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Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 10:11 am
by DaDitka
Rush Limbaugh, partner make bid to buy RamsAssociated Press

Updated: October 6, 2009, 11:56 AM EDT 27 comments

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Green Bay Packers fans are known as cheeseheads. Could fans of the St. Louis Rams soon be dittoheads?

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday he is teaming up with St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts in a bid to buy the Rams, owners of the NFL's longest losing streak at 14 and just 5-31 since 2007.

In a statement, Limbaugh declined to discuss details, citing a confidentiality agreement with Goldman Sachs, the investment firm hired by the family of former Rams owner Georgia Frontiere to review assets of her estate, including the NFL team.

Limbaugh also declined to discuss other partners that might be involved in the bid, but said he and Checketts would operate the team.

"Dave Checketts and I have comment. Calls seeking comment from Checketts were not returned.
made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process," Limbaugh said.

Forbes magazine has estimated the Rams franchise has a value of $929 million.

Frontiere's children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, inherited 60 percent of the Rams when their mother died in January 2008. Columbia, Mo., billionaire Stan Kroenke owns the remaining 40 percent. It wasn't clear if the Limbaugh/Checketts bid was for 100 percent of the Rams or just the share owned by Rosenbloom and Rodriguez.

"Our strategic review of our ownership of the Rams continues," Rosenbloom said in a statement released late Monday. "We will make an announcement upon the completion of the process."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined

Rush Limbaugh. (Getty Images)

Limbaugh is a native of Cape Girardeau, Mo., about 100 miles south of St. Louis. He's so popular among conservatives — fans of his show call themselves "dittoheads" — that he has been called by some the voice of the Republican Party.

Limbaugh, who lives and works in Palm Beach, Fla., once worked for the Kansas City Royals and is an avid sports fan.

In 2003, Limbaugh worked briefly on ESPN's NFL pregame show, but resigned after saying Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed.

Checketts, 53, and his Sports Capital Partners and Towerbrook Capital Partners purchased the Blues in 2006 from Bill and Nancy Laurie. The Blues have gradually rebuilt under his leadership and made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2004.

Checketts first approached Rosenbloom in early 2009 about possibly buying the Rams. Eric Gelfand, a spokesman for Checketts, said in June that Checketts had put together a group consisting of local and outside investors.

An NFL rule allows ownership of NFL teams and teams in other sports, but only if they are in the same market. That would be a problem if Kroenke wanted to become majority owner of the Rams because he owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

Checketts' company owns Utah's Real Salt Lake Major League Soccer team. But an NFL spokesman has said the cross-ownership rule does not apply to the MLS.

The potential sale of the Rams has been rumored since Frontiere's death. Her children are both involved in other interests and neither has ties to St. Louis.

The sale has raised concerns in St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals franchise after the 1987 season when Bill Bidwill moved the team to Arizona.

The NFL passed over St. Louis for the smaller Jacksonville, Fla., market when it awarded an expansion team in 1993. Two years later, civic leaders convinced Frontiere, a St. Louis native, to move the team from Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest market, back to her hometown.

Los Angeles is still without a team, and a loophole in the Rams' lease allows them to move as early as 2014 if the Edward Jones Dome is not deemed among the top quarter of all NFL stadiums. Though just 14 years old, the dome is fast becoming one of the league's older venues, and getting it into the top quarter seems unlikely.

Checketts became the youngest person ever to run an NBA team at age 28 when he became president and general manager of the Utah Jazz in 1984. He later ran the New York Knicks and Madison Square Garden

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:26 pm
by Ruutu15
Glad to see Checketts involved. Seeing what he's done with the Blues in such a short time gives this Rams fan hope. I live in Cincinnati now, and Bengals fans give me flak about how terrible the Rams are. I could understand it when I lived in Indianapolis...

With Limbaugh being involved, I am going to buy a ton of Rams stuff immediately, because I'm not giving that fucker a cent of my money (aside from what he'll get in the form of NFL revenue sharing royalties). I suppose this means that they'll never draft a black QB, but they'll always be pain free.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 9:57 pm
by Nyghtewynd
Limbaugh would be a great addition. Talk about someone who knows business, wants to succeed, will not put up with excuses, and is already a hardcore sports and NFL guy. Sign me up.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:07 pm
by glen a richter
Ruutu15 wrote: I suppose this means that they'll never draft a black QB, but they'll always be pain free.
:lol: so true

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:51 pm
by tsblue
Free speech only applies to politically correct views, duh.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:18 am
by stinkdified

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 11:44 am
by Philo
Nyghtewynd wrote:Limbaugh would be a great addition. Talk about someone who knows business, wants to succeed, will not put up with excuses, and is already a hardcore sports and NFL guy. Sign me up.


Hell,if he wasn't such a douche bag things might have been different ,ya never know.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 12:41 pm
by Nyghtewynd
The Rams will look good in Los Angeles again.

I am, however, looking forward to the full disclosure of the political opinions and donations of every major sports team owner in the nation, now that we've set up the standards. Yeah, probably won't hold my breath on that one.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:31 pm
by Leedog
Limbaugh was discriminated against because his views weren't consistent with others, and they aren't pc. but the country is heading in the right direction. Right.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:14 pm
by tsblue
Well, now that the evil troll is gone, clearly those with the right views have won and there is hope. Excuse me while I vomit on your intolerant views. I don't like Rush AT ALL...but the crap being thrown around by owners who pay convicted felons is BEYOND ludicrous.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:19 pm
by Ruutu15
You can't go around in a public forum saying "The NFL is like bloods and crips without the guns" and then cry persecution when they won't allow you to be a part of an ownership team. The NFL is a privately owned company, they can approve whoever they want, just like the NHL. Yeah, there is a such thing as freedom of speech...Limbaugh exercises that right on a daily basis. Freedom of speech also means that I am free to tell my boss to go to hell. I would also suffer the consequences in a hurry.

Re: Checketts and Limbaugh bid to buy the Rams

Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:36 pm
by glen a richter
There's public speech and private speech, in the same fashion as described by Ruutu. Exercising your freedom of speech should include some amount of using your brain to determine what will and what won't come back around to bite you in the ass. Does Rush have a right to spew his vitriol? Absolutely. Should we be shocked when his bid to be a part owner of an NFL franchise is protested so strongly based on the things he's said about the league and it's players in the past? Absolutely not.

The man never said word one bad about hockey--for obvious reasons, so how about going after partial ownership of an NHL franchise and moving it to KC? Isn't he originally from KC anyway?