So the Kroenke era begins...

Last night the NFL Network broadcast limited information on the NFL owners meeting taking place at the Ritz Carlton Buckhead in Atlanta Georgia. They did mention that there was a vote on Stan Kroenke. It was not precisely clear whether he won or not. I immediately looked it up on News.Google.com. The answer was yes, Stan has been approved as the new majority owner of the Rams. The facts of the case are these:

1. The approval vote was unanimous
2. Commissioner Goodell gave Stan a very nice endorsement.
3. Stan will be the 7th Ram owner in 73 years.
4. Many sources are reporting that Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez will still retain some interest in the team
5. Reports conflict, but VanRam states that Kroenke bought nearly all of the remaining 60% of the Rams for the sum of $450 million.
6. It is unlikely Chip Lucia will hold more than token stock in the Rams.
7. Stan has been given a grace-period to divest himself of the Nuggests and the Avalanche.
8. Regrettably, the NFL has not done away with the cross-ownership ban, or given Stan a pass. Rather he has a temporary exemption so that he can get into compliance with the rule.
9. Stan has until December of 2012, or until the end of the world, which ever comes first.
10. NFL Executive Vice President Eric Grubman says the Nuggests and Avalanche will be passed over to John Kroenke, the 30 year old son of Stan and Anne.
11. The spectre of a potential move to Los Angeles was raised immediately by the Atlanta media.
12. Stan said he would never lead the charge out of St. Louis, but he has to remain competitive, and to be competitive he needs revenues.
13. VanRam is reporting that the first item on Stan's agenda is a new Stadium and a return to profitability.
14. Certainly, a return to profitability is a critical aspect of the rebuilding project. You can't keep operating at a loss. You either staunch the bleeding or die at some point.

According to my fading memory, Stan began this trek back in late 1993 and early 1994 when a couple of guys named DeBartolo and Jones has spent Georgia under the table. The Rams were in considerable financial difficulty back then also. Georgia had no real money of her own. She was a Las Vegas Showgirl who had been married 5 times. She had nothing more than the money she inherited from Carroll Rosenbloom. While sizable by ordinary middle class terms, that fortune provided no means to compete with real billionaires like DeBartolo and Jones.

As an erstwhile NFC contender, the Rams needed to spend like the 49ers and Cowboys if they were to have any hope at all of launching a Super Bowl run. Georgia was basically forced to find a partner. Stan made it pretty clear he wanted to buy the whole enchilada outright. Georgia wouldn't sell the Rams outright. Eventually, they struck on a deal in which Stan bought 40%.

The first-refusal right Stan negotiated in that purchase contract made it absolutely clear that he was waiting on line to buy the rest of the team. Yesterday, 15 years of waiting in line came to an end. He could have made this process a year shorter, but with such monumental problems to grab hold of, why rush?

His timing makes sense. He will have approximately 4 calendar years in St. Louis to work out a new stadium deal before he can move to Los Angeles, if no progress is made. It should be noted that Stan could move the team tomorrow. He would simply have to pay penalties for breaking his lease early. No one expects him to do such a thing. The L.A. County stadium, either in Industry or downtown, is not ready yet.

It is unclear just who the progenitor of the move to St. Louis was in 1994. Stan is from St. Louis. Georgia was also from St. Louis. The city of St. Louis itself was beckoning a team. Some say that former President Shaw was the key exponent of the move. It's clear that Georgia finally made the move because she was (is) deeply hated by the people of Los Angeles, who believe she hijacked, then ruined the Rams. Georgia summed it up best when she said "I want to go where I am wanted."

You would be hard-pressed to find a more hated figure in Los Angeles sports history than Georgia Frontiere.

One thing the world must acknowledge: The Rams are now owned by the world's greatest sports Mogul. We'll see if he can return us to old form again.

I have to tell you, this news has had a strangely tranquilizing effect on me. I feel my heart strangely warmed, as John Wesley once did... I feel as if the Babylonian captivity has come to an end. Why do I feel that way? Well, let me tell you about it.

The subject of the first ever episode of PBS Frontline was the seamy, lurid and nasty side of sports. They spent a large block of time dealing with the very strange death of Carroll Rosenbloom. This is a fact not a theory. Check out the documentary.

Carrol was a guy who kept uncomfortably close ties with gambling men in Las Vegas. So close were these connections that he actually hooked up with their ex-wives. That would include Georgia. You see, Georgia was a Showgirl who had been married to a few managers of Las Vegas enterprises during the course of the 1960s and 1970s. You know what that means.

On April 2, 1979, Carrol decided to take a little swim in the Atlantic Ocean, off his private beach in Florida. There, he mysteriously encountered heart problems and drowned. PBS Frontline showed videotape interviews with mobsters who claimed Rosenbloom had been dragged under water by the legs and held down until he drowned. Steve Hartman of L.A. Sports talk fame, frequently claimed he had seen photos skin divers swimming away from location moments after Rosenbloom died. There were many gruesome autopsy photos taken of Carroll. Some of those photos alleged show electrical burn marks on one of his ankles.

