urbanSTL

Enjoyed yesterday's Isaac Bruce Foundation charity Legends of the Dome football game. A couple of notes: There were about 10,000 people there -- not bad. At no time did the crowd break into Kronke S___s, or any chants. Only heard it under the stands on the way out briefly. No hint of the NFL or the word Rams at any time during the event. No Rampage mascot for the kids. No Rams jerseys of any kind. I know some season ticket holders who hadn't heard about the event -- I heard rumors that Isaac asked the Rams for emails of old season ticket holders, but was refused. Marshall Faulk who works for the NFL was not there, but Kurt Warner was who also works for the NFL.

Players played flag football with no helmets. They played 4 quarters but let the clock run like in soccer. Very enjoyable to watch. Could this be the future of football in America? No tackling, no concussions, you can see players faces, just as athletic, just as scientific, just as exciting as far as I was concerned without the brain-liquifying hits.

Game was lots of fun and players were having fun too. It was great to see so many of the greats return to St. Louis and talk on the big screen about their experience here. All credit goes to Isaac Bruce for this great final event for St. Louis Rams fans.

Marc Bulger ready to pass. by Gary Kreie, on Flickr

Kurt Warner goes back for a pass. by Gary Kreie, on Flickr

The event looked like fun. I wanted to go, but I had a conflict. I heard Vinnie Bonsignore on 590 The Fan last week. He was in town covering the event. He discussed and admitted how sleezy the NFL treated STL and how the NFL should have just come out and made it clear how things were going to go. He said he could see the NFL handling things the way they did, if STL was going to get another team like Cleveland. Clearly, STL was collateral damage in the process. LA was too valuable to their financial goals, to care what happens to STL. He also said he thinks STL is a great NFL market and should have a team.

I saw attendee interviews on KSDK. Many STL Rams fans were saying they will root for the Rams in LA. If not for Kroenke and the way he treated us, I could root for the Rams. He took a dump on us and that will never be forgotten. Bidwell gave STL a shot and wanted to stay. STL screwed that up. Kroenke was willing to leave STL at any expense. I still say the loss of the Stallions expansion franchise was the worst thing to happen to STL (NFL-wise) in the entire mess. While I'd rather still have the Big Red, 50 years of history in STL and two Cardinal teams here, the Stallions would have been locally owned and much less likely to ever leave. Such a calamity of errors by local officials. From the Dome lease to the expansion process, all the way back to screwing around Bidwell. What a mess! ! !

I watched the Bengals and Jaguars game last night. The Jaguars as a Franchise still seem like an experiment by the NFL. The stadium, the city, the team not having a practice facility, it seems like an odd place to put a franchise. Khan is trying to make it work, but it seems like a tricky situation. I'm not saying the Jags are moving here. I am just making an observation.

chaifetz10 wrote:Ummm, they broke ground in April on a $90 million phase 2 amphitheater and practice facility next to their stadium. They're improving the stadium year by year as well in multiple phases.

Link: http://www.foxsports.com/florida/story/ ... ium-081916

Yes I know. All of the improvements being made still not enough to satisfy the NFL. The stadium will still be outdated. The NFL wants more cavernous stadiums.





Some news today, there is work still being done on the Riverfront proposal.

http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... fc991.html

But more than $240,000 was billed to the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority for work done between March 1 and March 31, two months after the plan had seemingly been shelved.

An invoice for $241,667 from HOK Inc. was designated for "design development." HOK senior vice president Lance Cage, who signed the invoice, did not immediately return a call Tuesday afternoon, and an HOK project accountant declined comment.

Given that everything was done in a rush in order to get the proposal done in time it really may be as simple as the billing took a while to finish. I distinctly recall the accounting office in Cedar Rapids nagging my boss in Columbia for invoices that should have been sent to clients weeks earlier. Sometimes paperwork lags a bit. Especially when you're trying to work fast.

As despicable a person as Kroenke is, can anyone see him advocating for St. Louis down the road, if STL becomes a potential expansion option or relocation option? He claims to still love STL and Missouri, clearly not as much as money, but claims to have 'some' love still. For some really strange reason, I think he still does have some love for STL and now that he fulfilled all of his greedy desires in LA, maybe he will feel a tiny, tiny bit of guilt for doing what he did to us. I know this is all wishful thinking, but down the road, could StanK actually help STL get NFL football back? Of course he will not bankroll a deal, but maybe a voice in the room, like Bidwell?
Is that too far-fetched to fathom? ....... I know, I'm crazy, but look at historical figures like Rockefeller and Carnegie. They became some of the greatest philanthropists in history. He will feel guilt, I think, when he has had many years to process how he stabbed his home state and STL in the back. Just a VERY strange thought....

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -st-louis/

I don't think Kroenke is capable of feeling guilt, but I do think he's capable of supporting a hypothetical team in STL sometime in the future.

