No NFL Club would be interested in the (St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority) new St. Louis stadium," the proposal says. "Any NFL Club that signs on to this proposal in St. Louis will be well on the road to financial ruin, and the League will be harmed.
St. Louis lags, and will continue to lag, far behind in the economic drivers that are necessary for sustained success of an NFL franchise.
Compared to all other U.S. cities, St. Louis is struggling. One recent study reports that St. Louis ranks 490 out of 515 U.S. cities and 61st among the 64 largest U.S. cities in economic growth in recent years. That same study reported that St. Louis had the lowest rate of population growth of any major U.S. city from 2008 to 2014 – registering a loss of 1.74 percent of its citizens while most cities registered gains. Thus, the City of St. Louis ranks near the bottom of all U.S. cities of any size in terms of economic and population growth.
Maybe they should have focused more on playing the game? Or realized what would happen if their performances suffered for the last ten years? Might as well burn the whole franchise down! Karma!
Surely I'm not the only person who finds this ironic!
Fenway Park? Orlando is a Sports town because the Solar Bears won Turner Cup Championship the year the League folded their were in,Predators have won the Arena Bowl Championship,Magic have been to finals and so on. Orlando already has 2 Stadiums in place Citrus Bowl and Cracker Jack Stadium. Was rumored to get a MLB team before Tampa Bay got one.
San Jose where the Earthquakes play but SF might fight it. Charlotte? Other side of Chicago where the Bears don't play? Columbus? Portland? Omaha where College World Series happens? OKC?
aknowledgeableperson wrote:"So who are St Louis football fans going to follow now?"
Bears. St. Louis has always been a NFL/NFC.
Not likely. The Cardinals/Cubs acrimony and general Chicago Inferiority Complex bleeds over into everything else. I've never been aware of a sizable contingent of Bulls fans in St. Louis. If people want to continue to be NFL fans, they'll glom onto the Chiefs - at least based on my Facebook feed.
I don't think many in STL gravitated to Chiefs when football Cards left to AZ. I think most just lost interest in football and hardcore fans found some team in country they'd follow. It also depends on what teams STL stations primarily carry, though hardcore fans might have SAT TV anyway.
I don't follow football closely anymore but did we get Rams games as NFC game of choice for local TV?
Some fans will doubtless go to games based on dislike of a team but certainly many will just be pragmatic about it. A Rams fan from Hannibal, MO is slightly closer to KC. A fan from Cape Girardeau is much closer to Nashville than either Chicago or KC. One from Springfield, IL will doubtless change to Chicago over going to KC
And the claim that many won't make the effort has truth to it. It's a hard to drive 3-4 hours to a game approx. once a month. For many it will be a once a year event now. My guess is there will also be a booming market for sports bars in St. Louis. Someone that budgeted for tickets can now go and spend it there.
For those that do want to travel, KC is closest with Nashville and Chicago tied for second.
"It's a hard to drive 3-4 hours to a game approx. once a month."
I do some traveling south of KC on Sundays. You would be surprised at the number of cars in that direction fly Chief's flags on that day and/or are wearing red. So I can just imagine the numbers coming from other directions for home Chiefs' games. Plus consider the traveling done by college football fans for those games.
aknowledgeableperson wrote:"It's a hard to drive 3-4 hours to a game approx. once a month."
I do some traveling south of KC on Sundays. You would be surprised at the number of cars in that direction fly Chief's flags on that day and/or are wearing red. So I can just imagine the numbers coming from other directions for home Chiefs' games. Plus consider the traveling done by college football fans for those games.
If you can show me 15,000 people driving from Fayetteville I would be surprised. That's the comparable distance.