Here's something to chew on for a few months!

[yh]

In a page one story in the July 16-22 St. Louis Business Journal, the organization that operates the public funding mechanism for the Edward Jones Dome is protesting a recent proposed amendment to the Rams' lease which would permit the team to terminate the lease next July if no agreement can be reached on stadium improvements. The lease as it exists now requires the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) to maintain the dome as a "top tier" facility in the NFL. "Top Tier" is defined as a facility ranking within the top 25% of all NFL stadia (I don't know how the rankings work, however). The amendment apparently attempts to further define the process, and as it exists now, the amendment basically vests all the power with the Rams - in other words, the Rams would submit a list of improvements that they believe would put the dome in the top 25% of all NFL facilities and the CVC would be obligated to make those improvements. The CVC has no problem with this provision, however they don't own the dome. The Convention and Sports Authority (CSA) does and they are the publicly funded organization that would be responsible for the cost of the improvements. They are concerned that they will not have the funds to make the improvements and want to have a say in what does and does not get done in the way of renovations. Since the dome was built, 17 other NFL teams have either built new stadiums or gut-rehabbed their old ones, thus St. Louis is probably now considered to be in the bottom half of the league as far as quality of facilities and it might take quite a lot of improvements to move into the "top tier." Therefore, since the CSA also needs to sign off on the amendment, they have indicated they will not do so. What this means is that if the issue is not resolved by next July, the Rams will have a legal means to convert the lease to a year-to-year tenancy and will have the right to move the team on a year's notice.

With the NFL basically stating that they would like to put a team in LA and would probably go the relocation route, it's possible to envision a scenario where either the amendment is not agreed upon or no commitment to improvements is made by the deadline. At this point the Rams could give notice of their intent to relocate and then commit to Los Angeles, thus allowing the NFL or whomever is going to commit to a new or renovated LA stadium the ability to secure the financing for construction.

Now, with all of this said, I would put the chances of the team pulling up stakes and moving back to LA as less than 10%, however, with Georgia Frontiere still holding a majority share and the Super Bowl championship nearly 5 years in the past, one never knows how this might turn out. My guess is that as long as the team keeps selling out home games (as they have since they moved here), there probably isn't too much to worry about. Nonetheless, it will give the gossip mongers and conspriacy theorists among us something to work with until such a time as an agreement can be reached.

[jkrdevil]

Now, with all of this said, I would put the chances of the team pulling up stakes and moving back to LA as less than 10%, however, with Georgia Frontiere still holding a majority share and the Super Bowl championship nearly 5 years in the past, one never knows how this might turn out. My guess is that as long as the team keeps selling out home games (as they have since they moved here), there probably isn't too much to worry about. Nonetheless, it will give the gossip mongers and conspriacy theorists among us something to work with until such a time as an agreement can be reached.

That the key thing, as long as the team is selling out then they won't move. If the team is selling out minor improvements won't bring in more revenue since the team is already selling out (I doubt there are major improvements since the dome is less than 10 years old I think). You can ask the Giants about that, Giants Stadium isn't the nicest stadiums but they have a 25 year waiting list, thus they won't be moving any time soon.

Of course all this pertains to minor improvements. Major is a whole different story.

[yh]

They're selling out the "joe-fan" seats and will likely continue to do so as long as the team wins. The team's concern is mainly about the quantity and quality of the luxury suites which get sold on a year-to-year basis, I believe. If the Rams determine that they need a dozen more luxury suites in order to be considered top-tier, then there are some serious financial ramifications (no pun intended) because the construction costs would be astronomical as would the logistics of placement in desireable areas of the stadium. Other potential costly renovations would be in the locker rooms, press facilities and A/V infrastructure. The video replay boards would likely be replaced with much larger screens and hopefully they'll do something about the sucky acoustics in that building.

[paynomind]

I agree. The assumption that selling the plastic seats means anything to the viability of the franchise is nieve at best. The money comes from the cloth-and-wood seats in the luxury boxes. Or rather, the executives inside those boxes. They are the advertisers and purchasers of boxes. THATS where the money is.