Shortly thereafter, Georgia had Carroll's body cremated (something you never do to a Jew), she inherited the team, fired step-son Steve Rosenbloom (who was doing an absolutely fantastic job) and moved the team to Anaheim.

We all believe Georgia had Carroll hit by some of her ex-husband(s)'s associates, not to put to fine a point on it. Steve Rosenbloom always believed the same thing. Still does, according to what I hear.

In any case, the spectre of Carroll Rosenbloom's death/murder has hung over the team for a very long time. Whilst I doubt he would have objected to son Chip running the team, I hope he can rest in peace now that clean hands own the Rams.

So Kroenke done fucked up now

And it really pisses me off also.

I wrote a piece for the Bleacher Report earlier today summarizing Stan Kroenke's latest moves in front of the NFL Finance Committee. No need to re-write the whole piece here, I'll just give you the link.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/390269-so-ann-walton-kroenke-is-the-next-owner-of-the-st-louis-rams

You have to be amazed by the gall of billionaires. I suppose they never would have become billionaires if they didn't have a ton of gall, though.

Basically, Stan is throwing out one of the most brazen attempts to flaunt the cross-ownership rules we've ever seen, and he might even expect the NFL to go for it. This is enough to make the common man shake his head in amazement.

Stranger thing still: I pick up a commenter on the site, who I have seen before, who appears to have some legal background. He argues like a counselor retained by Kroenke. Of course, liars for hire never see anything wrong with their client's proposals... publicly, that is.

The crying shame of it is as follows: I am being forced to publicly make the case for Khan, when I actually favor Kroenke as owner of the team. Bouy... if this cat Armen is actually a lawyer for Kroenke he aught to be fired quick. He's a backfire bomber.

Personally, I think the Cross-Ownership rules are a crock of shit which belong to a bygone era. I have no idea what validity they may have had either in the past or the present. I find it difficult to understand why the NFL would maintain these rules at all. Makes no sense to me.

Perhaps the NFL was once afraid of becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Major League Baseball or something. No need to worry about that now.

The worst part is that we can expect the Rams' ownership limbo to continue for something like another 12 months, I am sure. Kroenke's first proposal, which is preposterous, is described by sources inside his camp as "a first offer in a complicated negotiation".

That sounds like this negotiation is going to be quite time consuming. It looks like Ram-fan aren't going to get a speed resolution to our ownership muddle. Looks like we can't move forward aggressively in rebuilding the team.

Oh well, it's much the same. There is no guarantee either owner would have approved a front-loaded 44-47 million dollar contract for Brandon Marshall anyhow. Neither of these gents may have wanted to spend $7.25 claiming Alan Faneca on waivers. We probably would have missed out anyway. Life sucks if you're rebuilding the Rams right now.

And what about Khan?

Having created a very stupid set of bylaws, the NFL may well have a legal problem on its hands if they suddenly and magically wave the rule (one time only) for Enos Stanly Kroenke. Under the current set of bylaws, Khan can reasonably expect the NFL to reject Kroenke's proposal. Khan should also be able to petition for a speedy verdict on his own bid to buy the Rams, as he is the first guy waiting in line.

So, if I am the Commish, how would I unfuck the situation? Okay here's how it goes:

1. Start by rejecting Khan's proposal for financial reasons. The Finance Committee already stated they didn't like a couple of leverage devices Khan is using in his bid. Do this first. Do this before anything else.
2. Destroy the cross-ownership bylaw entirely. Talk the guys into it. I think it will be easy. Ask them to explain why this rule exists in the first place. Just do away with it.
3. Let Kroenke buy the team outright. No fucking manipulations or disco dancing. Stan owns the Rams, the Avalanche and the Nuggets.

Anyhow... I'm pissed. My franchise is twisting in the wind. We've been left hanging during the uncapped year. Now is the time to sign those front-loaded contracts. We're fucked.

Khan vs. Kroenke! Fight!

So the other ownership shoe dropped last night. Adam Schefter announced on ESPN's NFL Live that Silent Stan Kroenke has decided to exercise his contractual right of first refusal to purchase the Rams. I wanted to wait for confirming details before blogging about it. The report is correct. Enos Stan Kroenke has decided to exercise his contractual right of first refusal to purchase the remaining 60% of Ram stock he does not already own. This puts him squarely at odds with league rules and with Shahid Khan.

First the league rules.

As you all know, the league has bylaws forbidding NFL majority owners from owning a majority share in any other sports franchise in an NFL city. The rule rule used to prohibit ownership of any other pro-franchise in any city. The rule was mildly re-interpreted to allow Paul Allen {owner of the Portland Trailblazers} to purchase the Seattle Seahawks. The league owners wanted Paul Allen in the clubhouse and on the golf course. The owners wanted a league connection to the new silicone economy, and to Microsoft.

