St. Louis Rams Team History

Georgia Frontiere attempted to relocate the Rams to Baltimore, Maryland, but that deal was eventually stopped. Mrs. Frontiere then sought to re-locate the team to the city of St. Louis. NFL owners (of the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets, Giants, Washington Redskins, Arizona Cardinals, and the Minnesota Vikings, specifically) voted to oppose the move, arguing that Frontiere who was claiming that, without the extra revenues from a new stadium, the L.A. market was so unprofitable that it risked bankrupting the Rams had badly mismanaged the team. Nevertheless, she threatened to sue the NFL itself; ultimately, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue acquiesced to Frontiere’s demands. As part of the re-location deal, the city of St. Louis agreed to build a taxpayer-financed stadium, and guaranteed that the stadium’s amenities would be maintained in the top 25% of all stadiums in the National Football League. Frontiere waived the clause after a 10-year threshold period had passed, though, as the city implemented a later plan to improve the stadium.

The Edward Jones Dome (more formally known as the Edward Jones Dome at America’s Center, and previously known as The Trans World Dome (from 1995 to 2001) is a multi-purpose stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, and home of the St. Louis Rams of the NFL. It was constructed largely to lure an NFL team back to St. Louis, and to serve as a convention center. The Dome provides multiple stadium configurations that can seat up to 70,000 people. Seating levels include: a private luxury suite level with 120 suites, a private club seat and luxury suite level with 6,400 club seats, a concourse level (lower bowl) and terrace level (upper bowl). The dome was completed in 1995.

Super Bowl XXXIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion St. Louis Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Tennessee Titans to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the 1999 season. The Rams defeated the Titans by the score of 23–16, capturing their first Super Bowl win and first NFL championship since 1951. The game, played on January 30, 2000 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, was the fourth Super Bowl to be held a week after the conference championship games the previous time this happened was Super Bowl XXVIII, and coincidentally that game was also played on January 30 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

In 2010, Kroenke exercised his right of first refusal to buy the remaining interest in the St. Louis Rams from the estate of late owner Georgia Frontiere. On August 25, 2010, he became full owner of the Rams by unanimous consent of the NFL. To gain approval from NFL owners, Kroenke agreed to turn over control of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche to his son, Josh, by the end of 2010, and he must give up his majority stake in both teams by December 2014. The NFL does not allow its owners to hold majority control of major league teams in other NFL markets.

On January 5th 2015, it was announced that the Kroenke Group was teaming up with Stockbridge Capital Group to build an 80,000 seat NFL stadium and venue (dubbed the City of Champions Revitalization Initiative) in Inglewood, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. St. Louis officials felt they were not getting fair treatment as Kroenke has (to date) had no talks or discussions with city officials, who have expressed large interest in keeping the team in St. Louis. In a radio interview, Kroenke was labeled as “enemy number one” in his home state due to his uncanny nature and cut-throat business style expressed by his non-negotiations with St. Louis on the Rams stadium situation.