Rams, Anaheim Agree on 30-Day Lease Extension

While buying time to develop a lease that would leave the door open for a move, the Rams reached an agreement with Anaheim City Manager James Ruth on a 30-day extension of their lease on the Rams Park practice facility.

An agreement also appears to be in place for a 10-year lease with a five-year option and a two-year escape clause that would allow the team to leave as early as 1995.

The clause would require the Rams to give a year’s notice to the Magnolia School District and pay off the second year of rent, $120,000, for the practice facility.

“I think we have this worked out,” Ruth said. “(The long-term lease) still needs to be approved by the school board and city council.”

The 30-day extension allows the Rams to stay at the practice facility, the former Juliette Low Middle School, until Jan. 31, 1994. The current lease expires Dec. 31, two days before the team’s final game, against Chicago at Anaheim Stadium.

The Rams’ lease with the city of Anaheim for using Anaheim Stadium expires in 2015, but an escape clause allows the team to leave, provided it gives 15 months’ notice and pays the remaining $30 million owed on bonds issued to expand the stadium when the Rams moved to Orange County before the 1980 season.

The lease leaves open an option for the Rams to move to another city as early as the 1995 season. John Shaw, executive vice president of the Rams, last week confirmed that the team has been contacted by ownership groups in Baltimore, St. Louis and Memphis, which recently failed to land NFL expansion teams.

Times staff writer Matt Lait contributed to this story.