League insiders have been divided on whether Kroenke might obtain a similar wavier, and/or whether the league might be prepared to do away with this archaic rule entirely. Many believe that this rule is an archaic relic of a bygone era. Many others believe the league will not change its policy for Kroenke's sake. We are about to find out, one way or the other.

Owning both an NBA and NHL franchise in Denver should automatically disqualify Kroenke, but it just so happens he is a buddy and business partner of Pat Bowlen. Bowlen is the owner of the Denver Broncos, and co-owner of the Colorado Crush of the Arena League... along with Stan Kroenke. Insiders expect Bowlen will plead his friend's case. Pat Bowlen is a powerful owner, and he is also the theoretical aggrieved party according to the strange philosophy behind the cross-ownership rule. Given Bowlen's blessing, the deal might roll.

Several factors militate in Kroenke's favor:

1. The NFL Finance committee already announced that it doesn't like one of the several financial devices Khan intends to use to purchase the Rams.
2. Kroenke is already an insider. He has been partial owner of the Rams since the early 1990s. He has been vice chairman of the Rams' board for some time, and served on several NFL committees.
3. Kroenke has more money than Khan. Kroenke is worth an estimated $3 billion. His wife--Anne Walton, a Walmart heir--is worth $3.5 billion. Together they are worth approximately 3 times as much as Shahid Khan ($2.14 billion).
4. The NFL ownership booth is one of the most exclusive clubs around. It is a consummate old-boys' network. Kroenke is much more their type of guy than Khan.

What is my take on the situation?

On the one hand, I would have been shocked if Kroenke hadn't exercised his right to purchase the rest of the Rams. My memory fails, but I remember Kroenke buying into the Rams back in 1993 or 1994, when the Rams were having serious financial trouble keeping up with the Joneses {Jerry Jones and Eddie DeBartolo}. It was understood at the time that he wanted to buy the whole enchilada. This was the reason for the contractual right of first refusal he has chosen to exercise now. Ever since then, Kroenke has been waiting on line to buy the Rams.

Why didn't he just attempt to buy outright? One word: Strategy. He wanted the market to set a low price in accordance with the financial distress our nation is going through at the moment. There is also the cross-ownership rule which needs to be gotten around. Kroenke wanted to see what sort of ownership interest the Rams might scratch up, and see whether the owner's club might prefer Kroenke to own the Rams.

Will this blow up in his face? I seriously doubt a man of Kroenke's sense would have exercised his right of first refusal if he had not been given some indications, if not outright assurances, that the NFL would hear his case with favor. I think he is confident that he will be approved, or he would not have made this move.

Now the fight with Khan.

If the league rejects Khan and elects Kroenke, the move could be interpreted in racial terms. Would this be a case where collection of white Europeans just didn't want a Pakistani fellow in the clubhouse? This could make for some very interesting league wrangling inside league circles. Pray for the good of the Rams that this doesn't happen. This could hold the Rams' ownership status in limbo for several years. This could make for several years of lost franchise history.

More on the NFL Apocalyse

Just when you thought the NFL was the absolute king of the hill...

In a previous article, I discussed just what is at stake in the on-going NFL/NFLPA labor negotiations. I laid down a prophecy that if we have:

1. Baseball style free-agency
2. No franchise tag
3. No transitional tag
4. NBA cash contract style-trading
5. No salary cap
6. No salary floor
7. No revenue sharing or reduced revenue sharing

Then you will see Mayflower trucks loading up in all of the small NFL markets, headed for big markets. Los Angeles will have 2, not 1 franchise playing down in Industry. If San Diego loses the Chargers to Los Angeles, San Diego can replace them in 3-6 weeks with another team. Chicago will get a second team. Houston might get a second team. Las Vegas will get an NFL team. You will see a historical moment of unprecedented and inconceivable team movement.

Well... it turns out that there is more to the story than that. There more reasons why we might see a geographic redistribution of the NFL. In a very well written piece for the National Football Post, a fellow named Robert Boland laid out a few astounding facts that I was dimly aware of, but now keenly interested in.

1. 18 of the Leagues owners are over the age of 65
2. 8 of those owners are over the age of 80
3. Ralph Wilson is 91
4. Georgia's kids were assessed $200 million in inheritance tax on a franchise thought to be worth some $913 million.
5. Very few NFL families have the sort of wealth necessary to shell out a cold $200m to the IRS upon the death of the Patriarch.
6. The Rosenbloom's 60% will fetch a price valuing the team at $750m. This may have a negative impact on the valuation of all NFL teams.
7. Kahn's offer is the best on the table. If his offer is rejected by NFL Finance, the next price is significantly lower.

With 8 owners over the age of 80, we may well see this scenario played out several more times soon. If anyone else besides me watched the documentary series "Full Color Football" on the NFL Network, you must have been impressed by the fact that several of the 1960s founders of the AFL are still around the league today. Al Davis, Ralph Wilson and Bud Adams are just three of them. While Bud is still alive and flipping the bird, both Al and Ralph look to me like they are on their very last legs. To be brutally honest, Al Davis has been on death watch for at least two years now. Raider fans get up in the morning and immediately check the Internet news and see if he is still alive. Al was not present at the NFL Scouting Combine this year.

