It seems that everyone I know in St. Louis is opposed to a new football stadium that just might keep the Rams in St. Louis. This is particularly so among political progressives who are rightly offended by the blackmail that Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the entire National Football League are placing on a mid-market team in a struggling community.

Kroenke is the second wealthiest of the 32 NFL owners and perhaps the most greedy and insensitive to his fan base. The NFL purports to value stability in franchise location, but it rarely stands in the way of any recalcitrant owner who wants to pick up his or her marbles and play elsewhere.

Unless an owner chooses to move out in the  middle of the night (as owner Robert Irsay did, when he moved the Colts from Baltimore to Indianapolis on March 29,1984), cities generally have sufficient time to make proposals to the owner. It’s not uncommon for owners to threaten to move to another city in order to get a sweeter deal from their current cities. But Stan Kroenke has not even pretended to be interested in keeping the Rams in St. Louis. He has not negotiated with the city and has refused to take calls from the governor, the mayor, major civic leaders, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in St. Louis.

Yet, despite his indifference to St. Louis, it’s possible that the team will remain. A two-man task force was appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to try to keep the Rams in St. Louis. Dave Peacock, a former Anheuser-Busch executive and Bob Blitz (aptly named), a high-powered attorney, have been doing legal and financial gymnastics to put together a plan for St. Louis to have a new stadium. They are doing this via subterfuge, rather than with support from the team’s owner.

All of this bodes well for a city that has had a serious self-esteem problem, dating back to 1854 when a railroad bridge over the Mississippi River was built at Rock Island, IL. The bridge allowed merchants in and around Chicago to reach western markets twenty years before Eads Bridge traversed the Mississippi at St. Louis. St. Louis has been playing catch-up ever since, especially following the World’s Fair of 1904.

St. Louis did not become a National Football League city until 1960, forty years after the league’s inaugural season. However, it has pulled off some good football coups since then. The team that came to St. Louis in 1960 was the football Cardinals from Chicago, obviously a much bigger city. Twenty-seven years later, St. Louis lost the “Big Red” (as they affectionately came to be known) to Phoenix. But eight years after that, in 1995, St. Louis snatched the Rams from Los Angeles, because St. Louis had built a state-of the art domed stadium in anticipation of attracting either an expansion team or a “franchise on the loose” team. The lease agreement for the Rams in the then TWA Dome in downtown St. Louis was so favorable that owner Georgia Frontiere did not mind leaving the much bigger LA market for her smaller home town. Unfortunately for St. Louis, the lease had a provision in it that the Rams could opt out after 20 years, if the Dome (now named the Edward Jones Dome) was not considered to be in the top twenty-five percent of NFL stadiums. With the dizzying construction of new stadiums in the NFL built by cities with guns to their heads in order to keep teams from jumping to a different market, the Jones Dome is now considered one of the worst in the league, after only twenty years. To make things worse, Frontiere died in 2008, and Stan Kroenke, who had been a minority owner, was able to seize control of the franchise. Now Kroenke wants to build a new “state of the art” stadium in Inglewood, California and move the team out to his planned theme park there in a much larger market than St. Louis. However, because two other franchises (San Diego and Oakland) want to move out of their home bases and jointly play in a showcase stadium in LA, the move of the Rams may not be easy for Kroenke.

For there to be professional football in St. Louis, the city does not need a new stadium. The dome may be a little dingy, but it is quite serviceable. The thing about it is that like all stadiums, it looks better when the team is winning. Shortly after the St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl in 1999, the team began losing and has done so repeatedly. As happens in cities as large as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, solid fan bases can disappear when losing sets in. There’s nothing to say that the Jones Dome could not be rocking on Sunday afternoons with a winning team, especially one that had the offensive flair of the Rams at the turn of this century. In basic terms, it’s a structurally sound edifice where more than 65,000 fans can see football on a regulation-size field.

But the league formula is for teams to build new stadiums, generally at taxpayers’ expense, to deepen the coffers of the owners. This will not stop until the federal government uses its anti-trust powers, as previously reported in Occasional Planet. So, if St. Louis wants to remain an NFL city, it has to do what the unelected powers-that-be say – build a new stadium, perhaps every twenty years or so. If St. Louis does not accede to this blackmail, it will not only lose its current NFL franchise, it will also lose some of its already diminishing self-esteem.

