Attention all football fans: it’s official. The Rams are headed back to Los Angeles. After a year of speculation, Stan Kroenke concocted a plan of action to convince the NFL that the St. Louis Rams should relocate back to LA. He claimed that a new stadium will draw Super Bowls and other big sporting events to help line the NFL’s pockets, not to mention his own. Two weeks ago, the NFL owners voted 30-2 in favor of giving Kroneke his way. It was too good of a deal to pass up.
One would be a fool not to understand that money runs the world and, in particular, the NFL. However, there should have been other considerations in the league’s decision, primarily, the fans and the players. The St. Louis Rams have had a turbulent eight years, but a lot of that lies at the feet of owners. They never tried to develop a team or a fan base. Fan bases are developed based on loyalty to the city and the team that represents them. Since Kurt Warner left the Rams, the team has done nothing but lose. The problem seems to be that the team’s owner could not care less about the fans in St. Louis. For over 20 years, the people of St. Louis have given their hearts to cheering for their team, and they basically get the middle finger from this schmuck. One hopes the fans in LA fare better than the ones in St. Louis.
It appears that the fan base in California is stretched pretty thin. Californians are asked to support four NFL teams: 49ers, Raiders, Chargers and, now, the Rams. Granted, the price of the tickets will go up in LA and do a little bit more for Kroneke’s bank account, but how soon can the Rams build up a fan base? Given the Rams inability to draft and develop players, it’s doubtful that their fans will be any more enthusiastic than those in St. Louis if they continue to make the same mistakes. A prime example of the Ram’s inability to develop players is 2009’s second overall pick, Jason Smith, and the disappointment of the eighth overall pick in 2013, Tavon Austin. Both never reached their drafted potential.
Twenty years ago, there was a reason they left LA in the first place: money. LA has a long football history but they do not support their teams. In 1946, the Cleveland Rams arrived in LA, and, in 1995, when LA was in the middle of the recession, the Rams wanted a new stadium, so Georgia Frontiere, the owner, shipped them to St. Louis, where the public paid for the stadium. Coupled with the stadium issue, the Rams in the early 1990s had four straight 10 plus loss seasons and an angry fan base. It appears the Rams’ problems in St. Louis were just the same as they were in LA.
In the beginning, a fancy new stadium and team can help draw money and fans, but if the Rams are not winning in a couple of years, it could lead to the same problem that happened in St. Louis. But it doesn’t matter because Kroneke and NFL owners have only one standard: the gold standard.