Let us reason out a scenario together. Suppose that three of our oldest owners were to kick off together in the near the future... say by the end of 2010. They say that they always go in groups of 3. Suppose 3--or even 2--sets of heirs cannot afford to pay the sum of $200-$300m in inheritance taxes. What then?

Several teams will be revalued at the same time, according to real market prices. Put a couple of teams on the auction block in tax distressed conditions, and the Great Recession, and then let's see what happens. The price should go down.

NFL teams are such expensive toys that the collection of prospective buyers is very small each and every time a franchise hits the market. If there are two many franchises on the market at once, what happens to the price? The price will go down again due to the glut of franchises.

What happens if NFL Finance swings open the door to attract more potential buyers due to the glut? You might get a collection of less-well healed owners, who might have trouble carrying a financial bleeder. What happens then? They might look for more lucrative markets in which to vend their product.

The age of present ownership has to be considered be a risk factor when we consider whether an epoch of franchise movement might be on the horizon.

Relocation and the Rams redux

http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2010/2/14/1310174/2010/2/14/1310174/relocation-and-the-rams

VanRam wrote a nice little blog about relocation and the Rams, and I thought I would comment at some length. At least, in a longer form than permitted by blog replies.

At the moment, St. Louis based fans and naive types are certain that the Rams are staying in St. Louis for the foreseeable future. Who knows what our grandchildren will see, but for our lifetimes, the Rams will be in St. Louis.

Really?

I like the fact that VanRam is aware of the complexity and duplicity of reality. He is aware of the fact that Shahid Khan is not yet the owner of the Rams. He is also aware of the fact that no man in his right mind would ever tell you he was moving a football team when he has 2 years (minimum) left to play in a location. Being a relatively brilliant self-made billionaire, Shahid Khan would not scupper the market for the next two years for the sake of something so stupid as public honesty if he did have plans to move. Billionaires have been known to lie with a straight face whenever it is in their best financial interests to do so.

VanRam is aware of the fact that there is a very tense labor situation developing right now. The cost of running an NFL team may well go up. There is such a thing as the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario looks like this:

• The Players do not agree to any salary cap
• There is no salary floor
• There is no franchise or transitional tag
• We have baseball style free agency
• The owners do not renew and/or sharply reduce revenue sharing among teams
• We have NBA-style contract-dollar trades as a matter of regular business in the NFL

Such an outcome would be terrible for the 53-54th largest market in the United States... especially when the 2nd largest market is calling... and somebody just laid down $750 million to buy the team. This doesn't bode well for any of the smaller market teams. Teams in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Jacksonville, and Tampa would automatically become non-competitive.

The football world hinges on the negotiations currently taking place between NFL labor and NFL management. If the worst case scenario comes to pass, or even two or three elements of the worst case scenario become reality, we will see a period of franchise movement the likes of which you have never seen. Los Angeles won't have one team but two. If San Diego looses the Chargers they can replace them in less than 3 weeks. Chicago will have two teams. Houston might even get a second. Las Vegas will get a team. The foundations will quiver and quake as the mayflower trucks roll out of the small markets.

I don't like firing up my brothers in St. Louis with anxiety and anger. I am just making you aware of the realities of business in this world. The Rams have to stay put, probably for the next 2-3 seasons. That being the case, ownership can and will say nothing to scupper the market, regardless of the real plan.

There is another reality that you must consider. 24 of 32 votes must approve Khan's bid. Each of those men have an agenda. The NFL has stated for 16 years that it is a top priority to get back into the Los Angeles market. The 49ers might like their southern rivals back again. The Cards, Seahawks, and 49ers might like shorter travel times, less time zone hopping, and natural grass. The NFL might want to play Super Bowl 50 in Los Angeles in 2016.

Don't take solace in Ed Roski's desire to have a team in Los Angeles by 2011. I have heard many a report which says that time table is way too aggressive to work out. Few believe the stadium can be finished, and made game-ready, in less than 2 years even under ideal circumstances. Things have a tendency to get delayed here in laid-back Los Angeles. Expect 2012.

Another point that a few of my Lawyer friends have pointed out: The Rams can get up and walk out of the Edward Jones Dome any time they want. They just have to be ready to pay contractual penalties; that's all. There is nothing that magical about the year 2012, 2014 or 2016. It's just a technical question of price. The price is not really that big of a deal if you stand to make a lot more money on the other side. We don't care how much it costs, we just care how much it makes.

Hold on to your arse Ram fans... it looks like we have an unexpected buyer

The Rams have been for sale for the better part of a year now... either officially or unofficially depending on whom you listen too. This sale has been greatly protracted by the Great Recession. Now we may have reached the end of the deal.

According to the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the Rams have been sold to Shahid Khan. You may want to have a look at Bernie Miklasz's fine piece here for some solid details.

