Garyt wrote:The powers that be in the NFL had pretty well decided in advance that the Rams were moving to LA. Funny, as Spanos is much better liked by other owners, he lost out too. Stan did a good job of greasing the skids, getting Goodell to side with him.
It's pure hypocrisy that Goodell throws the St. Louis stadium out as unacceptable (paving the way for relocation) primarily due to the fact that St. Louis planned for an extra 100 million in funds from the NFL, saying the NFL would not do that. Then he turns around and offers this same extra 100 million to San Diego and Oakland to apply to new stadiums if they desire. Amazing.
The only ones that seemed to pay attention to the relocation guidelines were the relocation comittee, who voted 5-1 against the Kroenke proposal in favor of the Spanos proposal.
The issue is the league pretty much skirted over their own guidelines. As mentioned, it was essentially a forgone conclusion, with only 2 "No" votes (it was expected to be more). They went with the money, bought off, whatever, not even following their own rules.
It is a sad day, but as a native guy near LA, I hate it. Was never a Rams fan, and now we won't get the best games, we will get this crap on TV. Stan should know there's a reason why LA fans are called "fairweather". You won't get all that ticket money unless you put a winner on the field.