious?

This is Jerry Jones, the guy probably second most responsible for leading the Rams charge out of St. Louis, on St. Louis as an NFL market.

"This left all options open for great cities like St. Louis, believe it or not. This is not a vote against the city and the beautiful people of St. Louis. (This is) a statement that says 'let's get it better, let's do it better, and let's have an NFL team in St. Louis, which is certainly an NFL town.' Without question. Let me be real clear. Without question it's an NFL town. All the way. And it can happen. Let me tell you, it can happen. They've got great leadership in Missourah (sic)."

F*** off.

[DaytonBlue]

Glad to see some people on here are keeping the emotions of St. Louis Rams fans like myself in mind tonight. Some of the vitriol and crap I've seen on twitter is making me question humanity.

And when someone gives me crap about Cardinals baseball fandom I'm going to say, "What other baseball fan base drove a NFL team out of town?"

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Losing a pro sports team is terrible. I had only lived in Seattle for two years when the Sonics left, but it was still a pretty crappy feeling. I hadn't built an attachment to the team; the two seasons I lived in Seattle with the Sonics they went 31-51 and 20-62, and I was in grad school and broke. I only saw one Sonics game live, an 86-85 win over an equally terrible Knicks team.

But the season after they left felt pretty empty. Seattle has a ton of over pro and college options, so it's not like there weren't things to do post-Sonics. However, I did feel excluded from a club. That Seattle's attempts to get back in the league have been so ham-fisted and pathetic makes the whole thing even worse. Plus the NBA is my favorite sports league, the weather sucks during basketball season and I'd love to be able to see the games. Oh well.

My recommendation to spurned Rams fans is to find something else to do on fall and winter Sundays. And don't hold your breath for a new franchise. The Cleveland and Houston examples were miracles, all things considered.

[NJTank]

Beat me to it

[NJTank]

Dean Spanos' statement is laughable.

My goal from the start of this process was to create the options necessary to safeguard the future of the Chargers franchise while respecting the will of my fellow NFL owners. Today we achieved this goal with the compromise reached by NFL ownership. The Chargers have been approved to relocate to Los Angeles, at the Inglewood location, at any time in the next year. In addition, the NFL has granted an additional $100 million in assistance in the event there is a potential solution that can be placed before voters in San Diego. I will be working over the next several weeks to explore the options that we have now created for ourselves to determine the best path forward for the Chargers.

Basically "I don't WANT to move to LA. I want to be in San Diego! With all you fine people! I just want to keep my options open. That's all!"

Just sell the team. Let someone else rebuild all the good faith you lost in San Diego.

Besides, LA is a Rams town now

San Diego better get to work fast

[zpqmaowl]

And when someone gives me crap about Cardinals baseball fandom I'm going to say, "What other baseball fan base drove a NFL team out of town?"

The Padres.

[DarkJourney]

Week 1 2016: 49ers at Rams in the Coliseum

[FiddySicks]

And when someone gives me crap about Cardinals baseball fandom I'm going to say, "What other baseball fan base drove a NFL team out of town?"

The Padres.

The addition of yellow to their color scheme sure does feel a bit akward now, doesn't it?

[MrAstrodome]

Losing a pro sports team is terrible. I had only lived in Seattle for two years when the Sonics left, but it was still a pretty crappy feeling. I hadn't built an attachment to the team; the two seasons I lived in Seattle with the Sonics they went 31-51 and 20-62, and I was in grad school and broke. I only saw one Sonics game live, an 86-85 win over an equally terrible Knicks team.

But the season after they left felt pretty empty. Seattle has a ton of over pro and college options, so it's not like there weren't things to do post-Sonics. However, I did feel excluded from a club. That Seattle's attempts to get back in the league have been so ham-fisted and pathetic makes the whole thing even worse. Plus the NBA is my favorite sports league, the weather sucks during basketball season and I'd love to be able to see the games. Oh well.

My recommendation to spurned Rams fans is to find something else to do on fall and winter Sundays. And don't hold your breath for a new franchise. The Cleveland and Houston examples were miracles, all things considered.

Likewise in Houston. I was 10-11 when Bud Adams's team went to Tennessee. My folks bought me the team's shirts, my brother put his newspaper posters on the wall and I knew who Bum Phillips was even though he hadn't been employed by the team for a decade. Then the team that I expect to be my entry into the NFL says FU, were leaving? It felt freaking hollow in Houston. Especially since football is the defacto state sport. No Arena Football team could fill any void. Even the Coogs couldn't fill it since they sucked hard back then post-SWC.

