ST. LOUIS (AP) — Now St. Louis is a two-time NFL loser. Both times, it was about a stadium.
In 1988, the city lost the Cardinals to Phoenix over dithering about a new facility that team owner Bill Bidwill eventually got built in the desert.
This time, it can be blamed on a no-win lease that gave the Rams an out if the Edward Jones Dome wasn’t deemed in the top one-quarter of the facilities in the league.
While Stan Kroenke relocates the franchise to Inglewood, California, with plans for a lavish stadium, it’s back to the bricks for the task force — which has a $1 billion plan and fancy artists renderings for a riverfront stadium that could also house an MLS franchise, but no prospective tenants.
The task force said the decision “concludes a flawed process” and said it planned no “news events” the rest of the week.
Dave Peacock, co-head of task force, said in an impromptu conference call that the process was “more contemplated and contrived than I realized” and that it appeared “St. Louis never had a chance.”
“We had aimed for a target, hit it, and they said, ‘No, the target is over here.’”
Peacock concluded: “This is a byproduct of an owner who just didn’t want to be here.”
Attorney Bob Blitz, the other co-head of the task force, did not rule out legal action.
For now, the city that Kroenke harshly criticized for a lagging economy and has long been dissed as a “baseball town” is left with two professional teams.
“I thought the crowds were very good when I was here,” said Dick Vermeil, who coached the Greatest Show on Turf team to the franchise’s lone Super Bowl title in the 1999 season. “They were unbelievable when we turned the team around, and they were good when we were not going good.”
During the Devils-Blues NHL telecast Tuesday night, St. Louis announcer John Kelly said simply, “Very disappointing news.”
Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said St. Louis was a “tremendous sports town.”
“Historically, you put something out there people are proud of, they show up,” Mozeliak said.
State and civic leaders who banded together in an effort to keep the Rams in town are feeling jilted.
“The NFL and Stan Kroenke have displayed a callous disregard for the St. Louis area and its loyal football fans,” St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said in a statement.