What we do know:

1. Khan is a 55 year old 1st generation immanent to the United States. His family immigrated to the St. Louis from Pakistan when he was a child. He attended the University of Illinois, Champagne/Urbana where he earned an engineering degree.
2. He is said to regard St. Louis as his hometown, and is purportedly an enthusiastic Ram fan who has attended games in the Edward Jones dome.
   
3. Khan is expected to purchase the 60% owned by Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.
4. Khan is purportedly prepared to purchase Kroenke's 40% should he activate the poison pill clause in his ownership agreement.
   
5. Khan is the only buyer. He has no partners. He will be the sole owner at the end of the day, if he is approved.
   
6. The total value of the team has been placed between $725 and $750 million
7. Khan is the president and owner Urbana Illinois based Flex-N-Gate Corporation (FNG).
8. Flex-N-Gate is in the auto parts business, with an emphasis on heavy work truck parts and components.
9. According to Forbes, FNG is the 229th largest company in the United states with an estimated global revenue stream of approximately $2.14B.
   
10. Flex-N-Gate has approximately 10k employees at 57 facilities in 5 countries.
    
11. Khan has apparently had some tax issues. Between 1999-2003, Khan and his wife Ann were investigated for allegedly sheltering $250M from the IRS. This was allegedly settled when his wife Ann paid $68m in back-taxes to the IRS. Khan stated that he would pursue litigation to obtain a refund of this cash.
12. According to the associated press, Khan is committed to keeping the team in St. Louis. He has allegedly stated that he entered his bid to own a team in his hometown and his hometown only.
    

What we do not know:

1. Has Khan purchased the 40% share owned by Enos Stanley Kroenke?
2. Has he reached an accommodation with Silent Stan?
3. Is Stan planning to use his right of first refusal?
4. Will the owners waive the cross-ownership clause for Silent Stan?
   
5. Will 75% of the NFL owners vote him into the club?

This is going to be very interesting to watch. To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Khan is of East Indian extraction. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a non-white owner of non-European extraction. The NFL Owners' club is a very elitist and clickish group. However, they have not blocked the acquisition of a team often. I will have to look for the last precedent.

For a 30 year Ram fan who has been following this process every day, closely, this outcome is nothing short of a shocker. Never once in all the pieces I read was the name Shahid Khan ever mentioned. He completely evaded our Radar net. He was nowhere on the scope. If these reports are accurate, Khan abruptly materialized out of thin air to snatch the team when nobody expected it.

Perhaps I speak out of turn, and out of school, but I suspect Mr. Khan may have some difficulties with the owners, whether real or contrived. I suspect he may have to negotiate a deal to get into this exclusive club. Methinks we will find out exactly what the NFL wants more: A team in St. Louis or a team in Los Angeles?

The Toronto Rams...?

I really wish Silent Enos Stanley Kroenke would step up to the plate, hammer out some political according, and buy the Rams.

According to the latest (ludicrous) rumors circulating, one of the three major bids for the Rams comes from a group with strong ties to Toronto. Alleged leaks from inside this group declare that Toronto business interests have grown very tired of the Buffalo Bills stalling & dragging their feet in making a deal to play (at least a portion) of their regular season games in Hogtown. Ergo, they have decided to make a play for the Rams, with the explicit purpose of moving them to Toronto.

Naturally, there have been denials circulating since this rumor hit the Internet. None of the three groups currently bidding on the Rams have publically declared that they will move the team. Even if you have every intention of moving, why would you declare such a thing? It would aggravate the Rosenblooms, make League approval more complicated, and alienate the hell out of the people of St. Louis. It might even trigger Silent Steve to drop his poison pill. If you want to move the Rams, it pays to shut up about it.

My fanship has lasted some 30 years and spanned 4 different stadium facilities in several towns. If the Rams were to move to Toronto, I would hope the organization would do what the Baltimore Ravens did. I would hope that they would change their identity and drop the uniforms. Call them the Toronto Werewolves, Aardvarks or Koalas. I don't care.

Honestly, I won't be able to continue to cheer for this team if they move to Toronto. That will break the Camel's back.

The Rams remain the NFL's best shot for re-growing a foothold in the 2nd largest market in North America: Los Angeles County. I would hope that the league, and especially our good rivals in the NFC West, would have the common sense to block ownership by the Toronto group.

So the Rams will have a new owner by April, aye?

Word has been circulating on the web today that the children of Georgia have three solid offers for their stock. They have vowed to select a bidder by April, or keep the team, one or the other. Given their tax situation, I have no idea how they can keep the team. This means we should have a new owner by April.

One offer, worthy of particular scrutiny, is a bid for 100% stock ownership. Logically, this means buying out Kroenke as well... unless that bid is from Kroenke himself. What about the rumors of movement? One group, purportedly Dave Checkett's group, wants to keep the team in St. Louis. The second bidder is "on the fence" regarding this question. The final bidder is point-blank in favor of the move. Wanna bet that is the 100% bidder?

