Image courtesy of HOK
The proposed riverfront stadium in St. Louis
The biggest news coming out of the current NFL owners’ meeting in California was not at all good for proponents of a new football stadium in St. Louis.
Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis definitively stated two things:
1) He has no plans whatsoever to sell his team.
2) He has “absolutely no interest” in moving to St. Louis regardless of what happens in his negotiations with the city of Oakland. “It’s not gonna be St. Louis,” he said.
Just two months ago, at another NFL owners meeting, Davis had said, “We’ll listen to anybody.” The update has some significance, in that Davis would appear to have nothing to gain by ruling out St. Louis or any other market as a potential location.
The news directly contradicts a bizarre theory floated just last weekend by local stadium proponent Dave Peacock via St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz, in which Rams owner Stan Kroenke would fulfill his $1.8 billion dream of a new stadium—still the most likely prospect—but that he’d arrive in L.A. without the team that he currently owns, despite the fact that it has a multi-generational fan base there (having played 49 years in L.A.).
The local media doesn’t care to cover what it considers bad news about NFL prospects in St. Louis. The Post did have a story on page B3 of its sports section today. But after reporting the grim tidings about Davis, it managed to conclude with this stunning bit of editorializing (emphasis added by me):
“Davis said Tuesday he plans to own the Raiders as long as he’s alive, and said he sees no situation in which he would sell the franchise. However, he may not have a choice.
“The same estate tax issues that forced Chip Robertson and sister Lucia Rodriguez to sell the Rams after their mother, Georgia Frontiere, passed away, could impact the Raiders when Carol Davis—the wife of late Raiders owner Al Davis—passes away.
"Beyond that, if the Raiders somehow get left out of the Los Angeles sweepstakes and get stuck in Oakland without a new stadium, St. Louis could look a lot more enticing.”
I’m sure the Davis family would be gratified with the speculation of what might happen if the 82-year-old Mrs. Davis would happen to pass away. There is the small detail that there are no public references to any current health problems on her part. And while she is 82 years old, is that really justification for sportswriters to speculate about her upcoming demise?
And there’s this: The heirs of Mrs. Frontiere were very clear publicly about having had no interest in being NFL owners going forward, as opposed to Mark Davis, late owner Al Davis’ only child, who said, “No, never” to the prospect of selling his team.
Unless the Post-Dispatch is privy to Davis’ bank account, it has no basis to speculate that he wouldn’t be able to afford estate taxes in the totally hypothetical event that his mother should die. And even if her demise came to pass and even if he didn’t have funds on hand to cover estate taxes, there are plenty of other options available to him, including arrangement of a long-term installment plan for estate taxes with the IRS, the sale of a partial interest in the team to raise needed funds, or both.
