The Rams will be "able to play a 'home' game in England this year in exchange for boosting the number of weekends that the Edward Jones Dome can be booked for other uses during the football season," according to Matthew Hathaway of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The team "also agreed to pay temporary, game-day employees the hourly wages they would have earned at the Dome for the game against" the Patriots. The deal "was approved at closed meetings" yesterday afternoon by the boards of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission and the Regional Convention & Sports Complex Authority, which owns the Dome. The amended lease "gives the CVC more dates to schedule conventions and other nonfootball events at the Dome during the football season." CVC President Kathleen Ratcliffe said that that "could more than make up for the loss of downtown spending from one football game." The Rams' rent at the Dome "won't drop." The Rams pay the CVC $25,000 per game "for eight home games and two preseason games." Ratcliffe said that even though the Rams will "play only nine games at the Dome this year, the team still will pay $250,000 in annual rent." But Hathaway notes the negotiations over playing games in London "may not be over." The Rams also "want to play a 'home' game overseas" in '13 and '14. The deal approved yesterday "only applies to the game this year." The future games "allow the CVC to retain a bargaining chip over a separate, larger issue: negotiations about renovating the Dome" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/22).
HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE: Lions President Tom Lewand in a teleconference with season-ticket holders last week said that he is "not interested in hosting a home game outside of Ford Field." He said, "I think the expansion of the NFL into international markets is a great thing. But we don't look to participate as a home team. ... You guys have started to make Ford Field into one of the best home-field advantages in the NFL, and we don't want to give that up. We want to make it even better. And it's not easy to do if one of our home games is in London or Mexico City or Toronto or somewhere else" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 2/22).
