The city of St. Louis has not taken the Rams’ relocation to Los Angeles lightly and is seeking to be compensated for the move. It was publicly known that four years ago, St. Louis, St. Louis County and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority sued the NFL and the other 31 teams – including the Rams – for the team’s relocation before the 2016 season, and it’s now come to light how much the group is seeking in damages.
According to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, the lawsuit is seeking more than $1 billion, which was confirmed at a hearing on Thursday.
“The plaintiffs are seeking a billion dollars in damages or more,” said Gerard “Jerry” Carmody, attorney for the NFL during the hearing in the St. Louis Circuit court, later adding, “for people who are seeking billions of dollars, I think I heard four times.”
One source added, declining to offer a specific damages number, that it’s fair to describe the figures as in the billions.
When the Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles in 2016, owner Stan Kroenke paid a $645 million relocation fee to make the move happen, owing that amount to the NFL; the Chargers were billed the same amount. In turn, the Rams’ value rose from $1.45 billion to $4 billion in the last five years, which St. Louis wants a part of.
As of 2020, the Rams are the fourth-most valuable franchise in the NFL after a one-year increase in value of 5% from 2019. It’s easy to see the value St. Louis lost with the Rams leaving, especially after $150 million in financing was approved for a new stadium.
But Kroenke had another vision of building something much greater in Los Angeles by constructing SoFi Stadium, the most expensive building in the NFL at $5 billion.
This lawsuit is ongoing and even four years later, it’s difficult to see how or when it will end.
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