It is "highly doubtful" that Sunday's Giants-Rams game at the Edward Jones Dome will be the club's final home game in St. Louis, according to Bernie Miklasz of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Sources said that Anheuser-Busch Senior Adviser and St. Louis Sports Commission Chair Dave Peacock "recently had a preliminary meeting with high-level Rams executives to give the team a progress report on his stadium efforts," and a "public update on the new stadium project is expected" from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon in the coming days. Sources added that Nixon "wants to ease the fans’ concerns." Sources said that it is anticipated Nixon’s initial update "will be followed by a public unveiling of preliminary stadium plans -- sometime around the first of the year." Miklasz reports Peacock also met with MLS Commissioner Don Garber to "gauge the soccer league’s interest in using a new Rams stadium as the home venue" for an expansion club. Peacock and Edward Jones Dome attorney Robert Blitz "appear to be well on the way of convincing the NFL to take the St. Louis efforts seriously." If nothing else, the task force is "buying St. Louis more time to come up with a viable stadium plan" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 12/18).The Post-Dispatch's Joe Strauss said, "That seemed to be the most
plausible scenario this whole time that nothing was going to happen for
2015. Beyond then, more things will come into play.” He added, "My
understanding is that what’s been going on here is not just first level
poker. This game is being played on a couple different levels and to, in
my estimation, the city and state’s credit they are contemplating
contingencies as well as obvious reality. They are not swinging for the
fences on just one scenario. ... It would be rather short-sighted for
civic leaders to just assume they have no leverage and just kind of play
defense the whole time" (“The Morning After,” WGNU-AM, 12/17).
STATUS QUO? ESPN.com's Nick Wagoner wrote there are "plenty of signs pointing to no team moving" to L.A. in '15. The theory goes that the Chargers "wouldn't so boldly and outwardly forfeit their leverage" on the L.A. situation "without some sort of knowledge that nobody would be moving" to the city in time for the '15 season. Wagoner: "Could Rams owner Stan Kroenke or Raiders owner Mark Davis still file for relocation in February? Sure, but it seems increasingly clear that the NFL is and will continue to control this process." While "going rogue against the league has been done before," it would "seem unnecessary given that the Los Angeles market would still be in play beyond next year" (ESPN.com, 12/17).
