Chip Rosenbloom and his sister Lucia Rodriguez inherited the St. Louis Rams when their mother, Georgia Frontiere, passed away in 2008. Now they would like to sell their 60% majority ownership in the Rams. Forbes has the St. Louis Rams valued at $929 million. By the way, Stan Kronke owns the other 40% of the team but because his also owns the Colorado Rockies and the Denver Nuggets Kronke is prohibited to becoming majority owner due to the NFL's strict cross ownership policy.Rosenbloom has hired investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to find potential buyers. That move seems to mean Rosenbloom is moving aggressively to sell even to non-local buyers.
All this has the city of St. Louis nervous about the future of the Rams. The city lost one football team, the Cardinals, back in 1988 and losing another would be a huge blow.
Someone with deep pockets could purchase the Rams and move the team is they so choose. Perhaps a Los Angeles billionaire could come in, purchase the franchise and move the team back to L.A.
What has been worrisome is no local investors have stepped up except one, Dave Checketts. Checketts put together a group to buy the St. Louis Blues hockey team and he is very interested in the Rams. In an e-mail communication with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Checketts wrote, "We have the ability to get this done and we have communicated this to the Rams. We approached this with the Rams months ago and have since that time put together a partnership of both concerned St. Louisans and outside capital."
"Last week, we communicated to Chip Rosenbloom in no uncertain terms, that he now has a clear St. Louis buyer. We are that buyer."
"We have reason to believe the NFL would approve our group as we have carefully explored their ownership requirements."
Of course Checketts would have to raise $450 to $500 million approximate to make that happen.
Photo Courtesy: Doug Benc/Getty Images
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