Unless Kroenke is the covert 100% bidder, I am stunned that his name has not factored into this discussion more prominently. Current league rules do forbid Silent Stan from owning a controlling interest in an NFL franchise, but the insider-scuttlebutt suggested that this rule could be got-around if a simple political effort were made. Perhaps this is not the case. Perhaps Kroenke has run into unexpected heavy seas in his efforts to negotiate a solution to this rule problem.

Of the dozen or so URLs I have read today, the name that stands out most prominently is that of Texas banking tycoon Gerald J. Ford (no relation to president Ford). Ford is #289 on the Forbes 400. He is an investment banker who used to be chief executive of Golden State Bankcorp before he sold to Citigroup in 2002 for some $6 Billion.

We shall see. Time will tell what's going on here. I will be tracking reports on the NFL network closely.

Will Rush Limbaugh be the next owner of the Rams?

In short, I seriously doubt it.

So why are we even considering this? Because news.google.com is reporting 11 stories on the news wire alleging that Rush is trying to purchase the Rams. Some of these reports are just standard preseason news bits about the Rams, with footnotes referencing the main story.

So how the hell did this rumor even get started? Evidently it all began with a quote from Limbaugh in the St. Louis Business Journal. The quote is as follows: "The Rams would be a great team to have. I have a lot of friends in ownership of the NFL, and my desire to get involved has not been a secret."

The SLBJ writer covering this story speculates that Limbaugh is consorting with Dave Checkett of the Blues to make this deal happen. There is no confirmation, corroboration, or proof this speculation. We do not know that Limbaugh is working Checkett at all... not that such an alliance would matter much anyhow.

My reaction was simple: "Great, so their are now two figures--without money--supposedly teaming up to buy a controlling position they cannot afford to purchase. Why should I believe or be impressed by this speculation?"

Most of the other 'news' reports are just blog editorials full of emotional (pro or con) reaction to the 'news' that Rush Limbaugh wants to own the Rams. There are no new facts reported in these entries at all. They did not say anything like:

• Sources close to Limbaugh indicate that Rush can raise over $132 in immediate capital from his substantial personal wealth.
• Rush Limbaugh has acquired another $430 in financial backing from famed Republican Entrepreneur Daddy Warbucks John Johnson.
• Limbaugh has retained the services of Walter Vexa's famous real estate law firm to pass a formal purchase offer to Dale Rosenbloom via Goldman Sachs.
• Limbaugh is scheduled to meet with his future business partner Stan Kroenke later this week to establish good relations.
• Limbaugh is scheduled to meet with NFL commissioner Roger Goodel next week to schmooze and grease the wheels of progress so that he may enter the sacred club of NFL owners.

If any of these bullshit laden pieces said anything of this variety, I would be more inclined to take the Limbaugh story seriously. In the absence of any significant facts, I have no reason to take these 'reports' seriously.

So why has anyone written on this subject at all? Because it makes sensational copy. Because this is a slow news cycle. Because we are in the deep off-season for NFL Football. There is not much to say about the NFL right now. This worthless tidbit is as good an NFL story as we have in June of 2009. Rush is a divisive figure. Liberals & Democrats utterly hate him. You can stick a grain of sand in the Clam's mouth pretty quickly with this story.

The fact is Limbaugh doesn't have a lot of money. He is not a poor man or a middle-class citizen by any stretch. Yet he is a very far-cry from the billionaire status you must enjoy to buy and run an NFL franchise these days. Checkett is in the same category. I would love to own the Rams. The fact is that I cannot. I do not have the money. I wish I did. I would buy my team in a second.

There is no factual basis for the claim that Limbaugh is trying to buy the Rams. These reports are without legal or journalistic merit. These are trumped up reports of little or no significance.

So the Rams are for sale aye?

I remember back in late November or early December of 2008 when Yahoo! Sports reported that Eddie DeBartolo had approached Skip Rosenbloom with an offer to buy the Rams. The report stated that Skip & his sister had serious tax problems. Inheritance tax on a $929 million NFL franchise is a bitch. Actually the two had only inherited 60% of the total shares of the Rams. Ergo, their collective fortune was a mere $557m or so in stock. Still, inheriting that much stock in anything will cause the IRS to climb up your ass.

Worse, Skip and Sis have no real wealth of their own. Skip (Dale Rosenbloom) is a director of producer of various small Hollywood movies you probably haven't heard of. He's doing okay, but he is rich by no mans estimation. His sister is a Mexican housewife in East L.A. No bullshit.

I should mention, in passing, that I know his name is Dale Rosenbloom. I also know that Dale's nick-name is Chip not Skip. We like to call him Skip out here, because he is the Ram owner that NFL historians will skip over when and if they need to write a page or two about Ram history for a website or PDF. I know that's not nice, but he is very unlikely to own the team for two full seasons of NFL play. Come kick-off time in September, I expect this deal to be done. Hardly a footnote in the book.