DogtownBnR wrote:As despicable a person as Kroenke is, can anyone see him advocating for St. Louis down the road, if STL becomes a potential expansion option or relocation option? He claims to still love STL and Missouri, clearly not as much as money, but claims to have 'some' love still. For some really strange reason, I think he still does have some love for STL and now that he fulfilled all of his greedy desires in LA, maybe he will feel a tiny, tiny bit of guilt for doing what he did to us. I know this is all wishful thinking, but down the road, could StanK actually help STL get NFL football back? Of course he will not bankroll a deal, but maybe a voice in the room, like Bidwell?
Is that too far-fetched to fathom? ....... I know, I'm crazy, but look at historical figures like Rockefeller and Carnegie. They became some of the greatest philanthropists in history. He will feel guilt, I think, when he has had many years to process how he stabbed his home state and STL in the back. Just a VERY strange thought....

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -st-louis/

I think the league will eventually direct a smaller market to St. Louis. I think Jacksonville is a candidate for that type of relocation. I think Khan has been directed to dismiss the idea of moving the Jags to St. Louis, but even after he said that, rumors were that if his investments in Jacksonville didn't pay off he would use those market failures as proof to why he should be allowed to move to St. Louis. As someone that has lived in Jacksonville, I can assure you they are not worthy of a professional sports franchise.

I highly doubt Stan K is of the opinion that he has done anything wrong. It's just business, et cetera. I think it's totally plausible that he would champion St. Louis as an expansion target if he believed it would be profitable for the NFL, and do so completely oblivious to any irony or hypocrisy.

Is he really likely to have a voice in the matter five years down the line? I'd gotten the impression that the biggest reason to move the team to LA was to improve its resale value. I doubt very much he cares about either the Rams or Los Angeles any more than he cares for St. Louis, honestly. (It's not as though he's sold his other investments in town.)

symphonicpoet wrote:Is he really likely to have a voice in the matter five years down the line? I'd gotten the impression that the biggest reason to move the team to LA was to improve its resale value. I doubt very much he cares about either the Rams or Los Angeles any more than he cares for St. Louis, honestly. (It's not as though he's sold his other investments in town.)

On one hand I want to say absolutely yes. I can't help but to think his ego wants to take Jerry Jones place as the next NFL Kingmaker.

The other hand says it about making himself richer. Getting Rams back to LA was just one more avenue that accomplishes it.

I don't think he wants to be a kingmaker; he's much too withdrawn for that. He's only interested in making himself richer and upgrading his box of toys.

If the NFL wanted a team in St. Louis, wouldn't we have one today?
Plans for the Rams to LA were set in motion in 2010. So why weren't plans for St. Louis made then as well?
Why didn't Kroenke look out for St. Louis on his way out the door, if he's going to look out for us down the line?
They've demonstrated they don't care about relocation guidelines, leases, or optics.
If the Jags were going to be steered to St. Louis why not do it while $477M, in part of a $1Billion stadium is on the table?
It would have only cost $100M to break the Jags lease. The NFL, conditionally, gave $100M each to the Raiders and Chargers.

I'm confident this league has no idea what it's doing.

^ I agree. The cartel is run by a few greedy, aging billionaires. It would be awesome karma to see the great cartel/Empire fall someday. Hopefully concussions drastically change the game and make it a lower tier pro sport, flag football. I'm not convinced this will happen anytime soon because of fantasy football and gambling in general. Too much money at stake. Lots of bribes and greased palms. As you can tell, I'm still bitter!

^ I'm not sure I'll ever stop being bitter, it's going to be a challenge avoiding everything NFL but it's what I plan to do. It'll take an expansion team for me to ever come around and I'm sure an expansion fee would be astronomical. If not that, then the NFL can die under the weight of its own greed.

I don't even know that it needs to be flag football. It just needs to change. What's the rate of concussion in rugby? How serious are the typical injuries? If rugby can work as a macho violent sport without serious brain damage then I see no reason why football couldn't. Rules changes would be required, but . . . what sport hasn't seen rule changes, sometimes quite drastic? I expect it will survive the changes, but it might be a little smaller on the other side for a while. Especially if football, er soccer continues to grow as a major league sport in the US.

symphonicpoet wrote:I don't even know that it needs to be flag football. It just needs to change. What's the rate of concussion in rugby? How serious are the typical injuries? If rugby can work as a macho violent sport without serious brain damage then I see no reason why football couldn't. Rules changes would be required, but . . . what sport hasn't seen rule changes, sometimes quite drastic? I expect it will survive the changes, but it might be a little smaller on the other side for a while. Especially if football, er soccer continues to grow as a major league sport in the US.

I would love to see a flag football league or similar take off. I enjoy the deception, planning phase, clever formations, and athleticism of football more than than the overweight line and brain-liquifying hits. 8 or 7 man football works too. The final Rams charity game of flag football was fun. You could see their faces with no need for helmets. Why doesn't St Louis start the pro flag football league or 7 man league.


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gary kreie wrote: I would love to see a flag football league or similar take off.

Why don't you just have a group hug league. /oldmanshakingfist

MarkHaversham wrote:Why don't you just have a group hug league. /oldmanshakingfist

Group hugs do have some serious advantages over brain damage. But I'm not sure how you'd judge them. Nah. Flag football sounds like a better sport.

I dunno, rugby involves group hugs and it's pretty cool.

All big St. Louis banks merged with other banks who have HQs out of town. So everyone here who still has money in the old Mercantile bank can see their money at work as sponsor of the new US Bank stadium in Minneapolis.


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