Rams Are Nearer to St. Louis : NFL: Obstacles remain and deal is not imminent, but Ram President John Shaw says, ‘We made progress.’
A 12-hour meeting between St. Louis officials and the Rams on Thursday yielded some progress but did not produce a deal, despite recent broadcast reports speculating the Rams have already decided to move to St. Louis.
“We made progress, but there are still a number of unresolved (stadium) lease issues,” Ram President John Shaw said. “We have no deal, and no deal is really imminent.”
Shaw also said “several large unresolved issues” remain with Stan Kroenke, a Columbia, Mo., businessman who was in Los Angeles this week to discuss purchasing a minority interest in the Rams.
An even bigger issue: Is Rams owner Georgia Frontiere really willing to uproot a franchise that has been in Southern California for 49 years and move it to St. Louis or Baltimore? Peter Angelos, the Baltimore Oriole owner who will meet with Shaw in Los Angeles this weekend to resume his pursuit of the Rams, isn’t so sure.
“Georgia Frontiere and John Shaw are Los Angelenos, they love the area, they’re part of it, and it’s difficult to move,” Angelos said. “In addition, I believe that, deep down, John has some trepidation about the viability of St. Louis as an NFL town. I think he’d rather come to Baltimore, but that’s not California, either.”
That won’t stop Baltimore and St. Louis from trying, though. Angelos will take another crack this weekend and officials from Orange County’s Save the Rams task force are expected to meet Shaw next week, but the Rams’ focus this past week was on St. Louis.
Thomas Eagleton, the former U.S. senator who headed the St. Louis delegation Thursday, said the city and the Rams are “still in disagreement on some major items,” but resolved other issues.
“A principal, if not the principal category that has to be resolved deals with the stadium and the operation of the stadium once it is completed,” Eagleton said Friday at a St. Louis press conference.
Eagleton would not elaborate on the problem, but it is believed the Rams would like more access to the new, 70,000-seat domed stadium that is part of a $260-million downtown convention center project. Under the current lease, the Rams would only have use of the stadium from noon the day before a game through game day.
Other unresolved issues apparently include who would pay for the estimated $400,000 per-season, game-day operating expenses, and who would receive money from selling stadium naming rights.
“I’m not going to go into the other items,” Eagleton said. “The Rams don’t want to negotiate in the paper, and I’m going to continue to try to keep that agreement.”
St. Louis had reason to be optimistic about at least one item: The Rams, if they move to St. Louis, are apparently willing to play in 52,000-seat Busch Stadium until the new stadium, under construction, is completed on Oct. 25, 1995.
“The Rams are not asking us to accelerate the construction of the stadium, and there will be no acceleration,” said Eagleton, referring to a process that would have cost St. Louis $6 million.
Eagleton was also pleased that Shaw did not question the zealousness of St. Louis football fans, a topic that came up during Eagleton’s last trip to Los Angeles.
“In our first meeting, they more than once mentioned that they had some worries about St. Louis as a football town, that Baltimore was a better football town,” Eagleton said. “There was no reference to that in this meeting, no negative comments about the town.”
Eagleton said the sale of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who officially went on the market Thursday, did not come up in the meeting with Shaw but admitted that Angelos’ expressed interest--and Kroenke’s expected interest--in the Buccaneers could impact negotiations with the Rams.
“It won’t change the pace of negotiations--Dec. 1 is still a target date,” Eagleton said. “But it does change the environment a bit. Here’s an NFL team that is now on the market. We’re not particular, we’ll take any NFL team.”
Times staff writer T.J. Simers and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
