The St. Louis Rams London date with the New England Patriots in 2012 is in doubt. As first reported on TST, ticket sales for the London game have been suspended, the day that general admission tickets were supposed to go on sale. Now, talk of Rams being replaced for the London game is surfacing.
On Jan. 27, the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission threw a challenge flag over the Rams violating their lease by moving a home game to locations other than the Edward Jones Dome. Asked about the situation on Friday, NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell said, "We're going to play the London games. We hope it will be with the Rams and the New England Patriots next year. That's what we planned. "
Greg Brady of Canadian Sportsnet 590 and an NFL correspondent for the BBC says that if the Rams are not allowed to play in the UK game, the league would like to keep the same date with the Patriots. Potential replacements could be the Titans or the Jaguars.
TST has asked for additional information from the Rams and NFL UK, but, so far, has received no response.
It's hard to believe that problems with the lease went unnoticed in the decision by the NFL to award the London games to the Rams. No lease in the country has received more scrutiny in the last 12 months. I do that the Rams were a little stunned by the negative reaction to the London news among local fans.
And speaking of fans, those who had already purchased tickets - club seats went on sale Jan. 25 - have reason to be upset. It does at least sound like the league will have game in the UK in October. At least one fan in that situation expressed some dissatisfaction over the issue, using the term "false advertising" to describe it.