And worse, the modifications to Astrodome to keep the team that left, almost cost us the Astros as well. Not to mention we came close to losing the Rockets. The only reason why Minute Maid and Toyota exist is because we were scared of losing the other sports teams.

To this day, H-town hates Bud Adams the same way St. Louis despises Stan Kronke. He'll be dead to St. Louis just as Titans' former name is to me.

[Almighty]

Glad to see some people on here are keeping the emotions of St. Louis Rams fans like myself in mind tonight. Some of the vitriol and crap I've seen on twitter is making me question humanity.

And when someone gives me crap about Cardinals baseball fandom I'm going to say, "What other baseball fan base drove a NFL team out of town?"

Don't worry about it. The Rams will be back in STL in 10 years or so.

Should have been the Raiders who moved, nobody wants to see the freakin Rams. Silver and Black is were it´s at.

[Sport]

Just thought about this - if the Chargers move then San Diego will become the only city in Major League Baseball that doesn't have another team in either the NFL, NHL, or NBA.

[CS85]

I'm glad this whole "LA needs an NFL franchise" circle jerk is over, and it's unfortunate that fans from St. Louis and San Diego are being fed this crap about sheparding the teams to LA to protect them, as if they were temporarily safe housing these teams or something.

Its going to be weird, but I'm guessing most StL fans will convert primarily to being Colt and Chief fans, or hell, even Packers fans. Maybe a lost few will cheer for the Bears. Strange times.

[DEAD!]

I guess this is what the Rams are doing (and look at the colours the artists are wearing...)

[Sport]

I'm glad it's over because now the biggest threat owners can use to extort their city is gone. An owner could threaten to move to St. Louis or London or Toronto, but all of those markets have obvious flaws and the threat wouldn't be seen as legitimate. LA was LA and any owner that could get in was certain to increase the value of their team tremendously. Now cities will have an easier time calling the bluff.

When I win the powerball and buy the Cincinnati Bengals I promise not to move the team. You can count on it.

[OnWis97]

I'm glad it's over because now the biggest threat owners can use to extort their city is gone. An owner could threaten to move to St. Louis or London or Toronto, but all of those markets have obvious flaws and the threat wouldn't be seen as legitimate. LA was LA and any owner that could get in was certain to increase the value of their team tremendously. Now cities will have an easier time calling the bluff.

When I win the powerball and buy the Cincinnati Bengals I promise not to move the team. You can count on it.

Unless the Chargers stay. They can still use "LA 2." It will never end....

[Lee Noire]

I'm happy there is a football team in the city I was born and raised in. Prior to them leaving LA most of my family were Rams fans and my grandma (RIP) was the biggest. She'd be so happy if she were here. The Rams were already gone by the time I started following football, so I became a Cowboys fan because they were the coolest thing going at the time.

I'm not jumping ship, but I can't deny how awesome it would be to go to a Rams game with my family in our own backyard. My heart aches for St. Louis and their fans, but I find more joy in knowing that my family can again root for the team they never should've lost to begin with. Cowboys fan for life, but barring a matchup between the two, the LA Rams are my number two. Hopefully they don't continue to suck. It's hard enough rooting for one bad team as it is.

[infrared41]

Trust me, St. Louis Rams fans, you'll get over this more quickly than you thought possible.

I'd just like to throw this in here too...

Given the choice, I would much rather have lost the original Browns to Baltimore for 20 years only to have them come back to Cleveland than had my Browns replaced with an expansion team that just happened to look like my "real" team.

[TheOldRoman]

I'm glad it's over because now the biggest threat owners can use to extort their city is gone. An owner could threaten to move to St. Louis or London or Toronto, but all of those markets have obvious flaws and the threat wouldn't be seen as legitimate. LA was LA and any owner that could get in was certain to increase the value of their team tremendously. Now cities will have an easier time calling the bluff.

When I win the powerball and buy the Cincinnati Bengals I promise not to move the team. You can count on it.

Unless the Chargers stay. They can still use "LA 2." It will never end....

That won't get anywhere. It was a little moving watching Sportscenter last night and seeing reaction from LA Rams fans. They were celebrating in the streets. Some of them cried. No, the number wasn't into the millions, but you really got the sense that things came full circle and these people got back something dear which was taken from them. They weren't celebrating because they got NFL football, but specifically because they got the Rams. "The Rams are coming back home!" was the cry. If they would have gotten the Chargers instead, the reaction would have been, "Oh, we got the Chargers? Okay. Cool, I guess."