The IRS doesn't want the stock. They want the money. The NFL constitution would not allow the IRS to own the franchise anyhow. Should the IRS seize 60% of the Rams, NFL HQ might well dissolve the Team. However, the NFL would never allow it to reach that point. A purchase would be arranged well before that moment. Ergo this brother sister tandem had no choice: Sell out and pay the IRS.

Skip denied the Yahoo! report vehemently. He said the team was not for sale. He said he felt an obligation to his dead father to keep the team in the family. He would be the owner. He did not declare the report an outright lie, but he came close.

Fast forward two weeks. Jimmy Johnson of Fox Sports, the former architect of the Dallas Cowboy dynasty, announced on the air that the Rams are (in fact) for sale. He personally knew this to be the fact of the matter.

Then a few weeks later we hear that the City of Industry has given Ed Roski Jr. preliminary approval to build an NFL stadium (and they did explicit say NFL in the city documents) inside the borders of the City of Industry. The East side of the City of Industry, near Wallnut to be specific. For those who don't know much about Los Angeles, Industry is a small chunk of L.A. County in the south east. Make no mistake: Industry is L.A. just as much as Santa Monica is L.A.

There were speculations about the Vikings coming to town again. No, that isn't it, said everybody with a connection to the Vikings. There are no thoughts inside Viking HQ about moving to Los Angeles... or the City of Industry.

Ghee-wiz, what the fuck is this thing Roski is doing then?

Then rumors began to circulate about cash flow problems. Dale doesn't have any money. Guys like Orlando Pace and Torry Holt were pulling down a lot of money. A lot more money than Dale makes. It was questionable whether the Rams could carry their contracts, or eat a loss from a late release, and still pay the #2 pick the sort of cash this player to be named later would be expecting from his draft position. Pace and Holt, two potential Hall of Fame candidates, were both released. We took an unglamorous Left Tackle, the exact player we absolutely needed most. The Rams have an evil history of taking the glamor boy over the guy we need... at least during the past 28 years. But it just so happens that Jason Smith is a guy who will command less money that Marc Sanchez, both in the long and the short run. Cash was impacting the movements of organization quite a bit. Probably for the better.

Rumors again circulate that Dale is not selling the team, but he would be interested in listening to offers if there might be a St. Louis investor interested in keeping the team at home in St. Louis. You could hear the gentile breeze in the trees as not a human sound was made.

Then one week ago, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that the Rams are for sale. Skip and his sister have retained the services of the famous investment bank Goldman Sachs (the place Henry Paulson game from) to organize the sale, handle the legal paperwork, do the escrow, and maybe even settle their tax problems. This information was intercepted as it traveled from Goldman Sachs HQ in New York to NFL headquarters on Park Avenue.

Most important of all, the report contains the stipulation that Skip is willing to sell to any investor or group. There will be no stipulation that the buyer must keep the team in St. Louis. Now suddently, there are parties publically announcing that they are interested. Immediately, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Kansas City Star and the San Francisco Chronicle are alive and buzzing with rumors that all potentials buyers want to move the Rams back to Los Angeles. That includes Stan Kroenke and Dave Checkett, despite what they are currently saying... or not saying.

So what is the score? Everybody believes that there are three prospects to the sale. One is quite public. The other two are known and silent.

The public guy is Checkett. About 100 pieces have been written about this guy in the past week. A careful consideration of these pieces indicates that Checkett is a pretender to the throne. He is not a serious contender for the title. Checkett doesn't have much money. He is the chairman of the St. Louis Blues. Hocky is a poorboy sport. The money is nothing like the NFL. It doesn't even compare to Baseball and Basketball. Checkett cannot do the transaction himself. He has been public about his intent to form an investment group to assemble the money for the purchase. The math cannot work out. Unless Checkett can get Kroenke to sellout, he has 60% of the stock availible for purchase, grand total. The NFL constitution declares that 1 owner much own at least a 55% controlling interest in the team. I do not see how an investment group can buy 60% distribute shares, and put 55% in one man's hands. It won't work. Checkett's group will not be the purchaser of the Rams. It may not even tender a serious offer.

The consensus says that Kroenke is the owner if he wants to be. He already owns 40% of Rams. He is worth $3.5 billion. His wife is probably worth more than he is. The main problem is that he owns the Colorado Avalanch and the Denver Nuggets. The NFL constitution prohibits him from buying the Rams. Why? Denver is an NFL city. The Broncos live there. John Elway is a great fan of the Nuggets. He often introduces them. Paul Allen was allowed to own the Portland Trailblazers and the Seahawks because Portland is not an NFL city. This is a bizarre rule that is basically outdated and outmoded. Nevertheless, the NFL is probably not going to budge. If Kroenke is willing to sell a majority share in both of these franchises (subject to their league rules) he could buy the Rams. Otherwise, he is out by NFL constitution.

One fellow commented to me "Never under estimate the power of politics in these affairs!" Very well said. The NFL wanted Paul Allen in the NFL clubhouse. It is a billionaire club, and they wanted connections to Microsoft. Ergo, the NFL found an easy way to get around the rules. Kroenke is a good man. The NFL might like him. Then again they might not. He isn't as big a fish as Allen, make no mistake about it. Will they bend or get around rules for Kroenke? I doubt it.

