More photos » by Jeff Roberson - AP

FILE - In this April 24, 2008, file photo, Chip Rosenbloom, left, and his sister Lucia Rodriguez are anxious to sell their stake in the team. However, Stan Kroenke, who owns a 40% minority share, holds most the cards in a potential deal. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

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The St. Louis Business Journal has a profile of St. Louis Rams minority owner Stan Kroenke, who recently upped his ownership share, to 29%, in the Arsenal of the English Premier League...that's soccer in case you're wondering.

Kroenke's the one to watch in the Rams ownership sweepstakes. Not only does he have the rights to match any offer for the Rosenbloom/Rodriguez majority share, he's speculated to be the most likely buyer for controlling interest in the Rams. Of course, that will still require some finagling with the NFL's cross-ownership rules given his ownership share in the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. Basketball is Kroenke's passion, and the piece speculates whether or not he'd be willing to part with the Nuggets to become the majority partner with the Rams. Of course, he'd still have his stake in the Denver regional sports television network, Altitude, which would still be a pretty lucrative connection to the Nuggets. He can also convince NFL owners to waive the rule; it would be unwise to rule out that scenario. 

A happy footnote for St. Louis area fans who would like to see the team stick around are the circumstances that led to the Missouri native's purchase of a 40% stake in the Rams in the first place:

Kroenke purchased his 40 percent stake in the Rams and helped relocate them to St. Louis from Los Angeles in 1995 after an attempt to land an NFL expansion team here flopped.

It's hard to say what the timeline for the Rams ownership saga to play out looks like. The economy certainly complicates things in both the sale and the ability to develop a new stadium, something that would almost certainly be required to keep the team in St. Louis. Stay tuned.

Hey, speaking of a new stadium, if that happens would you prefer to see an outdoor stadium or another dome?

Last Friday the Rams-for-sale saga took an interesting, hopeful (for those who'd like to see the team stay in STL anyway) turn when a report surfaced that FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith had emerged as a potential buyer. 

Well, scratch that. A source connected to Smith told the Memphis Commercial Appeal that Smith was not interested in the Rams. As we pointed out last week, Smith never acknowledged being interested in the Rams; his name just popped up as a nice fit...probably floated by folks wanting to find some security for the Rams.

There's still a couple horses in this race with the Checketts group and Stan Kroenke. My money's still on Kroenke, but the race is far from over. 

Yesterday, the name Fred Smith, FedEx founder and CEO, floated to the surface as a potential buyer for the Rams, but there's something in this story worth pointing out. Smith has yet to actually throw his hat in the ring and state publicly that he's interested in owning Chip Rosenbloom and his sister's share of the Rams. Others have brought Smith's name to the fore in the Rams-for-sale saga.

Note what St. Louis Convention and Visitors Bureau Chairman Dan Dierdorf told the PD:

I do not know of any conversations that have taken place between Fred Smith and the Rams.

Of course, there's always the "where there's smoke" idea, but this is also probably more about getting another interested buyer into the fold and making the offers more competitive for Rosenbloom. It's entirely plausible that both things are at play here, which is to say that Smith does have some interest in purchasing a share of the Rams as well as other parties using his known interest in NFL football and obvious wealth to drive the auction a little bit. Kroenke, for now, is the one to watch in all of this.

Ah, corporate intrigue. 

More photos » by Jeff Roberson - AP

Chip Rosenbloom, left, and his sister Lucia Rodriguez are ready to sell their share of the Rams, and have retained the investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs to help facilitate a sale of the NFL football team. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

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The St. Louis Business Journal is reporting that FedEx founder and CEO Fred Smith has emerged as a potential buyer for the St. Louis Rams.

Smith does meet one huge qualification for buying Chip Rosenbloom and his sister Lucia Rodriguez's share of the Rams: he has Scrooge McDuck-swimming-pool-of-cash levels of money. He also has an interest in owning a football team, and currently owns a 10% stake in the Redskins, which he'd have to sell in order to purchase the Rams. From the story:

"Fred Smith would be an owner straight out of central casting for the NFL," said Mark Ganis, president of Chicago-based consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd. "He would be very well received in NFL circles. They know him well. He is an entrepreneur who built a business from scratch into one of the most successful companies in the world. He has a marketing and customer service background. He has a love of the game of football. And he looks the part."

"Looks the part," eh? As in he looks like a rich white dude...hey, at least he's alive, which is more than can be said for some NFL owners (looking at you Al Davis).Actually, I think what they mean is he's a wealthy guy with a passion for the game.

Most importantly - for St. Louis-based fans anyway - is that Smith would be likely to keep the team in St. Louis, though he'd most certainly have to immediately answer questions about plans for the Rams stadium/dome beyond 2014.

How does this affect the overtures being made by Dave Checketts? He'll have to line up his investors, and enter the ring as a serious propect. This could also help Rosenbloom get the best price for his share of the Rams.

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In the prediction department, Yahoo! Sports' Michael Silver predicts that the NFL will waive their cross-ownership rules for Stan Kroenke.

