Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/rams/2009-10-06-rush-limbaugh-rams_N.htm
If their bid is accepted, I wonder if this team will improve from a Caste perspective?
Rush Limbaugh acknowledges bid to buy St. Louis Rams</span><div>ST. LOUIS (AP) â€" Green Bay Packers fans are known as cheeseheads. Could fans of the St. Louis Rams soon be dittoheads?</div>
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he is teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the Rams, owners of the NFL's longest losing streak at 14 and just 5-31 since 2007.
In a statement, Limbaugh declined to discuss details, citing a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm hired by the family of former Rams owner Georgia Frontiere to review assets of her estate, including the NFL team.
Limbaugh
also declined to discuss other partners that might be involved in the
bid, but said he and Checketts would operate the team.
"Dave Checketts and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process," Limbaugh said.
Forbes magazine has estimated the Rams franchise has a value of $929 million.
Frontiere's
children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, inherited 60% of the
Rams when their mother died in January 2008. Columbia, Mo., billionaire
Stan Kroenke
owns the remaining 40%. It wasn't clear if the Limbaugh/Checketts bid
was for 100% of the Rams or just the share owned by Rosenbloom and
Rodriguez.
"Our strategic review of our
ownership of the Rams continues," Rosenbloom said in a statement
released late Monday. "We will make an announcement upon the completion
of the process."
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment. Calls seeking comment from Checketts were not returned.
Limbaugh is a native of Cape Girardeau,
Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis. He's so popular among
conservatives â€" fans of his show call themselves "dittoheads" â€" that he
has been called by some the voice of the Republican Party.
Limbaugh, who lives and works in Palm Beach, Fla., once worked for the Kansas City Royals and is an avid sports fan.
In 2003, Limbaugh worked briefly on ESPN's NFL pregame show, but resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb(FSY) was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.
Checketts,
53, and his Sports Capital Partners and Towerbrook Capital Partners
purchased the Blues in 2006 from Bill and Nancy Laurie. The Blues have
gradually rebuilt under his leadership and made the playoffs last
season for the first time since 2004.
Checketts
first approached Rosenbloom in early 2009 about possibly buying the
Rams. Eric Gelfand, a spokesman for Checketts, said in June that
Checketts had put together a group consisting of local and outside
investors.
An NFL rule allows ownership of
NFL teams and teams in other sports, but only if they are in the same
market. That would be a problem if Kroenke wanted to become majority
owner of the Rams because he owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.
Checketts' company owns Utah's Real Salt Lake Major League Soccer team. But an NFL spokesman has said the cross-ownership rule does not apply to the MLS.
The
potential sale of the Rams has been rumored since Frontiere's death.
Her children are both involved in other interests and neither has ties
to St. Louis.
The sale has raised concerns in St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals franchise after the 1987 season when Bill Bidwill moved the team to Arizona.
The
NFL passed over St. Louis for the smaller Jacksonville, Fla., market
when it awarded an expansion team in 1993. Two years later, civic
leaders convinced Frontiere, a St. Louis native, to move the team from
Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest market, back to her hometown.
Los Angeles is still without a team, and a loophole in the Rams' lease allows them to move as early as 2014 if the Edward Jones Dome
is not deemed among the top quarter of all NFL stadiums. Though just 14
years old, the dome is fast becoming one of the league's older venues,
and getting it into the top quarter seems unlikely.
Checketts became the youngest person ever to run an NBA team at age 28 when he became president and general manager of the Utah Jazz in 1984. He later ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden.<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Copyright
2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</div>
Edited by: Colonel_Reb
If their bid is accepted, I wonder if this team will improve from a Caste perspective?
Rush Limbaugh acknowledges bid to buy St. Louis Rams</span><div>ST. LOUIS (AP) â€" Green Bay Packers fans are known as cheeseheads. Could fans of the St. Louis Rams soon be dittoheads?</div>
Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he is teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the Rams, owners of the NFL's longest losing streak at 14 and just 5-31 since 2007.
In a statement, Limbaugh declined to discuss details, citing a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm hired by the family of former Rams owner Georgia Frontiere to review assets of her estate, including the NFL team.
Limbaugh
also declined to discuss other partners that might be involved in the
bid, but said he and Checketts would operate the team.
"Dave Checketts and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process," Limbaugh said.
Forbes magazine has estimated the Rams franchise has a value of $929 million.
Frontiere's
children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, inherited 60% of the
Rams when their mother died in January 2008. Columbia, Mo., billionaire
Stan Kroenke
owns the remaining 40%. It wasn't clear if the Limbaugh/Checketts bid
was for 100% of the Rams or just the share owned by Rosenbloom and
Rodriguez.
"Our strategic review of our
ownership of the Rams continues," Rosenbloom said in a statement
released late Monday. "We will make an announcement upon the completion
of the process."
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment. Calls seeking comment from Checketts were not returned.
Limbaugh is a native of Cape Girardeau,
Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis. He's so popular among
conservatives â€" fans of his show call themselves "dittoheads" â€" that he
has been called by some the voice of the Republican Party.
Limbaugh, who lives and works in Palm Beach, Fla., once worked for the Kansas City Royals and is an avid sports fan.
In 2003, Limbaugh worked briefly on ESPN's NFL pregame show, but resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb(FSY) was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.
Checketts,
53, and his Sports Capital Partners and Towerbrook Capital Partners
purchased the Blues in 2006 from Bill and Nancy Laurie. The Blues have
gradually rebuilt under his leadership and made the playoffs last
season for the first time since 2004.
Checketts
first approached Rosenbloom in early 2009 about possibly buying the
Rams. Eric Gelfand, a spokesman for Checketts, said in June that
Checketts had put together a group consisting of local and outside
investors.
An NFL rule allows ownership of
NFL teams and teams in other sports, but only if they are in the same
market. That would be a problem if Kroenke wanted to become majority
owner of the Rams because he owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.
Checketts' company owns Utah's Real Salt Lake Major League Soccer team. But an NFL spokesman has said the cross-ownership rule does not apply to the MLS.
The
potential sale of the Rams has been rumored since Frontiere's death.
Her children are both involved in other interests and neither has ties
to St. Louis.
The sale has raised concerns in St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals franchise after the 1987 season when Bill Bidwill moved the team to Arizona.
The
NFL passed over St. Louis for the smaller Jacksonville, Fla., market
when it awarded an expansion team in 1993. Two years later, civic
leaders convinced Frontiere, a St. Louis native, to move the team from
Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest market, back to her hometown.
Los Angeles is still without a team, and a loophole in the Rams' lease allows them to move as early as 2014 if the Edward Jones Dome
is not deemed among the top quarter of all NFL stadiums. Though just 14
years old, the dome is fast becoming one of the league's older venues,
and getting it into the top quarter seems unlikely.
Checketts became the youngest person ever to run an NBA team at age 28 when he became president and general manager of the Utah Jazz in 1984. He later ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden.<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Copyright
2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</div>
Edited by: Colonel_Reb