The agreement between the Rams and the city of St. Louis was
released yesterday, and "contrary to popular belief about the 30-
year lease, St. Louis didn't give the Rams everything," according
to Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. TIMES. Under the deal, the city
will retain 25% of stadium advertising revenue, including the
profitable naming rights to the domed facility. The Rams and
Convention Commission are forming a marketing partnership that
will handle advertising for the entire convention center, which
could generate as much as $3M a year. That, "combined with the
$500,000 a year the Rams must pay in rent and game-day expenses"
should net the city about $2M annually. The Rams will also have
to pay existing garages close to $40,000 a year for parking
spaces near the stadium, and have agreed to share a percentage of
revenue for stadium concessions. For more on the lease
arrangement, see yesterday's SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY. The city
will finance and build a Rams merchandise store next to the
stadium and will also begin building additional luxury suites
(Mike DiGiovanna, L.A. TIMES, 1/19). The ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
reports this morning that St. Louis is "legally committed to
paying" for the Rams practice facility, and estimated the cost at
close to $16M (Jo Mannies, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/19).
436-RAMS -- THE HOTLINE: The campaign to sell "Personal Seat
Licenses" (PSL's) is off to a "strong, if somewhat confusing,
start." Phone problems caused delays, but FANS, Inc., the civic
group managing PSL sales, said they issued up to 3,200
applications in the first 24 hours. Ten local banks have
announced "financing programs" for seat licensing, and one
prominent employer is letting employees buy licenses "through
automatic payroll withdrawals" (Andre Mouchard, ORANGE COUNTY
REGISTER, 1/19).
MORE REAX: In Philadelphia, Bill Lyon writes: "This does
not make St. Louis a bad city. Just a sucker, that's all"
(PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 1/19). Dave Anderson of the N.Y. TIMES
compares of Rams Owner Georgia Frontiere and team President John
Shaw to "Bonnie and Clyde": "Instead of holding up banks, pro
football's Bonnie and Clyde are holding up the taxpayers who
financed the stadium" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/19).