So what can St. Louis do to make keeping the Rams a “must-do” for the NFL? It can do what no other city has done. It can have two stadiums for one team. Here’s how it would work:

Every game day, the football fans of St. Louis would congregate at the intersection of North Broadway and O’Fallon. This would be about three blocks removed from the Jones Dome and three blocks from the “to be named later” new stadium. Each fan would bring his or her cell phone. Then using the texting survey program, Poll Everywhere, the fans would vote for which stadium they would like to see the game played. No more compromises with a retractable domed stadium. Instead, on a beautiful fall afternoon, they could have a wonderful outdoor experience literally on the banks of the Mississippi. But if there was a blizzard, a downpour, or even the threat of inclement weather, the fans could opt to go to the tried and true Jones Dome and live in the comfort and luxury of the 1995-vintage dome.

The fans could begin their texting earlier in the week and Las Vegas could be taking odds on in which stadium the game would be played. Fans could congregate on Saturday at the Muny Opera in Forest Park and have great debates about where the team should play. The whole saga could become a reality TV show and fans/taxpayers would use the royalties to replenish their wallets or government coffers. Opposing teams would fear coming into St. Louis where the Rams would have the oddest home field advantage of any team in any sport because opponents would not know the conditions of the upcoming game.

Frankly, I think that the call for a new stadium is a big shakedown, as it was for baseball’s Busch Stadium in the early 2000s. But until we as citizens adopt the only logical solution – federal control of the NFL, we have to further accommodate ourselves to tolerating the absurd. St. Louis can lead the nation.

The post St. Louis’ absurd political football scenario, and how to solve it, absurdly appeared first on Occasional Planet.

The 2014 Super Bowl is over, and some of the names that were repeatedly bounced our way may never be heard again. A year from now, will you know who Malcolm Smith is, or Marshawn Lynch, or Wes Welker, or Demaryius Thomas or Kam Chancellor? Unless you’re a serious NFL football fan, you probably won’t know. Some of these players are rather extroverted and quite verbal; others prefer to be silent. Each will likely fade from our memories as we become more removed from the game.

The availability of players to the media can allow some players to talk sense, others to indulge in clichés, some to bloviate, and still others to want to run and hide. All NFL players must abide by the standard player contract of the NFL. That includes:

1) Paragraph 4. Publicity and NFLPA Group Licensing Program

Player will cooperate with the news media, and will participate upon request in reasonable activities to promote the Club and the League.

That rule was enforced just prior to the Super Bowl against one of the names above, Marshawn Lynch. He is a powerful and speedy running back for the Seattle Seahawks.

As reported on the NFL’s own website:

Marshawn Lynch spent the regular season ducking reporters. The league fined the Seattle Seahawks running back $50,000 for his personal closed-door policy.

As the days counted down to game day, Lynch was a beneficiary of an on-line rally of fans to pay the sum. Lynch then decided to give the fans’ money to charity. Next, the NFL decided to double the fine if Lynch did not speak with the press prior to the Super Bowl. Lynch then gave two short interviews, each about six or seven minutes, far short of the required one hour. Now we have the uncertainty of what will happen next. Regardless of the outcome, what is clear is that the League has the power to fine players for failure to meet with media.

In glaring contrast, there is no rule stating that team owners need to meet with the press. This means that they need not communicate with team fans. This is not an incidental issue, because in all thirty-two markets of the NFL, the fans have made considerable financial contributions to the owners’ success. Almost every stadium is built with tax-payer money from the community. The teams are frequently free from paying full freight on local property, sales, or earnings taxes. Unlike many businesses, particularly small businesses, the NFL teams are beneficently showered with taxpayer dollars rather than taxpayer obligations of successful businesses.

Stan Kroenke, a billionaire from the Walton family, is the primary owner of the St. Louis Rams football team. Just recently, Kroenke purchased sixty acres of land in the Inglewood section of Los Angeles. Why would that be of interest to St. Louis fans? Because nineteen years ago the Rams migrated to St. Louis after having a rich history in Los Angeles. Since L.A. is a much more populous metropolitan area than St. Louis, there has been a constant desire to move the Rams back to Los Angeles and enjoy the benefits of a much larger market.

