Report: St. Louis Rams could move to Denver, London
By Phil Naegely
If St. Louis Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke doesn’t get his way with moving the team to Los Angeles, he already has a plan B and C in mind.
The off-the-field hot topic in the NFL this season is which team(s) will move to Los Angeles in 2016. It’s down to three teams currently, the Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers and the St. Louis Rams. In case St. Louis owner Stan Kroenke’s plan to move his team doesn’t succeed, he already has ideas of where else he could move them, which includes London and Denver.
As CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora explains, “Kroenke already has business interests in England, and he owns the powerful London-based soccer club Arsenal, which has lavish training grounds and world-class facilities. Colorado serves as Kroenke’s base, and his family already has extensive sports interests there as well, owning the Nuggets and Avalanche. The future ownership makeup of the Broncos is very much in doubt when long-term patriarch Pat Bowlen passes on.”
It would be much easier to move the Rams to London than it would be to Denver, as it would be shocking for the league to want two teams in Denver like it has in the New York metropolitan area with the Jets and Giants. Moving a team to London could easily appease the league and its owners. There’s been a priority to expanding more and more games to being played to London and attendance has been high for the International Series contests.
Moving the Rams away from St. Louis would exploit a passionate fan base who is hungry to keep the team in town. However, money talks and London appears to be a viable market for an NFL team to call home. Kroenke already has ownership in Arsenal and access to world-class facilities. They’d have to work through a slew of logistics, but Kroenke appears keen on testing all waters.