Nobody has said much about the kind of deal Shahid Khan is likely getting on purchasing the Rosenbloom's 60 percent stake in the St. Louis Rams, but it's probably one of the more bargain basement prices paid for majority ownership in an NFL franchise in a long, long time. Of course, we have no idea, yet, what the terms are. We do know that the Rams' value was downgraded recently to around $750 million, well short of approximately $900 million value Forbes assigned the team several months ago. I doubt seriously the deal is as simple as Khan paying 60 percent of that assessed value. However, it is very possible that he'll be purchasing an NFL team at a price somewhere less than $500 million.
Deal or no deal, the Rams can't be a very profitable franchise at this low point in their history. We don't know what kind of profit they turned in 2009. The players' union is trying desperately yo force the NFL to reveal exactly how much profit teams are making as part of the CBA wars. If that info does get out, I suspect it will reveal the Rams among the league's losers in profit as well...though they may have still been in the black thanks to the league's revenue sharing, something that CANNOT be bargained out of the next CBA, let's hope.
When the owners and players do finally agree to a new CBA - and I can't imagine a similar revenue sharing plan not being included - a winning Rams team could become quite profitable for Khan, not to mention how much more enjoyable it would make Sundays again for the rest of us. Shrewd move to buy the Rams now.