[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football ... j4.twitter

St. Louis stadium group states its case

By Jim Thomas0

The St. Louis stadium task force made its formal presentation Wednesday afternoon to the NFL at league headquarters in New York City, a session that included a multimedia presentation and a question-and-answer period with league officials and members of the NFL's Los Angeles opportunities committee.

Former Anheuser-Busch executive Dave Peacock was the main speaker for the task force, and although he did not immediately comment, returned to St. Louis on Wednesday night feeling good about the presentation according to those familiar with the situation.

The St. Louis group also included task force attorney Bob Blitz, developer's representative John Loyd, and HOK and design principal Eli Hoisington. Interestingly, Rams executive vice president Kevin Demoff also was in the room for the meeting although it was not believed that he had an active role in the presentation.

Loyd and Hoisington are well-known to the league officials because of their past and current involvement in building NFL stadiums. Loyd most recently was involved in renovations at Everbank Field in Jacksonville. Hoisington and HOK are currently involved in building a new stadium for the Atlanta Falcons and in renovations at Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

Neither Demoff nor Peacock could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Jim Woodcock, spokesperson for the Gov. Jay Nixon-appointed task force, issued the following statement: "We were honored to be invited by the NFL to make a stadium presentation today on behalf of St. Louis. We will continue to proceed on the path we're on."

At the league's request, Peacock will refrain from commenting on the meeting until he returns to St. Louis, and that is expected to take place Friday.

The LA opportunities committee consists of the following six owners: Clark Hunt of Kansas City, Robert Kraft of New England, John Mara of the New York Giants, Bob McNair of Houston, Jerry Richardson of Carolina, and Art Rooney II of Pittsburgh.

(Despite the "LA" designation in its title, the committee is also charged with evaluating the St. Louis plan.)

The committee was shown revised artist's renderings that include some design tweaks in the proposed $985 million riverfront stadium on the north edge of downtown.

Although it guarantees nothing, several of those members are sympathetic to the St. Louis effort to keep an NFL franchise, either by retaining the Rams or placing another league franchise here.

"We have to be very careful and responsible to different markets who really step up and do what they want to do (in terms of keeping a team)," Kraft said at the NFL owners meetings in Phoenix last month. "If they do, we have a responsibility to make sure there's a team in that market."

Another member of the committee, speaking on the condition of anonymity at those March meetings, said the league would not "abandon" St. Louis if it came up with a workable stadium plan.

Even so, Rams owner Stan Kroenke seems intent on moving the team to Inglewood, Calif., where he announced plans in January to build an 80,000-seat stadium costing $1.8 billion. The Rams also were part of a presentation on the Inglewood plan Wednesday in New York, although it's uncertain if Demoff sat in on that presentation as well. Since the gathering in New York wasn't a full league meeting, Kroenke's presence was not required.

Representatives from the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders, working in tandem, also made a presentation Wednesday on their competing plan to build a stadium in the Los Angeles area _ a $1.7 billion project in Carson, Calif.

The Carson project took a substantial step in catching up with Kroenke's Ingelwood plan on Tuesday night, when the Carson City Council approved by a 3-0 vote the Carson stadium project, a venue that would be shared by the Chargers and Raiders.

The Carson vote was greeted by a loud cheer from a crowd dotted with Raiders jerseys and Chargers banners at the city council meeting. It faced virtually no opposition from the room. Council members could have opted to put the issue before Carson voters, but chose to approve it outright as state law allows.

The NFL would like to have one or two franchises playing in Los Angeles as early as the 2016 season. Similar to the Rams, the Chargers and Raiders can now easily get out of stadium leases in their current "hometowns," which has led to an LA land rush to play in the nation's second-largest market.

(Some information from The Associated Press.)

[Elvis]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow ... story.html

NFL hears proposals on Inglewood, Carson and St. Louis stadiums

By SAM FARMER

Representatives of NFL stadium proposals in Inglewood, Carson and St. Louis made presentations in New York on Wednesday to a group of league executives and owners.

In attendance were the six owners who compose the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities, chaired by Art Rooney II of the Pittsburgh Steelers, along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke is backing the Inglewood project, while St. Louis is making a proposal to keep the Rams there. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have joined forces on a Carson alternative to Kroenke’s plan.

St. Louis went first, giving a half-hour presentation, followed by hourlong presentations by Kroenke and by the twosome of Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis.

Representatives for Kroenke declined to comment on what took place at the meetings. The NFL declined to comment.

The Chargers and Raiders issued a joint statement, saying the goal of the presentation was to update owners on their site, which was entitled for a stadium Tuesday night by unanimous vote of the Carson City Council.

"In addition, we presented a new stadium design for L.A. that is the result of two months of close collaboration between the teams,” the statement read, noting Goldman Sachs representatives were at the meetings to answer questions about the financing plan. Also, the Raiders and Chargers gave an update on the situations in their home markets.

It's expected that the groups will give similar presentations to the ownership at large during meetings in San Francisco next month.

[Hacksaw]

So Kroenke's actions by comparison to the others show he clearly wants to move the Rams back to Los Angeles. Everyone did just as expected during this presentation except Stan. He didn't discuss StL, only his adversary did. I did hear through twitter feeds that he and Demoff attended (or at least KD did) but my take is that is more 'exhausting all possibilities' and getting closer to the enemy to figure out what they got.

Tomorrow might be a big day for StL. If not then it's not.