Well, how does Stan Kroenke feel about this? Up until February 1, we had no idea. He was “Silent Stan,” and he had no obligation to open up. He was free from the mandate of Section 1, Paragraph 4 of the standard contract for NFL players.

Finally, the day before the Super Bowl, Kroenke said:

There’s a track record… I’ve always stepped up for pro football in St. Louis. And I’m stepping up one more time. I’m born and raised in Missouri. I’ve been a Missourian for 60 years. People in our state know me. People know I can be trusted. People know I am an honorable guy.

I’m going to attempt to do everything that I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis, just as I did everything that I could to bring the team to St. Louis in 1995. I believe my actions speak for themselves.

Most Kroenke observers have said to be wary of his words. Many see him as brilliant; operating his billions of land and sports teams assets as he would pieces in a chess game. Looking at just one move tells you little; you have to see the macro plan, and with Kroenke, there are no words to be spoken about that. Even when he says something that appears to be straight-forward such as his Feb. 1 remarks, his actions are not congruent with the meaning of his words.

Kroenke sometimes speaks in riddles; it’s hard to understand him. Most NFL players talk in clichés; you’ve heard them all. The players are obligated to talk, but not to say anything. The owners are free not to talk. While we don’t need straightforward and relevant words from Marshawn Lynch, we do need them from Stan Kroenke. He’s playing a game that has enormous loopholes for the owners and actually very few for the players. Every week of the season, players put their reputations on the line as they perform on the field. Owners like Kroenke can go AWOL as long as they wish. Perhaps the NFL rules should require owners to honestly share their thoughts with fans on an ongoing basis.

The post In the NFL, players have to talk. Owners don’t. appeared first on Occasional Planet.

Some may groan when someone tries to relate sports to larger issues in our society, but sports = money, which equals societal priorities. There’s a looming issue in St. Louis, MO with the professional football team, the Rams. They have a 20-year lease on the Edward Jones Dome (aka TWA Dome), and it runs out in 2014. The team came to St. Louis from Los Angeles, and it seems quite possible that it could turn into a round trip, just with a 20- year layover.

Ownership of the team is currently in transition, but it seems likely that it will fall into the hands of Wal-Mart-heir-in-law Stan Kroenke. This is a man who has been successful in business, but who seems to leave a wake of disappointment, possibly despair, behind his enterprises. Most recently, he secured a seven- million- dollar TIF (tax-increment financing) from the small town of Bridgeton, MO in order to build a Wal-Mart. Bridgeton doesn’t have money to sacrifice; its median household income is nearly 20% less than that for St. Louis County as a whole.

Mr. Kroenke has neither committed himself to keeping the Rams in St. Louis nor in the Dome if they remain in St. Louis. The Rams organization secured a rather unusual provision in their lease for the dome prior to coming to St. Louis in 1995.  After 20 years in the Dome (meaning 2014), the team can opt out of its contract, if the Dome is not among the 25% best stadiums in the National Football League. This was part of the price of getting the Rams to leave the City of Angels to come to the Gateway Town. St. Louis was desperate, in part because it had already begun construction on the Dome in anticipation of securing an N.F.L. franchise; it didn’t want the dome to be a stadium where no one played.

There are two reasons why this provision seems absurd, even if it was deemed reasonable by former Senator Thomas Eagleton and other “movers and shakers” who arranged for the Rams to come to St. Louis.

First, how does one measure which stadiums are the best. Second, if every team had the same policy, you would have 75% temporary losers resulting in “stadium-palace-inflation;” i.e. each team trying to build a stadium more like the Taj Mahal at huge expense to tax payers with no particular gain to fans or players. It’s still football; you need a field, a couple of goal posts, and some place to sit.

So having gone to a Rams exhibition game at the Dome, I’ll acknowledge that there probably are “better stadiums.” But, while it was 92-degrees outside, it was 72-degrees inside, and when it’s in the teens in December (and hopefully January for the Rams), it will still be 72-degrees inside. The jumbo-tron shows replays; it’s fine by me. I only wish that at the game I could do what I do when watching it at home; TiVo it and start watching about 90 minutes into the game, fast-forwarding through the commercials.When they build a stadium where you can do that, maybe I’ll think that it’s worth building.

