Rams owner might sell team, buy and move Raiders

There has been a lot of speculation about potential relocation in the NFL, most prominently around the St. Louis Rams and the Oakland Raiders.

Los Angeles wants a team and most of the St. Louis area is reportedly not all that interested in the Rams. A story by Mike Florio for Pro Football Talk floats the idea that Rams owner Stan Kroenke might be considering selling the Rams, then buying and moving the Raiders.

As Florio says, sometimes the media gets reports from insiders that they are to present as their own ideas, both to float the reaction and give the media member a chance to look good.

In this case, the "idea" is by Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In it, he proposes that Kroenke could sell the Rams to a party that would keep the team in a prospective new St. Louis stadium, then he would buy the Raiders and move them to Los Angeles. In a slightly different move with the same result, Kroenke could move the Rams to LA and then the league would poke the Raiders to move over to St. Louis.

As Florio points out, the last option seems more likely, as Raiders owner Mark Davis has not revealed any interest in selling the team. Missouri is currently scrambling to come up with a new stadium proposal for the Rams, which could be a place for the Raiders, as Oakland doesn't seem to be a viable long-term option.

The NFL has set a potential date for a LA team to 2016, meanwhile, Kroenke is building a new stadium in Inglewood.

Essentially, it's a race of stadiums. Kroenke and his partners want to get their Inglewood project going before Peacock and Blitz get theirs going in St. Louis.

For now, Kroenke has the advantage as he has his own money to work with. What's unlikely in the end, is that St. Louis loses out completely. One of the league's top executives pushed for the new St. Louis stadium, and it seems hard to buy that they would let the stadium be built and then wave good-bye to the Rams as they move to Inglewood.

Ultimately, it's probably Kroenke holding all the cards. He has the money and is funding a new stadium. Whatever ends up happening will likely happen on his terms.

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