St. Louis Rams take next steps in possible move to L.A.

[Auggie]

Orange County Register / 1-26-15

The St. Louis Rams took two significant if not unexpected steps Monday toward relocating the NFL franchise to Southern California as early as the 2016 season.

The Rams informed the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission that they will convert their lease for the Edward Jones Domes to a year-by-year agreement and that they have submitted petitions with enough signatures for a ballot initiative which if passed would allow Rams owner Stan Kroenke to begin construction on a $2-billion, 80,000-seat stadium at Hollywood Park.

By shifting to a year-to-year lease, the Rams could opt out of the agreement after the 2015 season, return to the Los Angeles-Orange County market and play two seasons at the Rose Bowl or Coliseum before moving into the Hollywood Park stadium, which developers said would be open in time for the 2018 NFL season.

If the signatures are verified the ballot initiative could be in front of Inglewood voters as early as June.

MORE: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rams-649284-year-stadium.html

Is it legit? Or is Rams owner Stan Kroenke trying to leverage a better stadium deal in St. Louis? Either way, he wins.

[freebrew]

1. Let them move back to LA...

they never belonged in St. Louis. The people of the state paid for their stadium, now they want bigger and better.

Of Course I'm an old Cardinals fan. The NFL never should have allowed the move to Phoenix, IMHO.

[Auggie]

2. St. Louis is a great sports town. It would be a shame for them to lose a team.

You can bet owners would rather see a team in L.A. though.

[JonLP24]

3. I think it works better for the owners as a relocation threat

Legitimate relocation cities will still exist but LA has a significant power to convince municipalities, counties, states to agree to their stadium or renovation terms.

Still to have 1 team all by itself in the 2nd largest market is significant so it works either way.

Owners would agree because nothing works better than a relocation example, also it would give previous LA threats credibility.

[Jamaal510]

4. +1

[navarth]

5. I agree with all of this. Sacriledge to move a franchise from a city for greed.

Of course you know the Cardinals started in Chicago....? But I still agree.