The Rams move to St. Louis is the focus of a front page
piece in this morning's WALL STREET JOURNAL by John Helyar.
Helyar writes the "economic underpinning of the league has long
been its generous revenue-sharing arrangements: equal sharing of
network television money and a 60-40 home visitor gate split. ...
This egalitarian approach left NFL teams with basically equal
resources." But Helyar notes the clubs now are becoming
"economically stratified by their ability to extract -- or extort
-- lucrative stadium deals. ... Suddenly, a stadium wasn't'
considered just a game venue, but also a financial asset."
Profits from improved facilities led to owners gaining from
unshared income and moving to a different financial plane than
their counterparts. Now, with the minimum salary in the NFL, the
disparities between clubs has become more apparent. SportsCorp
Ltd. Marc Ganis comments on the cap's effect: "Some people
thought that would create more league parity. It has caused
exactly the opposite. A low-revenue team now has spend very
close to what the high revenue teams do for salaries" (John
Helyar, WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/27).
NO TIME FOR SAVE THE RAMS: Save the Rams, the civic
committee trying to block the Rams move to St. Louis, will not be
able to address NFL owners at a special meeting on February 16
(ORANGE COUNTRY REGISTER, 1/27).
