The Villain Stan Kroenke

I was a follower and fan of the St. Louis Rams and I enjoyed their company while they were here.  I rooted for them to win, and, like everyone else, was exasperated when they played poorly which was, as we all know, most of the time. I will miss them. Having thus established my bona fides in this regard, I will say this: The demonization of Stan Kroenke and the outpouring of vitriol against him – the foot stomping, the insult hurling, a lawsuit for cripes sake, and an undoubtedly very expensive Super Bowl ad by a local personal injury lawyer -- is misplaced and comes across as childish and provincial. I don’t know Kroenke and have no interest in defending him, but the crimes with which he has been popularly charged, singly and in combination, seem to have been borne of anger and disappointment but not rationality. To wit:

Kroenke callously blew off St. Louis and should be ashamed.  Kroenke is in the entertainment business.  He owns a show.  And when you own a show, whether it’s a football team, a tent revival, or the ice capades, you’re going to locate it where you think it will attract the most customers and generate the most revenue.  That’s your job and it’s certainly your prerogative.  Where you grew up has nothing to do with it.

Kroenke betrayed the people who “supported” the Rams all these years.  People
who say that make it sound like folks donated their money to the enterprise – that they didn’t want to buy tickets to and attend Rams’ games but did so out of a spirit of generosity or civic duty. They were doing Kroenke a favor. In fact what they did was hand over money in return for which they were granted admission to and given a seat at a football game.  Quid pro quo.  They did what they wanted to do and they got what they paid for.  As for so-called emotional support, I’m not entirely sure what that means but it doesn’t sound like something grown-ups ought to bestow on a sports team.  Enjoy your team’s victories, mourn (for an hour or so) its losses, and understand that emotional entanglements are not adult-appropriate

Kroenke put an inferior product on the field.  It was an inferior product for the most part but I don’t see how you can make the case that it was because of anything Kroenke did or didn’t do.

Kroenke lied. Well he did say at one point he’d try to keep the team in St. Louis.  Maybe he didn’t really mean it.  Or maybe he changed his mind.  Or maybe he lied.  So what? People lie, and they certainly don’t always tell the whole truth.

Kroenke has enough money and shouldn’t be trying to get more by moving the team. Not your call.  How much money someone has and wants, whether it’s Stan Kroenke, your next door neighbor or your co-worker one desk over, is none of your business.

Kroenke took cynical advantage of a dumb stadium lease clause. He did, indeed; “dumb” being the key word here. The stadium’s proprietors signed on to the ridiculous idea that the team could get out of the lease if the stadium failed to reach a certain level in stadium tier-dom, and Kroenke used it to get what he wanted.  You would, too.

Kroenke’s move is a blow to the region’s economy. In reality, it will have almost no effect on the region’s economy.  What football fans, in their anger and disappointment, have a hard time getting their heads around is that they are in the minority. The majority is in one of these categories: (1) Might check the Rams’ score Monday morning but never attend or watch games; (2) Are only dimly aware of the existence of the Rams; (3) Are only dimly aware of the existence of football.  Only hard-core fans see this development as a tragedy.  Nobody else does and the regional economy will shrug it off.

Watching and rooting for the home NFL team is fun.  Many, many other things are also fun.  We should quit worrying about Stan Kroenke, a guy we never even heard of until about five years ago.