New Bill in Missouri Could Kill the Rams Stadium Negotiations

Today the Post Dispatch had a story about a new bill proposed by Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford from St. Louis for the Missouri state government. Now we usually keep away from politics on this site, but this bill has a direct impact on the Rams and the city of St. Louis in the Edward Jones Dome negotiations. The Bill proposes that any sports team that receives state money would have to make their financial records public.

This bill, if passed, would completely destroy the current negotiations and certainly guarantee that the Rams will leave for LA. There is no way that Stan Kroenke would want to release any financial records from the Rams. Remember how none of the owners wanted to release any financial records in the CBA negotiations? It has been pretty obvious that to keep the Rams in St. Louis, Missouri tax payers would have to pay some of the tab.

Now there is no reason to panic for fans from St. Louis, or for others that want the team to stay in St. Louis. This bill is still in its infancy, and it is very unlikely to pass. Oxford was part of a group called the Coalition Against Public Funding for Stadiums in 2001, whose main goal was to fight any public dollars going to the construction of the new Busch Stadium for the St. Louis Cardinals. The group failed as the Cardinals got public money to build their ballpark.

This bill, as previously mentioned, isn't likely to gain much stream and most likely will not pass, but it is something for Rams fans to keep their eye on.