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[MasterRamsFan]

Sources: Rams up for sale
By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
May 20, 2008


Though it hasn't been publicized in the wake of longtime owner Georgia Frontiere's death earlier this year, the St. Louis Rams are on the market, according to several NFL sources.

The possible sale of the franchise could have major ramifications, with a potential return of the team to Southern California hanging over any transaction. Adding intrigue to the situation: One of the prospective buyers who has had preliminary discussions with an intermediary about buying the Rams is Eddie DeBartolo, who owned the rival San Francisco 49ers from 1977 to '98.

"I know that they are definitely in play," DeBartolo told Yahoo! Sports last week. "Georgia's kids (son Chip Rosenbloom and daughter Lucia Rodriguez) have decided to sell the team. I've talked to some people who are brokering things, and they've told me about the price and what the deal might entail."

Rams president John Shaw, who has been the de facto leader of the franchise since Frontiere moved the Rams from Anaheim to St. Louis in 1995, declined to comment on the team's potential sale.

While DeBartolo said he has only a "slight" interest in purchasing the Rams, who sources say are being shopped in the $850 million to $900 million range, he conceded that part of the deal's allure would be the possibility of filling the void in the L.A. market that has existed since the Rams and Raiders left town before the '95 season.

"Their lease (at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis) is up in 2012, and they would be a natural for that to happen," DeBartolo said of the Rams' return to L.A. under new ownership. "It would be something to look at, and it's interesting to see the numbers and everything. But it wouldn't be my first choice of a franchise if I chose to get back in."

DeBartolo, who lives in Tampa, would prefer to purchase the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was part of a group that included Outback Steakhouse founder Chris Sullivan which approached Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer about buying the team seven years ago, but their interest was rebuffed.

Two years ago, in a story I wrote for Sports Illustrated, DeBartolo said he was intrigued by the prospect of purchasing the Raiders and relocating them to L.A. At the time two prominent NFL owners, including the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones, said they believed DeBartolo would be approved should he attempt to return to the league – something that was in question after he became embroiled in a Louisiana gaming scandal a decade ago and ultimately pled guilty to a felony (not reporting an extortion attempt by the state's former governor, Edwin Edwards).

"I love the guy, and a lot of people in that room (at an NFL owners meeting) like him," one AFC owner said earlier this month. "I think he'd be approved."

Given the decline of the 49ers' fortunes since the popular and wildly successful owner's departure – and DeBartolo's acrimonious relationship with brother-in-law John York, who currently runs the franchise – the thought of him owning a reprised L.A. Rams ranks with the previously floated Raiders scenario as a 49ers fan's worst nightmare. But DeBartolo, who has worked hard to repair his once-bitter relationship with sister Denise DeBartolo York, insists he's not motivated by any sort of revenge fantasy.

"Oh, (expletive), I'm past that," DeBartolo insisted. "I would only do it for the right reasons – business reasons. I don't know, the Rams, they were always my arch enemy. (St. Louis is) a good city. And, you know, we took care of the Rams pretty good when we owned the 49ers."

DeBartolo, 61, also says he is not as high on the Los Angeles market as he was two years ago.

"First of all, who's proven in L.A. that a damn team even works?" DeBartolo asked. "It didn't work for Al Davis, and he won a Super Bowl there. I think L.A. has yet to prove it wants to support a pro football team. And unless somebody does an awfully damn good survey and market-research study indicating otherwise, I'll be skeptical."

One high-ranking league source says the Jacksonville Jaguars are another team that might be sold and relocated to L.A. and that owner Wayne Weaver has solicited potential buyers in recent months. But DeBartolo discounted the possibility of purchasing the Jags, saying, "I think (he'll sell) every year, but it doesn't happen. I get the feeling that Wayne really wants a Super Bowl, and every year he keeps thinking, 'It's gonna be the year,' and he decides to keep them."

As for the Rams, an NFL owner familiar with the situation says at least two groups not involving DeBartolo have had discussions with those brokering the sale about a possible purchase. The owner said it appears unlikely that Stan Kroenke, a Rams minority owner, will try to buy out Frontiere's heirs and assume control of the franchise. To gain NFL approval, Kroenke would have to divest himself of his ownership interests in the NBA's Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche because failing to do so would violate the NFL's cross-ownership policy (which does not allow someone with controlling ownership in an NFL franchise to own major pro sports teams who play in a different NFL city).

"It'll be interesting to see what happens," DeBartolo said.

[MasterRamsFan]

No 'For Sale' sign on the Rams
By Bryan Burwell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Wednesday, May. 21 2008

Simple question: Are the St. Louis Rams for sale?