The post Let the dome continue to be home appeared first on Occasional Planet.

What a study in contrasts.  This evening we went to hear Greg Mortenson speak. He’s the innovative humanitarian who has brought education to girls in Afghanistan, where the Taliban had previously forbidden them to go to school.

Mortenson’s speech  followed a day when we learned that one Stan Kroenke (the minority owner of the St. Louis Rams) is “greenmailing” Shahid Khan, the prospective buyer of the football team.  For those who are not football fans and just want the skinny on “capitalist gone wild,” the bottom line is that Kroenke is pushing every possibly legal loophole to the limit to line his pockets and threaten Ram fans (and there are some) with moving the team elsewhere in 2015.  His real goals may be more modest, perhaps just extorting another $50 to $90 million dollars from Mr. Khan to live up to a “gentleman’s agreement.”  As St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports columnist Bryan Burwell says,

As far as I can tell, what we have learned about Kroenke is that every move he makes is straight out of a Machiavellian playbook.

I wonder how Greg Mortenson and Stan Kroenke will sleep tonight.  Mortenson may have pocketed more money between 8 and 10 pm tonight.  I’m sure the speaker’s fee for the Maryville /Powell Hall series is considerable. But  unlike what we might expect from Kroenke, I doubt that Mortenson’s fee will go to buy another home, a yacht, or another sports team.  Rather, he may be thinking about starting another school or two with the fee, or perhaps replenishing existing ones with basic supplies such as paper and pencil.  He may be wondering how to keep his schools safe from the Taliban.

Does Mr. Kroenke quickly fall into REM sleep without a care in the world?  His march up the Fortune 400 list of the wealthiest individuals in the United States (he’s currently at number 113) perhaps moving up a notch or two?   Does he think about when he’ll emerge from the shadows of uncertainty and drop a few ambiguous hints about what he really has in mind?  Does the word “gotcha” cross his eyelids before he falls asleep?

St. Louis radio host McGraw Milhaven (KTRS-550AM) is asking fans to boycott Rams games if, by the start of Thursday’s draft, Kroenke doesn’t make some kind of statement about keeping the team in St. Louis..  But that may be just what Kroenke wants, a reason to leave St. Louis and return the Rams to Los Angeles, a market more than four times the size of St. Louis.

Mr. Kroenke has some other inviting financial targets.  Let’s not forget that he’s married to Anne Walton; yes, from that family; she’s a Wal-Mart heiress.  Kroenke has made much of his fortune in real estate, where he specializes in building developments in which Wal-Mart is the anchor store.  In theory it might be helpful to boycott Wal-Mart and the shopping centers where they reside, but it’s a somewhat absurd suggestion from the Occasional Planet:  We probably have as many readers who shop at Wal-Mart as there were people in the audience for Greg Mortenson who don’t listen to NPR.

So what is the solution?  Perhaps it lies four hundred twenty miles north of St. Louis in a town with a population just a shade more than 100,000.  It’s called “Title Town, USA, ” aka Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Their professional football team, the Packers, is the only community-owned major league professional franchise in the United States.   Since 1919, the team has thrilled the fans of Green Bay and brought the small community a dozen NFL titles.  How can a community so small be so supportive of a team?  Perhaps it’s loyalty that only comes from the security of knowing that no one is taking your team from your town, and that you as a fan, have a personal investment in the well-being of the team.  If all professional teams were community owned, the blackmailing of fan loyalty and tax dollars would stop, period.

That’s more than four hundred twenty miles from Stan Kroenke.  The contrast between Mr. Kroenke and Mr. Mortenson goes to fundamental questions in our society.  Kroenke is a walking advertisement for us to take from the private sector that which properly belongs to the public.  Mortenson is a walking advertisement for what an individual can do to help a community without government assistance.

Wherever we draw the line along the private/public continuum, the system will work only as well as the people in it. .  More power to Greg Mortenson: Thanks for reminding us of the good that one person can do.

The post Night and day with Greg Mortenson and Stan Kroenke appeared first on Occasional Planet.