Advantage, Kroenke

Though conventional wisdom said it would take till March Madness for a decision to come down, the arbitration panel has ruled tonight in favor of the Rams in their stadium negotiations with the St. Louis CVC. The city has 30 days to accept or reject the Rams' extensive plan to remodel the Edward Jones Dome, a plan the city says will cost $700 million. Rejecting the plan would concede that the Dome would not be a top-tier facility and would terminate the Rams' current lease after the 2014 season. After 2014, the Rams could choose to renew the lease on a year-to-year basis, or obviously, they would be free to move. The arbitrators cited the Dome's small footprint, narrow aisles and poor lighting as reasons it is not a first-tier facility. It sounds like they doubted the city's plan for a scoreboard over the middle of the field, saying it would prevent good views.

Allow me to thank the arbitrators on behalf of myself and everyone else with season tickets in the upper deck, then. But, wait a minute, no mention of the stadium's horrid sound system?

It is a sure thing that the city will reject the Rams' plan; one of the city's attorneys has already said as much. Even if the money and the willingness to spend it were simple things, it would only guarantee the Rams staying to 2025. Even a politician should be able to see that isn't very cost-effective.

Though I wonder how much tax money was spent getting to this point, we're now at the crossroads we thought this would be at all along; the Rams pressing the city for a new stadium and holding all the cards.

-$-