In the face of an Internet report that said he was shopping the franchise
barely four months after the death of his mother and longtime Rams owner
Georgia Frontiere, new team chairman and owner Chip Rosenbloom was convinced
he'd answered that most essential question with a prepared statement issued by
his public relations staff.

"I thought it was pretty clear," Rosenbloom said in an e-mail late Tuesday
evening.

Well, no, it wasn't clear.

Perhaps it was the inexperience of a new owner facing his first public brush
fire, but Rosenbloom's flurry into the spotlight began with a rather cloudy
prepared statement that failed to put out the fire and probably stoked it just
a bit more.

"To reply to this article, nothing has changed since my mom's passing ... While
we deal with her estate I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the
Rams in St. Louis and will have no further comment on this article."

That was part of the prepared statement that was issued in the early afternoon
in response to a Yahoo Sports.com report that the Rosenbloom and his sister
were selling the team and the asking price was between $850 million and $900
million. Yet the trouble with that answer was that it was the wrong answer,
like telling me you're 10 feet tall when I ask you what time it is.

Is the team for sale?

But by late Tuesday evening, Rosenbloom responded to e-mails and voice mails
and removed any doubt about what many St. Louis football fans wanted to know.
"We are not shopping the team," he said. "Yes, we have been approached. Yes, we
are committed to St. Louis. I don't know how else to reply to it."

Now that was clear. Unlike the earlier, vague and easily misinterpreted
prepared statement, the new owner left no room for any misunderstanding or
inaccurate reading between the lines.

Rosenbloom said he is not shopping the team, and that's precisely what the city
deserved. That was the 800-pound elephant that was standing in the middle of
the room since the day Rosenbloom took over the franchise. Rosenbloom kept
saying that as long as he owns the Rams, they're safe in St. Louis, but no one
ever denied the team was for sale.

So if the team was being shopped, the team's St. Louis status could change the
minute another rich man walked into the owner's suite. If I ask you how you are
feeling, don't tell me the sky is blue. I want to know, and everyone else does
too, whether the ownership of the Rams could change hands over the next few
years and put the team's stability in St. Louis at risk.

The Rams have a long history of quickly getting word out when they are victims
of faulty reporting. On the record or off, someone will make sure it's clear
that a story is false when management wants to clear up any doubts. So it was
rather peculiar how they responded Tuesday afternoon when former NFL owner
Eddie DeBartolo was quoted by prominent football reporter Mike Silver. On the
website Yahoo Sports.com, DeBartolo said he'd spoken with intermediaries who
said the asking price was somewhere between $850 million and $900 million. The
Rams, oddly, never issued a denial of that basic element of the story. Here's
why that little fact was far more relevant than whether the new owner wants to
keep the Rams in St. Louis.

If Rosenbloom were to sell the team, a new owner could have different plans
about that local stability and less civic loyalty. Just ask the city of Seattle
about that. The guy who bought the SuperSonics NBA franchise last year wasted
no time orchestrating a series of clever lease-breaking maneuvers that will
ultimately allow him to move the team to Oklahoma City.

When I originally asked Rosenbloom that question via e-mail and voicemail
Tuesday, and he replied that I should check out his prepared statement, I did.
It never answered the question. In fact, if it was supposed to douse the fire,
it actually fanned the flames with its oddly worded phrases. This is why I hate
written statements — they rarely tell you everything. They lack the definitive
opportunity that a face-to-face live encounter provides.

By now you've probably seen the original prepared statement, and it proved
conclusively why most prepared statements fall short. First of all, it began by
confirming all of our anxieties. But it also failed to provide specifics. Was
the team being shopped or were people simply assuming that you were going to
sell? When you were approached, did you shoo them away like pesky flies or give
them that flirtatious, "come hither (and bring your financial statements)"
look? Were they legitimate buyers with deep pockets and flawless backgrounds,
or frauds with no portfolio?

There were too many questions, not nearly enough answers.

But the new boss took care of that definitively by the end of the evening, and
that's exactly what he had to do. This is a city that has bent over backward
for this franchise, making everyone involved wildly wealthy beyond most
imaginations. In 13 years in St. Louis, the franchise's value has soared from
$200 million to $908 million, according to Forbes magazine.

That doesn't mean that somewhere down the line Rosenbloom won't sell the team,
but with an airtight lease with the city that guarantees at least eight more
years in the Edward Jones Dome — and a clear-cut promise from the new owner —
the fear that someone was once again on the verge of committing franchise grand
larceny against this football community should officially be put to bed.

Simple question. Simple answer. The team isn't for sale.