Roger Goodell comments on L.A. rumors

At the Super Bowl press conference, Jim Thomas asked Roger Goodell how committed the NFL was to keeping a franchise in St. Louis, and given that S.E. Kroenke appears more interested in building a stadium in Los Angeles, how can he (possibly) meet the league's relocation guidelines, especially that they take every possibly opportunity to stay in their own market?

STLToday

[W]e want all of our franchises to stay in their current markets. That's a shared responsibility. That's something that we all have to work together on. The league has programs, including stadium funding programs, that we make available and we will and have worked with communities, including St. Louis. We also will make sure that we're engaging the business community and the public sector in a way that can help us lead to solutions that work in those communities, in your case St. Louis. And then make sure it works for the community as well as for the the team, so our teams can be successful over the long term.

...You know [S.E.] (Kroenke) has been working on the stadium issue in St. Louis, as you know, for several years. They had a very formal process as part of their lease. That process, they went through that entire process; it did not result in a solution that works either for St. Louis or for the team. So I don't think the stadium is a surprise to anybody in any market that is having these issues. There's quite a bit of discussion about it and the St. Louis representatives seem determined to build a stadium. That's a positive development, something that we look forward to working with them (on).

Bernie Miklasz saves me a lot of work commenting Goodell's comment on the "work" Kroenke has done to keep the Rams in St. Louis:

Goodell’s comment was revealing. If Kroenke attempts to move the Rams, and submits his request to a vote of the NFL owners, we can expect Kroenke to argue that he fulfilled his obligation to find a St. Louis solution by simply entering into arbitration.

This, of course, is preposterous.

Kroenke took time to meet with the mayor of Inglewood, Calif., before ramping up plans to build a stadium complex on the old Hollywood Park grounds near Los Angeles. Kroenke, however, has refused to meet with the St. Louis stadium task force. He has refused to meet with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon. He hasn’t met with St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. Kroenke continues to ignore phone calls and requests to discuss the STL stadium.

The arbitration was settled only two years ago, and St. Louis already has cultivated a plan for a new stadium. Compare that to the San Diego Chargers, who have been trying to get a new stadium built in their market for a dozen years. Or the Oakland Raiders, who have been stuck in a terrible stadium situation for a decade.

And Kroenke will try to convince Goodell and the owners that he worked in good faith to exhaust all opportunities in St. Louis? Really? The same guy who won’t even meet with the political leaders or take their phone calls?

Waiting out a 20-year lease agreement while you get a free stadium, then complaining that St. Louis won't pay for a $700 million renovation that was completely economically and logistically (where the f*ck was the team supposed to play?) unviable is not even remotely "working" to achieve a stadium solution. The way the end of the lease played out was a legal formality that could be seen coming years in advance. To call that "working" on a stadium solution would be equivalent to calling kneeling on the ball before halftime "working" on offense. Here's all of Bernie's analysis, which I should really link to since I've pasted about half of it here. I wish this could go to court somehow and Miklasz could be a witness.

I'll also note that Goodell has repeatedly said in public the league wants its teams to stay in their current markets, and the league was pretty willing to back up that sentiment in the case of the Vikings.

Miklasz also reports that Kroenke is already working behind the scenes to get the 24 votes he could need from his fellow lying owners to get the league's blessing to move the Rams. A couple of notes there: judging from unscripted public comments in a couple of interviews already, he already has Dallas asshole owner Jerry Jones' vote. I didn't need any more reason to hate you before now, Jerry. You can stop any time. And while St. Louis very likely has San Diego's support, they might have lost a vote with the death last year of Bills owner Ralph Wilson, who never voted yes on a franchise move. It'll be too far gone for St. Louis if this gets to a vote of the owners anyway, so I won't spend a lot of time trying to count lying owner votes.

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