STILL think the Rams aren't moving?

Multiple sources have confirmed that not only is St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke a bidder to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, he made the first cut in the process, a hurdle that fellow billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was unable to clear.

There are 8 to 10 finalists in the bidding for the Dodgers. Frank McCourt, selling the baseball team after going bankrupt last year, has agreed to identify the winner by April 1st. The team is expected to go for at least $1 billion dollars and could go as high as $1.5 billion. A group headed by Joe Torre, and another headed by Lakers legend Magic Johnson, are others still in the bidding.

Whomever ultimately gains control of the Dodgers (hard not to root for Torre here in STL), I think we can quit pretending Kroenke ever even intended for a minute to keep the Rams in St. Louis after taking over full ownership of the team from the Rosenblooms in 2010. This is a blatant maneuver by Kroenke to put some kind of marker on the L.A. market, though curiously, if Kroenke bought the Dodgers, and then, say, the Raiders moved to Los Angeles, it would be Kroenke who would be in violation of the NFL's cross-ownership rule. Again. (However, he would most certainly be allowed to own the Rams in Los Angeles.)

And, no, this isn't just Kroenke wanting real bad to be a baseball owner. He bought a minority share of the Rams in 1995; the baseball Cardinals were sold in 1996 without a peep from Stan I'm aware of. Certainly he had the cash; he bought the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche in 2000. I have yet to hear his name tied to the New York Mets, who, to oversimplify the story, will probably have to be sold off because their owner was implicated in the Bernie Madoff scandal. That'd be a fine big-market baseball team to own. So would have been the Chicago Cubs, which were sold just a couple of years ago. (But, of course, the Cubs SUCK.) This baseball flirtation and the London agreement are and always have been about L.A.

The St. Louis Conventions and Visitors Commission, responsible for delivering a proposal to bring the Dome up to terms with the "top tier" requirement of the stadium lease by Wednesday, may have fired the only bullet they have earlier this week when they notified the Rams that their agreement to play one home game in London each of the next three years is a violation of the lease. In contrast, Kroenke has already dropped two huge bombs on the CVC to set the stage for a move of the Rams back to Los Angeles. And their response to the CVC's contention? They pretty much could give a shit what the CVC thinks.

I despise Bill Bidwill with all my heart, but you know something? At least he owned a football team that St. Louis could call its own for 28 years. Fucking Kroenke is going to be out of here in five, taking the crown of biggest sports heel in St. Louis history with him.

-$-

Sources: L.A. Times, Pro Football Talk