Since learning that the Rams were for sale, it's been widely assumed that if a buyer were to relocate the team, Los Angeles would be the most likely landing spot. After all, it's the second largest media market in the country and has no NFL team and there's a legitimate effort to get a new stadium built there.

But hold on, maybe LA isn't the former and next home for the Rams. From Bill Coats' online QnA with the Post Dispatch yesterday:

I'm not sure that LA is a viable option. There are very large issues involved with that notion. Not going to go into details just yet, but the league would be a very hard sell for anyone wanting to move the Rams back to LA, for a number of reasons.

...and more

Let me just say this: I'll be shocked if the Rams wind up in LA after all this is said and done. Shocked.

Part of the issue with the Rams to LA is that another team could get there before the Rams, new owners or not, can make the move. However, the first quote from Coats makes it sound as though there are some significant hurdles for any team looking for a new home in the Cadillac Desert. Outside of the issues surrounding the construction of the stadium (which don't seem to be irreconcilable for the developers), I'm not sure what he means, though I'm anxious to learn more.

The more and more you read about this story, the more inclined I am to think that the moves of late are designed to force the hands of some local investors, probably in an effort to drum up a competitor or two to get the best price and to get more local prospects to step up, with the two goals not being mutually exclusive. You wonder if Checketts got more serious about his offer or secured a committment from an investor or two once this news leaked. I'd be willing to bet that Chip Rosenbloom made this move with a potential buyer already in mind, be it Checketts or someone else.

So Checketts is in the mix to buy the Rams. That much we know. But I still have some important questions that we really don't have answers for...and may never have answers for.

If Checketts has been interested in the Rams for some time, even approached Rosenbloom about it awhile back, according to Miklasz. The owner of the city's hockey team, the St. Louis Blues, says he now has the investors together. Is Rosenbloom trying to get other bidders to get the best price he can for the team, hence the decision to hire Goldman Sachs? (That point was actually made at Pro Football Talk, not always a reliable source, but that is a valid point worth passing along.) I'm not passing judgement on him if he is; that's just business. If that's the case, could Checketts be closer to buying a share of the team than we realize?

Now to the Kroenke issue. If Kroenke wants to buy a majority share or get controlling interest, the league has to change the rules regarding his ownership of pro sports franchises in another NFL city. However, if the league wants a team in LA and sees the Rams as the most likely possibility, why would they change the rules for Kroenke? Of course, there may be teams more ready to move to LA than the Rams. Will Checketts and Kroenke end up competing to buy controlling interest in the team? Both have stated interest in obtaining that level of ownership, so how does that reconcile with the larger goal of finding a buyer for the 60% share owned by Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez?

Some food for thought.

First off, I want to give big thanks to Roger and Moses at KFNS 590 The Fan for having me on Morning Call this morning. It was a great chance to talk Rams.

I found this article in the Pasadena, CA newspaper that's been covering the NFL stadium development project in City of Industry. Anyway, the headline reads:

Developers of Industry NFL stadium say they're not interested in buying Rams

That's a little misleading, though. Nobody from the Roski/Majestic Reality project ever says that they're not interested in the Rams specifically (which would be a huge relief), only that they're not ready to buy a team until the stadium deal gets finalized. Here's the money quote:

"We're focused as always on getting the stadium approved," said Majestic Vice President John Semcken, adding the stadium approval will happen soon. "Until we get it finally approved, we won't begin to look at buying a team."

I wonder - and this is pure speculation on my part - if this Roski guy isn't more fixed on the Chargers given his ties to the SD owners and the overtures that team is making toward LA and they seem to be close to exhausting the possibilities for a new stadium in San Diego.

Let's roll on with our 'for sale' day coverage with a round up of related links from around the internets. There's more to this thing than just finding a buyer. That's the relatively easy part.

As Miklasz alluded to in his blog post today, there are other teams with market/stadium issues that could be on the move well before the Rams. In Oakland, another former LA team will see their stadium lease expire in 2010. Could they move to San Deigo if the Chargers move to LA, another persistant rumor.

About that California thing...

The oft-talked about stadium proposal for City of Industry (LA area) is far from a done deal. Locals fighting the proposal filed a lawsuit last week. On top of a citizen lawsuit, the group trying to build the new stadium broke off negotiations with one the townships involved. Also of note in that article is that stadium developer Edward Roski, Jr. is a close friend of the Spanos family who owns the Chargers...the Chargers who just rejected a proposal for a new stadium in San Diego.

Here's the official site of the Los Angeles Stadium project.

I know we have some CA readers here, and I want to ask you a question. If the Roski stadium projects falls through, how else are they going to get a new stadium in LA? Given the state of California's economy public financing seems all but impossible. I can't imagine the league would allow a team to move to LA without at least a new stadium deal in place. Of course, there's always private money to get new digs.

And why does the league insist on bringing football back to LA for a third time? Previous attempts don't seem to have been that successful.