So why would the NFL be interesting in politically excluding Kroenke, or making his acquisition difficult? Because they want to move the Rams back to Los Angeles, that's why.

One of the persistent, consistent, pernicious thorns in the NFL's arse has been the absence of NFL football in the 2nd largest market in North America. The NFL has opened numerous negotiations with the city of Los Angeles to do a deal. The City of Los Angeles has been incredibly cocky and stupid in their dealings with the NFL. They have always advanced plans to refurb the Coliseum and put the team there. The NFL is not interested in that. They have always said no to that deal. There are reasons the Rams left the Coliseum in 1980. There are reasons why the Raiders left the Coliseum in 1995. There are reasons the Trojans would like a new house right now. The Coliseum is Fu-KAKTA.

This all brings us to Eddie DeBartolo Jr. The last time I saw Eddie, it was Summer 2008. He appeared at the Hall of Fame in Canton to present Fred Dean for induction. I have never seen Eddie look so sad. He always looked invigorated, vibrant, competitive. At this time, he looked like a sad old man who just finished crying for 3.52 hours. His eyes were red and puffy through the entire visit with the NFL network and ESPN. He looked damn depressed. It looks as if being outside the NFL is killing Eddie.

Eddie lost control of the 49ers in the year 2000. The circumstances of this loss were murky indeed. There are rumors and counter rumors. The facts of the case are these:

1. Eddie was involved in a corruption case with Governor Edwin Edwards of Louisiana.
2. In 1998 Eddie paid Edwin $400,000 for a river boat casino license.
3. Eddie wound up in an FBI sting
4. Edwin went on trial for extorting $400,000 from Eddie for this license.
5. Eddie was charged with failure to report felony political corruption.
6. Eddie was fined by the NFL and banned from controlling the team for 1 year
7. The reckoning moment came in 2000 when he gave control of the 49ers to his dear sister Marie York.
8. She had previously run the Pittsburg Penguins, which was Eddie's way of getting around the NFL rules.
9. She became the second female owner of an NFL team after Georgia
10. The 49ers pretty well collapsed after 3 years.
11. Denise never gave the team back to Eddie.
12. We do know that there was an ugly-ass family fued between Denise and Eddie.
13. The details are only partially public. You can read one interpretation of the timeline here.
14. Eddie is not allowed to have any involvement with the 49ers by his dear sister and brother in law.

Not much is know about Eddie's current wealth. He does seem to retain a controlling interest over his father's financial empire. This includes a lot of real estate, malls, and gambling casinos. Shit... Casinos? Yep, he likes to gamble also. That usually means mafia.

We should remember that Georgia was a Las Vegas showgirl. She had 5 husbands prior to Carrol Rosenbloom. Those fellows were shadowy Las Vegas figures. That usually means mafia. Rumors about Georgia being involved in a plot to kill her husband and steal the Rams from Steve Rosenbloom have circulated ever since 1979. These allegations are still talked about today in Los Angeles sports bars.

I was going to come out in full support of Eddie. Whatever else you want to say about him. Eddie took a dastardly joke of an NFL franchise and he made them the first team to win 5 Super Bowls. It has taken the Steelers some 14 years to pass the 49ers, even though they once started with a 4 championship lead. If you are a long suffering Ram fan you have to like that record... if it heads your way. Unfortunately, this other information, which I never dreamed about, causes me to wonder. I really don't like this kind of corruption around my team.

However, it should be noted that Eddie will come to the NFL with a compelling package deal. He has said he will move the team to Los Angeles. He claimed he would personally build a state-of-the-art Dome stadium on the West Side of L.A., somewhere near LAX. That is right where the NFL wants it. He may not need to do this, now that Ed Roski is at work.

The NFL is smart. They know Eddie will return with blood vengeance in mind. Nobody hates like family. He will stick it to his sister every chance he gets. He will re-stoke the feud between the Rams and 49ers which once dominated NFL football on the west coast. This would re-invoggorate football on the West Coast, which is badly in need of a stimulus package. He might even be able to do it again... He might make the Rams Champions.

We'll see what Roger Goodell does about this. This is going to be the first real acid-test of his administration. Both Eddie and Georgia represent a shadowy underbelly of NFL history which the late Commissioner Rozelle allowed to creep into our fabled and beloved sport.

I want the Rams back in Los Angeles, and I want the Rams to win a lot of championships here, in my town. But not at any price. I am not willing to sell my soul for this victory and this return. I am hoping my team will be cleansed of the corruption that once ensnared it by this pending sale.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_12496059

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bernies-extra-points/bernies-extra-points/bernies-5-minutes/2009/06/june-1-kroenke-is-best-hope-for-st-louis-rams/

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/other_nfl/view/2009_06_02_Dave_Checketts_wants_to_lead_group_to_buy_Rams/srvc=home&position=recent