Now that the Super Bowl is done, the National Football League can get back into the real business of the National Football League which is making certain that large amounts of cash flow into individual teams. For Commissioner Roger Goodell that means making sure St. Louis really wants to keep Stan Kroenke’s NFL franchise in town and getting new palaces elsewhere.
On Friday Roger Goodell kept complimenting the fans but he also told the fans they really don’t count particularly those in St. Louis. All the lip service to fans is just that, Goodell and Rams owner Stan Kroenke are waiting for St. Louis and Missouri elected officials to shower them with funding for a new St. Louis football stadium to replace one that is 20 years old. Truth is neither Goodell nor Kroenke care about the average fan and want big spending customers who can write off their day at the stadium as a tax loss. St. Louis Rams fans are on the sideline as Kroenke wants to build a football palace near Los Angeles and Missouri officials try to convince one of the world’s richest people that he should remain in St. Louis. There is some NFL by law that an owner must exhaust all possible local options in obtaining a new stadium before that owner can move.
Two other franchises are also looking for new facilities. In San Diego, there is now a task force whose task is to get a San Diego football facility built for the Spanos family Chargers and Oakland and Raiders owner Mark Davis are still wrangling over what to do to ensure that Oakland keeps an NFL franchise. Goodell may wax poetical about fans, Seattle may have retired the number 12 in a fans tribute although the Seahawks franchise did move to Anaheim for a few days in 1996 when Ken Behring thought the Seattle Kingdome was unsafe. The NFL blocked Behring from moving. The NFL is all about cash and real estate and fans can stay at home and watch the NFL on TV. Fans really don’t count in the NFL world, customers in the right location do.
This article was republished with permission from the original author and publisher, Evan Weiner.