KUSA--Stan Kroenke, who in some form owns the NHL Colorado Avalanche, NBA Denver Nuggets and Pepsi Center, is now a hero to Los Angeles.
To achieve such claim, Kroenke had to alienate – some would use the word, betray – his hometown market of St. Louis. Stan gets around with his pro sports franchises.
With approval by a 30-2 vote from the NFL ownership Tuesday night – including a ‘yea' from Broncos chief executive officer Joe Ellis – Kroenke has successfully relocated his St. Louis Rams franchise to Los Angeles, beginning with the upcoming 2016 season.
"It's a difficult market, a difficult place to permit a stadium and build something that we as a league can all be proud of,'' Kroenke said during a press conference at a Houston hotel Tuesday night. "We understand the emotions involved of our (St. Louis) fans. It's not easy to do these things. They are purposefully made hard.
"But we are here today, we made a decision and we worked long and hard at the various alternatives. When they didn't succeed we worked to this point."
The move doesn't much affect the Broncos. They don't play the Rams until 2018, but that game will be played in Denver. A game between the Broncos and Rams in Los Angeles is not scheduled in the foreseeable future.
What does affect the Broncos is the option for their AFC West rival San Diego Chargers to relocate to Los Angeles. The Chargers have one year to decide. If they decline to move to the Inglewood stadium by January, 2017, another AFC West rival, the Oakland Raiders, would have the option to relocate to Los Angeles.
Chargers owner Dean Spanos was set to move to Los Angeles, but to a stadium they would share with the Raiders in Carson, Calif. The NFL option is for the Chargers to instead share the Kroenke-built and owned stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The Raiders were sent back to Oakland.
"This is not a win for the Raiders today but at the same time I'm really happy for Stan Kroenke and the Rams, going to Inglewood," said Raiders owner Mark Davis. "We'll see where the Raider Nation ends up here. We'll be working really hard to find us a home. … For our fans and everybody else, don't feel bad, we'll get it right.''
Kroenke said he's willing to allow the Chargers or the Raiders to become part owners of the Inglewood stadium or lease from him as a tenant. But such a deal would be Kroenke-favorable. Spanos can either accept the arrangement with Kroenke, or try to work out a new stadium deal with the city of San Diego.
NFL owners did pledge $100 million each to the Chargers and Raiders to help them work out a new stadium financing plan in their current markets. However, while sharing a stadium controlled by Kroenke is not the first choice of the Spanos family, it would be a surprise if the Chargers remained in San Diego, where Qualcomm Stadium is considered among the NFL's most outdated facilities.
Kroenke's Inglewood stadium, which could run up to $3 billion, will not be completed until the 2019 season. In the meantime, the Rams are expected to play at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It's unclear where the Chargers would temporarily play if they exercise their option and joins the Rams in L.A.
The Rams will pay a relocation fee that reportedly carries a $550 million price tag. The Chargers would pay the same if they relocate.
Kroenke had been a 40 percent minority owner of the Rams from the time they relocated from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995, until August 2010, when he bought out the remaining interest from the Rosenbloom family. In return, Kroenke complied with NFL cross-ownership policy by divesting operational control of the Avalanche and Nuggets to his son Josh Kroenke. Stan Kroenke also owns soccer's Colorado Rapids and lacrosse's Colorado Mammoth professional teams.
Kroenke began eyeing a relocation to Los Angeles in 2010, citing the city of St. Louis was not abiding by the original lease that called for the Rams' stadium to be maintained and upgraded so that it was periodically considered among the 10-best venues in the NFL.
A year ago, Kroenke, who has had a home in Malibu, Calif., for the past 20 years, bought the Inglewood site with plans to build a new stadium that figures to be the crown jewel venue in all of sports, much less the NFL.
Los Angeles has been absent of an NFL franchise since after the 1994 season, when the Raiders moved back to Oakland and the Rams moved to St. Louis.
"I've often said over those 21 years what we need is a great facility (to move back to Los Angeles)," said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "I think the reason why the two teams left was because they didn't have an adequate stadium.
"I think what happened in the last year was we had two outstanding opportunities (in Carson and Inglewood). Both these stadium projects were extraordinary. It was a difficult decision for the ownership. But we also realized this was our opportunity. … I think this is going to be one of the greatest complexes in the world.''
Kroenke was asked what he wanted to say to his home state of Missouri about the move.
"I understand the emotional argument," Kroenke said. "But it's not something you want to do. It's when you have a history and a lease that was part of the reason that the team moved (from Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1994) and the lease required certain things, as an owner and to be able to appeal to our fans we have to have a first-class stadium product. …
"What I would say is, I understand the emotional side. I have a responsibility also to take care of the organization and a responsibility to my 31 other (NFL owners) to have a first-class facility. Because it's where they play, too."
(© 2016 KUSA)
