Kevin Demoff is the public face of the Rams' business operations. He interacts with fans. He's on Twitter (sparsely, but nonetheless). He's out in front, capturing the good the team does for the community and, in all, being a good guy.
So yesterday on 101 ESPN's "The Fast Lane", Demoff joined hosts Randy Karraker, D'Marco Farr to talk about the biggest long-term issue for the franchise: where to call home.
Here's the meat:
Karraker: There are concerns obviously that Rams fans have. A couple of weeks ago, I gave my opinion that I thought a decision had been made to attempt to move this team out of St. Louis into Los Angeles. Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports has reported the same thing. Jason Cole of Bleacher Report, a very established NFL writer. Sam Farmer has said that the Rams have one foot out the door. Has indeed a decision been made by Stan Kroenke to try to move this team?
Demoff: There has been no decision made. There is no done deal. There is nothing like that. Everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I also read yesterday Jason Cole said the Raiders just took our spot in the NFC West and I guess we're going to the AFC West...
...I think, you know, there's a lot of rumor. There's a lot of innuendo, and it's just that. And I think it's going to remain that way until Los Angeles gets solved period by any team or whether it gets solved. Sitting at the league meeting yesterday, it's clear that, you know, while the league is taking a more active look at the market that there is nothing solved or moving forward. There's just, you know, increased activity which has been the same case I think if you talked to anybody for the last 20 years [author's note: I couldn't catch the end of this]...
Karraker: ...with all of these reports, there's an awful lot of smoke, and the lease is up. Does Stan Kroenke have an eye on putting his team in Los Angeles?
Demoff: I think our focus is on, you know, playing through the rest of the lease and seeing how things play out...
Karraker: Kevin, do you have any idea what it would take to get the Rams to commit to staying in St. Louis?
Demoff: Well, I think overall Randy it goes back to what we've always talked about: a global solution for St. Louis on a stadium front. A stadium that brings great events back to St. Louis, that brings Mizzou-Illinois, that bring Final Fours. You've heard me say this before. It's also gotta be a solution that works for the community. It's not just a Rams issue...
...I know everybody can sit here and say, especially this weekend, "The building can rock like it did in 1999," which is absolutely true. If we play better football, it will be loud, passionate. But in terms of getting people off the couch away from television which is a fight that everybody in the NFL is going through and everybody in sports is going through, how do we improve the fan experience and give them the best? I think that's the solution. If we can come up with it whether it's downtown, whether it's in the county, whether it's somewhere else, I think we'd be in favor of it.
It's about a stadium, folks. That's it. If the Rams are going to stay in St. Louis, it won't be in the Edward Jones Dome.
Give the whole interview a listen. It's good stuff from Karraker and Farr.
And yes, D'Marco, we hate the Niners as much as you do.