Inside Slant | Notes and Quotes | Strategy and Personnel
--As the Rams prepared for the start of training camp, more reports surfaced that new owners Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez were trying to sell the team.
The Sports Business Journal reported that the club had hired Moag & Co., a Baltimore-based investment company, "to find a group of possible buyers."
Rams president John Shaw responded to the initial report by saying, "I'm not going to comment on what we have or haven't done. Basically the only thing I can reiterate is what Chip (Rosenbloom) has said all along, that we're not actively seeking to sell."
Rosenbloom later confirmed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Moag & Co. had been hired. However, Rosenbloom said the purpose was for the company to gather the numerous inquiries that have been made regarding a possible sale.
"We finally said, 'You know what, this is not how we want to spend eight hours a day. We need somebody to handle them,'" Rosenbloom said. "It would be totally inaccurate to say (Moag) is searching for buyers.
"We did not authorize (Moag) to go out and say, 'Hey, the team's up for sale.' It's simply returning these people's phone calls."
However, Rosenbloom also added, "It's the same as it's been. If the right person at the time right time with the right price came, I suppose that you might sell your house, right? So, I don't say never. ... If we get a phone call today from somebody who says the right things, we would listen. And that's why Moag is there."
Of course, most people don't sell their house unless it's put on the market. Rosenbloom acknowledged that the potential estate tax due for inheriting the team will be an issue. Rosenbloom and Rodriguez each became 30-percent owners when their mother, Georgia Frontiere, died in January.
"We don't know what we're going to be able to do, what we might owe in taxes," Rosenbloom said. "We don't know what the overall financial thing will be at the end of dealing with my mom's estate taxes. I do know there are a number of years we can hold onto the team without being concerned about it."
Fielding offers also can help establish a franchise value, which could be used in figuring the amount of tax owed.
While Rosenbloom has also insisted that he wants to keep the Rams in St. Louis, it is notable that John Moag, who runs Moag & Co., helped the Browns move to Baltimore in 1996, and he is also involved with renovation plans for the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., that could be used to attract an NFL team to Los Angeles.
-07-21-2008, 01:00 PM
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