Rams Owners Hire Investment Bank To Handle Sale Inquiries

Rams Retain Investment Bank Moag & Co. To Handle Sale Inquiries

The Rams have hired Baltimore-based investment bank Moag & Co. to "find a small group of buyers" for the franchise, according to sources cited in a front-page piece by Kaplan & Lefton of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Sources also said that Rams co-Owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, who in January inherited the club following the death of their mother, late Rams Owner Georgia Frontiere, have "already turned down one offer" for the team. Kaplan & Lefton wrote whether Rosenbloom and Rodriguez "want to hold onto the team is unclear" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/14 issue). Rosenbloom said that Moag & Co. "was employed to field the many inquiries that had been swamping" both him and Rams President John Shaw. Rosenbloom: "We finally said, 'You know what, this is not how we want to spend eight hours a day. We need somebody to handle them.' It would be totally inaccurate to say (Moag) is searching for buyers. ... We did not authorize (Moag) to go out and say, 'Hey, the team's up for sale.' It's simply returning these people's phone calls." Rosenbloom added, "It's the same as it's been. If the right person at the ... right time with the right price came, I suppose that you might sell your house, right? So, I don't say never. ... If we get a phone call today from somebody who says the right things, we would listen" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 7/15).

PLUG PULLED: In this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, John Ourand reports the Rams "for the first time in more than a decade ... will not be allowed to broadcast their preseason games into" the L.A. market, which housed the franchise from '46-94. The Rams have broadcast preseason games in L.A. since '95, their first season in St. Louis. However, the NFL's broadcast committee, chaired by Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, "voted unanimously to stop teams such as the Rams from broadcasting games in faraway markets." Further, the committee "decided to enforce a ruling that ensured that teams would not broadcast preseason games beyond their secondary market" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/14 issue).