NFL Merry-Go-Round: Relocation Roundelay

[Gothamite]

Fair enough.

My point was only that I hear some people cite NFL relocation regulations as to what conditions must be met first, specifically that local options must be exhausted. Well, those same regs lean very heavily on fan support in the current market, and that's where St. Louis Rams fans have more power than they think.

[The_Admiral]

Now I know what the NFL stood for 20 years ago, Not For Los Angeles.

That spells NFLA....

I know.

Tim Beckman posting here, apparently.

[DustDevil61]

Apparently Michael Eisner is lobbying for AEG and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.

They're only "optomistic" that an NFL team moves for next year. Other than that and the implications that plans for the downtown site aren't dead, there really isn't much else new.

And there's this article going into further detail about Eisner and his thoughts re: NFL in LA.

[Saint Zephyr III]

So with St. Louis demolishing Oakland, the winner gains the right to move to Los Angeles, right?

[Gothamite]

So with St. Louis demolishing Oakland, the winner gains the right to move to Los Angeles, right?

Don't fight, boys. There's room enough for both of you!

[CubsFanBudMan]

So with St. Louis demolishing Oakland, the winner gains the right to move to Los Angeles, right?

Don't fight, boys. There's room enough for both of you!

Just not at the Rose Bowl.

[Gothamite]

Well played, my friend. Well played.

[HedleyLamarr]

Seems like the show of support a few of the Rams players made before the game (the "Hands up, don't shoot!" hands in the air, in case you hadn't seen it) has pissed off the St. Louis police.

Police departments are public-supported entities, and the STL police are the ones providing security for the team for home games. The Rams are looking for public money to stay in town.

Any chance this causes a rift in the negotiations for the Rams and St. Louis?

[The_Admiral]

No, not really. This is small potatoes. If St. Louis (with or without the County) and Missouri are going to commit a billion dollars or more to building the Rams a stadium, they're not going to pull it off the table because wide receivers drew attention to themselves once. Richard Sherman will cut a promo on someone next week, "scare White America," and all will be forgotten, as Rams games generally are.

Sidebar: I don't have enough skin in the game to care one way or the other about Richard Sherman, but my real problem is that the people who get the biggest boner over his stunts "scaring White America" are always well-to-do white kids. They're the ones who should shut up.

[Gothamite]

You answer opinions you don't like with opinions of your own. It's very telling when a police organization responds to a minor protest with calls for black athletes to be punished. They're the ones who should shut up.

But no, I don't think that this is going to derail the stadium negotiations at all. Unless somebody in Missouri can tell us it's a much bigger deal than it seems.

[STL FANATIC]

Yeah, that ^ and that ^^. I'm firmly in the boat of supporting the protest movement as well as the great majority of officers, but the ones that have spoken up against the Rams protest is just... despicable.

Everything going on is a big deal, but I don't think it will in any way impact stadium negotiations. While you can certainly relate them so far as priority and spending goes, to this point I think they're two totally separate issues.

Also, I'll note that there was an organized "Keep the Rams in St. Louis" presence at the game this past, Sunday. Not saying it was huge, but it was visible. It unfortunately didn't get the attention from the TV cameras that the LA Rams fans got last weekend. There was some inadvertent TV time given to it though as they were behind an end zone. More than anything, I think the "Hands Up" gesture has over shadowed this potential story. (I'm okay with that, just thought I'd note their presence.)

[Tigers6884]

The LA race riot happened and soon afterwards the Rams skip town. Another race riot ignites in St. Louis's backyard and the Rams are (possibly) getting ready to move again. I guess people will know what to do if they don't want the Rams to play in their city anymore

Quick question, who wouldn't want an NFL team to play in their city? That last sentence is really stupid.

[Brian in Boston]

The LA race riot happened and soon afterwards the Rams skip town.

I don't know that I'd characterize a 2-plus year gap between the events you've cited as constituting "soon afterwards".

[Gothamite]

I was just thinking the other day that if I still wrote for the Onion I would pitch a story about the Rams moving and a seemingly out-of-control police force clashing with the minority community.

But those are jokes really best left to the professionals. They're hard to execute without coming off wrong.

[CubsFanBudMan]

Speaking of writers, I'm sad to report Bryan Burwell, whose last St. Louis Post-Dispatch column on the Rams stadium was discussed recently in this thread, died of cancer this morning.

You might also know him from "Inside the NFL" on HBO and various other newspaper stops along the way.

Didn't really know where else to put this. Based on the tributes he's getting on Twitter, he seemed like a genuinely good guy.

EDIT: Since I realize that's fairly off topic, here's a story from the Kansas City Star I had thought about posting last week, but ultimately decided not to because it really didn't cover new ground:

Kansas City watches with interest as St. Louis fears losing the Rams

http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article4188400.html

[tigerslionspistonshabs]

I've thankfully never had to go through this, but what do fans typically do if their team moves? Do they continue following that team? Do they take on a new favorite? Or just stand pat and hope another comes along?

Obviously there's different circumstances, such as the Browns fans not latching onto the Ravens because they knew another team was coming.

But for example, what did Whalers fans do when they bolted for Carolina? Start rooting for the Rangers or Bruins?

For me, it would make a difference if they kept the identity after moving. If the Rams moved back to L.A., they'd still be Rams.

[leopard88]

As a 16 year old BALTIMORE Colts fan when the team moved, I took to rooting against the INDIANAPOLIS Colts with every fiber of my being, as did most of my friends. I knew a few people who still followed the Colts, but they were in the very, very distinct minority.

In terms of developing a rooting interest in another team, it never really took. The closest to having it stick was in the early 90s when I was in law school in Pennsylvania and lived with two Eagles fan. Being exposed to the Eagles -- and really liking Buddy Ryan and Randall Cunningham -- made them my de facto team for a few years. However, that ended abruptly when the Ravens arrived.

[Gothamite]

I'd suspect that's a common reaction.

The distance involved could factor into it as well. Charger fans in San Diego would have the easiest time getting to their team's new home, and you might well see much of that fanbase stay with the team. Oakland is farther away from LA, but there's still a common California connection. I don't know how many LA Rams fans stayed with the team to Missouri, and how many St. Louis fans would watch Rams games in LA.

And the television market itself would possibly be folded into another team's broadcast territory, meaning that St. Louis wouldn't even get Rams games on local television, showing instead the what, Chiefs/Bears/Colts/Cowboys/Titans?

[The_Admiral]

For St. Louis, probably Chiefs on CBS and Bears on Fox when available, Colts and Packers when they aren't. The downstate Illinois affiliates that carry the Rams would probably switch to Bears/Colts. I don't really see the Titans coming into play much.

[leopard88]

I was in college during the Colts' first year in Indy, so I have no personal knowledge of what games were shown in Baltimore that year. However, if memory serves me, I recall reading that the NFL continued to show Colts games as if they were Baltimore's primary team. Ultimately, by the time I finished college, Baltimore was treated as a Redskins TV market (though most Baltimoreans still hate the Redskins).