Seeing the outpouring for the Rams' return reinforced my thought that something will get done for the Chargers to stay in San Diego. The Rams are beating the Chargers there, and they're the only team that Angelinos wanted to begin with (outside of some Raiders holdouts). I don't understand how the Chargers would expect to move to LA a year later and be embraced. Spanos is the guy who always flirted with his recently-divorced neighbor. After ignoring her hints for years, Spanos finally gets the guts to ask her out. He picks up some roses and barges into her house, only to find her reconciling physically with her ex-husband. Sorry, Dean. She doesn't want to make this a three way.

[OnWis97]

Trust me, St. Louis Rams fans, you'll get over this more quickly than you thought possible.

I'd just like to throw this in here too...

Given the choice, I would much rather have lost the original Browns to Baltimore for 20 years only to have them come back to Cleveland than had my Browns replaced with an expansion team that just happened to look like my "real" team.

I am not sure about that.

You seem to be someone with a bit of a bent toward "general fandom." That is, not needing a "home" team to enjoy the sport. Some people pretty much rely on the home team. Neither is right nor wrong; they just are. Some people in St. Louis may adopt the Chiefs, Titans, or whoever. Some may stick with the Rams. Others may just watch "whoever whenever." But some just may lose interest.

Of the four major sports, every single one has been at least a threat to leave the Twin Cities at one time or another. And for me, after losing the North Stars, my NHL fandom never recovered. Even after getting the Mild. While there is a small part of me that feels I'd have been better off if the Vikings had moved (and my diminishing NFL fandom could just go away), a Twins move/contraction would have been devastating. And just watching baseball because I like it would not have worked. I do like it and I may have turned it on in the postseason, but I really only want to watch a team I care about during the regular season (the fact that Bud "St. Louis is closer than Milwaukee" Selig's team would probably have been our "home" team would have made it slightly worse). I tried to adopt the Red Wings when the North Stars moved; when they won the Cup I really did not care that much, though.

I am not ashamed to say that I never totally got over the North Stars move. It's not like I dwell on it every day; maybe better-put, my fandom is not what it was...but as hockey observers can see, the Wild are doing better at keeping the fanbase interested than the North Stars did (while both franchsies were purely mediocre).

Anyway, I feel for the ones like me; those who rely on their own team to make the sport worth following. And while part of me thinks this is "righting a wrong" I still feel for those losing a team. And some of them will not get over it quickly.

I'm glad it's over because now the biggest threat owners can use to extort their city is gone. An owner could threaten to move to St. Louis or London or Toronto, but all of those markets have obvious flaws and the threat wouldn't be seen as legitimate. LA was LA and any owner that could get in was certain to increase the value of their team tremendously. Now cities will have an easier time calling the bluff.

When I win the powerball and buy the Cincinnati Bengals I promise not to move the team. You can count on it.

Unless the Chargers stay. They can still use "LA 2." It will never end....

That won't get anywhere. It was a little moving watching Sportscenter last night and seeing reaction from LA Rams fans. They were celebrating in the streets. Some of them cried. No, the number wasn't into the millions, but you really got the sense that things came full circle and these people got back something dear which was taken from them. They weren't celebrating because they got NFL football, but specifically because they got the Rams. "The Rams are coming back home!" was the cry. If they would have gotten the Chargers instead, the reaction would have been, "Oh, we got the Chargers? Okay. Cool, I guess."

Seeing the outpouring for the Rams' return reinforced my thought that something will get done for the Chargers to stay in San Diego. The Rams are beating the Chargers there, and they're the only team that Angelinos wanted to begin with (outside of some Raiders holdouts). I don't understand how the Chargers would expect to move to LA a year later and be embraced. It's Spanos is the guy who always flirted with his neighbor who was recently separated. After ignoring her hints for years, Spanos finally gets the guts to ask her out, but he walks in on her reconciling physically with her ex-husband. Sorry, Dean. She doesn't want to make this a three way.

To whatever degree your first statement is correct, then I totally agree with the bold. The Rams are, historically, LA's NFL team. It may be bad enough for a team like the Chargers to have to share the city with them but to come in AFTER? Even worse.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

It would sure be exciting if the Raiders ended up in San Antonio be next season.