There has been a lot of backlash against the NFL playing games in London, and the city of St. Louis is the latest city to rail against the plan that takes away a home game from the home market.
After the home faithful protested management, the St. Louis Rams have scrapped plans to “host” games in London in 2013 and 2014. The Rams plans to play the Patriots at Wembley Stadium this year are still on, but if you’re a Brit and a Rams fan, you’re out of luck.
ProFootballTalk.com implies that this is a good move in the short term, but a bad one in the long term. The Rams are a serious option for relocation to Los Angeles if the necessary improvements aren’t made to the Edward Jones Dome.
The reason relocation and the decision to not play in London and the threat of relocation go hand in hand as owner Stan Kroenke can use his decision to not play in London as leverage against the fans. And as hard as it is to defend NFL owners, Kroenke is well within his rights here.
He’s canceling on plans to take his team to London and expose them globally so that the fans in St. Louis won’t lose a home game. Kroenke can then use this as leverage if the fans don’t pony up to help pay for a new stadium or at the very least renovations.
It seems that whenever stadium renovations or new stadium referendums are discussed, the situation turns into the equivalent of a nasty custody battle. For some reasons, it’s against the law of being a billionaire to pay for your own stadium, as if all these guys get together in a back room with scotch and cigars and laugh at the ones who have to actually pay for things out of pocket.
The Minnesota Vikings recently went through a nasty fight for new stadium with the threat of relocation used by the Wilf brothers so they could play hardball, hardcore with the Minnesota state senate and the residents.
Hopefully St. Louis isn’t going to have to go through a nasty situation like that, but with Kroenke pulling out of two years worth of London games and global exposure the table it set for a stereotypical clash between owner and tax paying fans.