Vikings No Call, Integrity of the Game and the Saints
The Rams were in L.A. for over fifty years. A half century.
The owner at the time just wanted to go back to her hometown.
The relocation to St. Louis was unpopular even at the time.
Jack, you’re a good guy and we agree on most issues on SR and I do enjoy discussing things with you on EE and SSF but Geezy does have a bit of a point regarding the reasons why Frontierre originally took the Rams from L.A. to St. Louis after the 1994 offseason.
Frontierre would’ve stayed in L.A. (hometown desires be damned) if L.A. or Orange County officials agreed to build her a new stadium in Hollywood Park or make renovations or more concessions to the power-sharing agreement between Rams and California Angels at old Anaheim Stadium (Rams originally moved to Anaheim in 1980 to share Anaheim Stadium after Dodgers said no to them sharing Dodgers in Chavez Ravine in East L.A.) Let’s just say Anaheim Stadium wasn’t a good fit from a football dimension standpoint and after 15 seasons, Rams were tired of sharing it.
Problem was, Orange County was near-bankrupt and obviously county leaders weren’t open or widely-embracing to fund a new publicly-funded stadium despite super-agent Leigh Steinberg (and Rams fan) best attempts to keep them. Plus, Rams hadn’t had a winning season since 1989, looked to be a rebuilding team for several more seasons (which turned out to be true also), and even during the 1980’s, I wouldn’t categorize Rams as a particularly well-run, financially stable organization if you listen to ex-Rams like Eric Dickerson, Vince Ferragamo, Fred Dryer, Drew Hill or Jerome Bettis. Let’s just say Georgia Frontierre has had more then a few “red flags” and little “rumors” that you MAY or MAY NOT have heard about.
L.A. still probably could’ve kept both of those teams if the Raiders or Rams had decided to share a new stadium but notorious NFL rebel and owner Al Davis wasn’t about sharing any new stadium with other NFL teams (“Let them build their own stadiums” I think was his response) and Oakland city leaders lured him back with promises of more money, Coliseum renovations, and what Davis interpreted was a faint promise for a future new stadium in Oakland (which neither he nor the Raiders ever got). So, in summer of 1995, Davis returned to Oakland.