Been a long time since we've talked much about the ownership situation and the Rams "for sale" status, but I came across something worth mentioning from Miklasz in the Post Dispatch.
We've heard before, and this should be no surprise to anyone who's picked up a bankrupt or on-the-verge of bankruptcy newspaper lately, but the economy is making it very, very difficult to buy a football team. You know getting fronted somewhere close to a billion dollars just ain't all that easy nowadays, and if you had a billion to spare a year ago, you don't anymore.
...things are moving slowly on the Rams' sale front. The nation's severe economic problems have inflicted substantial damage to a couple of potential buyers. They backed off to regroup financially.
Of course, for St. Louis-based fans and the city fathers, locating an owner with at least ties to the region because that ups the odds for the team staying in the St. Louis market. One name falling in that category that's been batted around before is that of partisan talk radio maven Rush Limbaugh, but even the controversial media figure has backed off because of the steep hurdles to buying, for now. However, in his post today, Miklasz also offered a suggested partnership to purchase the Rams:
...could it be that August Busch IV and Rush Limbaugh are thinking about teaming together to make a pitch to purchase the Rams? Hmmm. As I said, just wondering.
Obviously, Busch doesn't have as much on his plate anymore, since handing over the reigns of the country's largest beer maker to the Belgian-owned InBev. His to do list may be shorter now, but Busch has a flatboat full of dollars (or Euros) to help make his free time a little more productive. As someone who remembers (fondly for some unknown reason) the glory days of the Cardinals (baseball) being owned by the Busch family, the full-circle aspect of Busch owning the Rams pulls a heart string or two. But Limbaugh...without turning this into a political debate, I'm ambivalent about having someone who's claim to fame and fortune is being a divisive personality (left or right is irrelevant to me in this case) owning a team that I root for. I guess that doesn't matter though, ultimately, but still, am I the only one who feels uncomfortable with the idea?