St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke is moving the team to Los Angeles because he grew tired of being a victim.
Yes, a victim.
Kroenke, owner of a sports empire that includes the Rams, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and Arsenal soccer team, recently shared his thoughts on leaving St. Louis in a lengthy interview with the Los Angeles Times. The $8 billion man said it will be hard to leave Missouri after he grew up there, but he feels he was backed into a corner.
“It truly is bittersweet. I grew up in Missouri, and there’s a lot of wonderful people in St. Louis and Missouri,” Kroenke explained. “I’ll always feel that way about Missouri. I never dreamed I’d be put in this position. But at the same time, you’re not going to sit there and be a victim.”
The people of St. Louis disagree. For starters, any billionaire who calls himself a “victim” when discussing a business deal is clearly out of touch with reality. Secondly, Kroenke and his ownership group were offered $400 million in public funding to build a new stadium in St. Louis.
We don’t doubt that the prospect of a new stadium in L.A. was more enticing than a new stadium in a city where only 50,000 fans per weekend bought tickets, but many feel Kroenke lied from the day he purchased the Rams in 2010. He said he would do everything he could to keep the team in St. Louis, but there was clearly an agenda.
If Kroenke wants to know how fans in St. Louis feel about him now, he should look no further than this hockey game. The “victim” remark is only going to make things worse.
