In a frenzy of self-congratulation, the Rams were signed, sealed and all but delivered to football-starved St. Louis. The city by the Mississippi put a virtual pot of gold at the end of its famed arch and lured away what was once one of the National Football League's most distinguished franchises.
Signing a blown-up version of a relocation agreement, St. Louis city and county officials turned the anti-climactic announcement of the move into a giddy celebration complete with indoor fireworks and streamers.
"I'm overwhelmed," joked team owner Georgia Frontiere, 67, who stands to make more than $20 million annually as part of the deal. "I don't think I've been this happy since the last game we won."
Frontiere, who has been shopping cities for more than a year, also introduced her new partner, Stan Kroenke. The Missouri businessman will pay $60 million for a 30 percent share of the team and the title of Rams' vice chairman of the board.
Pending league approval, the move will end the Rams' 49-year relationship with Southern California, where the team made 14 playoff appearances from 1973 to '89 and reached the 1980 Super Bowl. It also ends a seven-year NFL drought for St. Louis, which lost the Cardinals to Phoenix in 1988.
But while Frontiere and St. Louis exploded in pigskin-mad rejoicing, another NFL franchise delivered a cautionary note: To finalize her exit from Anaheim, Frontiere still must garner the votes of 23 of the league's 30 owners at the NFL's March 12 - 17 league meeting in Phoenix.
Members of Save the Rams, the group trying to keep the team in Orange County, also stressed Tuesday that the St. Louis celebration is premature.
"Ram fans should not lose hope," said Newport Beach sports attorney Leigh Steinberg. "St. Louis can celebrate from here until doomsday. ... But the reality is that we only need the votes of eight owners." Steinberg, co-chairman of Save the Rams , said efforts to block the move have already begun.
"Hopefully, we will get the hearing with the league that we never got with the Rams," Steinberg said. "The Rams clearly had a plan to move to St. Louis that didn't just spring up in August, 1994. Part of that plan was an unwillingness to seriously hear the local proposals to keep the team."
In Anaheim -- a city held hostage for nearly a year for a ransom it couldn't or wouldn't pay -- city officials said they already have targeted as new tenants four specific teams, which they declined to name. "Assuming that the Rams are successful in getting the league vote, we will be aggressively pursuing another NFL franchise," Anaheim City manager James Ruth said.
But some questioned Tuesday how easy it would be for an area, which lately was unable to fill the stands when it had a franchise, to lure another team. Andy Puzder, an attorney from Newport Beach, California, and a Save the Rams member, said, "I don't know if they realize how difficult that will be."
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