State of Rams Nation: Ownership and satisfaction

by Ryan Van Bibber on Apr 20, 2010 10:00 AM CDT in St. Louis Rams sale

If you read the papers, one columnist in particular, the transient ownership situation has the St. Louis Rams stuck firmly in purgatory, making the fans unhappy and sending them away in droves. I disagree, but let's take an unscientific poll to get our finger on the pulse of Rams Nation.

I work with polling on a pretty regular basis, so I'm extremely leery of tainting the results. Therefore, I encourage you to vote first and then read my feelings on fandom and the state of the Rams franchise.

As annoying as the ownership situation is for fans, especially those in the city of St. Louis, I don't think it's quite at the point of affecting fans and their relationship with the team.

Six wins over the last three seasons has done more than enough to send the casual fans away, leaving the most loyal. Another season like the last three and lots of those fans will turn their attention elsewhere, at least until the team starts to get things on track. Nobody likes to spend three hours of their Sunday afternoon watching their favorite team get it handed to them over and over again. Nobody.

The draft and what kind of potential it holds for when the Rams take the field will have a much bigger impact on fans and their relationship to the team than the ownership saga.

Now, that's not to say that the ownership situation can't become a major distraction, and when it starts to impact the product on the field, we've got real problems. For now, the shifting tides of team ownership are further in the background than everyone inside the cubed walls of a slowly dying newsroom realizes.

Poll

Is the uncertainty around the Rams ownership situation frustrating you as a fan and distracting you from what the team will do in the draft?

Yes, I can't enjoy the Rams at all while this mess is going on

54 votes

No, as a fan, the product on the field has a much bigger impact

214 votes

Maybe, I'm weary of it, but still watching what happens in the draft, etc.

143 votes

No opinion

6 votes

417 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

I don't think the newspapers are totally to blame...

There have been more twists and turns in this ownership thing than you usually have when a franchise changes hands…first, we are led to believe that the sale to Khan was going to be a slam dunk…then, Kroenke takes the maximum amount of time to announce what he is going to do…next, he does the very thing that nobody expected him to do…now, there are rumors that he tried to get Khan to put up more money…and this doesn’t take into account all the side possibilities, like moving back to LA or Kroenke putting his Denver teams in his wife’s name.

Obviously, the on field news and developments are always more important, and it is too bad that this is all coming up during the lead up to the draft…but the ownership stuff is hardly unimportant, especially if there is a possibility that one of the personalities involved has a vested interest in having a NFL team in Los Angeles, even if that possibility is several years from now.

by tbell61 on Apr 20, 2010 10:56 AM CDT reply actions

The roller coaster ride

that Kroenke is taking us on is pretty unsettling. On the surface it appears he only cares about money and has no interest in St. Louis if he can make more money elsewhere. However, we are dealing with a real Machiavelli here, so it is very hard to know what is really going on. The underlying story will only surface when he is good and ready for it to surface. No use getting upset and throwing out all sorts of guesses and hopes, since they won’t have any affect on the result, which will show up when Kroenke is good and ready. Until then, all we can do is cross our fingers and enjoy the draft.

by andyrose on Apr 20, 2010 11:56 AM CDT reply actions

I voted maybe

WIthout having a firm grasp on what’s going to happen, it’s hard to feel good (or badly) about what the consequences will be (or, one might say, the, heheh, RAMifications, PPFTTHAHHAA).
I think Van’s comments as well as what tbell and andy wrote above me lay it out pretty well. The team and how well it performs will always trump the men in the board room.

You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In *St. Louis* his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well, *Steven Jackson* was the best.

by 3k on Apr 20, 2010 1:30 PM CDT reply actions