Sale of the Rams Was NFL’s Goal : Football: As one condition of approving a move to St. Louis, league wanted Frontiere to relinquish control of the team. Lawsuit likely.

The NFL insisted this week that if the Rams expected approval of their proposed move to St. Louis, owner Georgia Frontiere would have to sell the team, Ram President John Shaw said Thursday.

“It was outrageous,” Shaw said the day after NFL owners rejected the proposed move by a 21-3 vote with six abstentions. “I heard from the commissioner and every member of the finance committee. I think that clearly strengthened Georgia’s resolve.”

Frontiere declined comment on the league’s desire for her to sell but vowed, “I will do whatever is necessary now to get the Rams to St. Louis.”

Shaw said Thursday it is likely the Rams will join St. Louis and Missouri officials in an antitrust suit in St. Louis before the end of the month and that Frontiere stands to win $2 billion in damages if she loses the 30-year deal with St. Louis. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon also has said he would seek a temporary restraining order against the NFL “to stop any unlawful restraint of trade,” which could allow the team to move for the time being.

The NFL wanted Frontiere to sell the team to Stan Kroenke, a Missouri businessman who has already agreed to buy 30% of the team. The league also talked about forbidding Frontiere from leaving her team to her heirs.

“It was taken up with Stan when he went before the membership earlier, and he was offended by it,” Shaw said. “I finally told the finance committee if that was a condition of this transfer, I would find it punitive, and we would take them to the wall on that. I met with the commissioner Wednesday morning, and he told me that was no longer an issue on the table. I don’t know why it disappeared so quickly unless they had been advised by counsel of their outrageous legal position.”

Tagliabue said the subject was never discussed, but Art Modell, Cleveland Browns owner, said, “I thought that was an option she should explore.”

How active was Modell in making such a case?

“Very active,” he said. “I like Georgia. I’ve known her for 30 years. I knew her late husband. I’m very close to the family. I don’t want to see her get hurt in this process. I don’t want her to spend two years in litigation at her age.

“I thought a good option would be--if not immediately--over a period of time to help phase in a new owner. Maybe Kroenke in St. Louis. That would help things a little bit. That would not have been enough to make it OK, but it would have been a step in the right direction.”

Ram officials were fighting mad a day after their proposed move to St. Louis was defeated. A team official promised, “We’re going to court; we’re going for their throat.”

The NFL asked Shaw to leave Tagliabue’s morning news conference, although Shaw pointed out that league attorney Frank Rothman had monitored Frontiere’s news conference a day earlier. Overlooked while Shaw was being ushered out of the room were Frontiere’s son, Chip Rosenbloom, and a team attorney.

Tagliabue, who continued to be optimistic, said the league will begin work to have a team in St. Louis and two teams in Los Angeles. He suggested, as a Ram official did a day earlier, that the Cincinnati Bengals might be a candidate to move to either location.

“Going forward now, next month and May, the mandate that I have is to see how we can achieve the twin objective of having teams in both St. Louis and Anaheim,” Tagliabue said. “Obviously not for the 1995 season, but as quickly as possible.”

Tagliabue said he doesn’t think there is any need for litigation, but the NFL is bound by an earlier agreement with the Rams not to proceed legally until after March 31.

“One of the easiest things to do is to file lawsuits,” Tagliabue said. “It costs $20, you get a word processor, and you file. In most cases, it’s counterproductive.”

Shaw said the Rams are left with no other alternative. Max Blecher, a Los Angeles attorney, will direct the legal effort.

“We are dealing here with very arrogant people,” said Blecher, who won $28 million in damages from the NFL while representing the L.A. Coliseum Commission in the Raiders’ move from Oakland. “It’s great to bring them down.”

The league, which has enjoyed little success in recent legal confrontations, never detailed what it would take for the Rams to win approval, Shaw said.

“We offered the league in excess of $25 million with $18 million up front to settle,” he said. “The league never gave us an offer of any kind because I don’t think they wanted to settle this.”

Shaw and Frontiere charged Tagliabue did not relay their offer to league owners before Wednesday’s vote; Tagliabue disagreed.

“That’s absolutely untrue,” Tagliabue said. “I said on the sharing of the gross receipts (that) they wanted 34% of $74 million (raised through the sale of personal seat licenses in St. Louis). If you figure that out, it’s $25.5 million (actually $25.16 million). Most of our owners are pretty good at arithmetic.”

The league’s demands were also said to include a Ram contribution to a trust fund for the construction of a new stadium in Southern California or renovation of Anaheim Stadium. But Tagliabue wasn’t in the mood to discuss that Thursday, saying, “I’m not going to get into that. I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into that.”

Pressed for a response, Tagliabue said, “No, there was not a (figure) mentioned to the Rams. The concept was what was discussed. I don’t recall any discussions about how much the money would be.”

So how could the Rams meet the concept if they didn’t know how much it was going to cost them?

“They could always come up with a number,” Tagliabue said.

Shaw said the Rams will make no further offers to the league. He added that unless contacted, the next time the Rams talk to the league, “We will be asking for money.”

Shaw said the Rams will let their Anaheim Stadium lease expire in early August and negotiate with all stadium sites within 75 miles of Los Angeles for the 1995 season.

“If Anaheim has an interest of talking to us and wants a year-to-year arrangement, we will talk to them,” Shaw said. “For us to get to St. Louis this year, we would have to seek an affirmative injunction, and timewise, that might be near impossible. But we will still consider it.”

Anaheim City Manager James D. Ruth said the city would consider allowing the team to play at Anaheim Stadium without a lease but was making no promises Thursday.

“We won’t close any doors,” Ruth said. “We would be willing to sit down with John Shaw and the Rams and see what we could do. We’re always willing to sit down with anyone and talk to them. But I’m not saying we’d do it.”

Tagliabue suggested another vote might be taken at the owners’ meetings in May, but Shaw said, “My impression is that at the May meeting we will be on a course of litigation by then, and if this isn’t resolved very soon, once we get on a litigation course, it will be hard to get off track.

“I hope the fans of St. Louis remain excited. Our owner has tremendous resolve to see this thing through, as I do. I feel in time, and I hope a short time, there will be NFL football in St. Louis.”

* Times staff writers Bill Plaschke and Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.