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Khan 'gets acquainted' with Rams executives, Spagnuolo

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    Khan 'gets acquainted' with Rams executives, Spagnuolo

    Prior to the Rams’ convoy departing for Indianapolis for the annual scouting combine, there was an unexpected meeting for the team’s top executives.

    Potential owner Shahid Khan, who has agreed to purchase at least the 60 percent of the team held by Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, was in St. Louis Tuesday and met individually for about 20 minutes each with executive vice president of football operations/chief operating officer Kevin Demoff, general manager Billy Devaney and coach Steve Spagnuolo. The meetings were away from Rams Park.

    Said a source close to Khan, “There was no specific agenda other than to take advantage of a break in his schedule to become acquainted, and the timing was right just prior to the combine.”

    “It was a good meeting,” said Devaney from Indianapolis. “You can tell he cares about the Rams. He seems like a real good guy.”

    Khan is continuing the process of hopefully being approved by the NFL ownership. It is believed, although not confirmed, that he has talked with part-owner Stan Kroenke about his plans.

    Kroenke has until April 12 to make known whether he will retain his 40 percent ownership of the team, sell that 40 percent to Khan or exercise his right of first refusal for the 60 percent Khan has agreed to buy.

    The Globe-Democrat.com previously reported that Khan is hoping that Kroenke remains as an owner of the team.
    @EssexRam_
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    • #2
      Re: Khan 'gets acquainted' with Rams executives, Spagnuolo

      Sounds like a good guy who's passionate about this team.

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        • RamFan_Til_I_Die
          Rams sale to top agenda for owners meeting
          by RamFan_Til_I_Die
          ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Stan Kroenke has never been much for publicity, maintaining a low profile as the minority owner of the St. Louis Rams the last 15 years.

          Now the 63-year-old Missouri billionaire is making waves, challenging the NFL's rule against cross ownership with a bid to take full control of the team in a move that would give him at least a majority stake in a fifth professional sports franchise.

          Enos Stanley Kroenke, named after Cardinals baseball Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, has earned the nickname Silent Stanley.

          He rarely uses his office on the second floor at the Rams Park complex and there have been no Kroenke sightings during training camp, no appearances to gauge the downtrodden team's progress.

          "Stan's been focused on his end of the process and I've been focused on here," second-year coach Steve Spagnuolo said.

          The chain of command calls for Kroenke to relay any concerns to the brother-sister ownership team of Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez.

          "With Chip, on any major decision or anything we're going to do, he's very hands on," general manager Billy Devaney said.

          The owners meet in Atlanta on Wednesday to discuss expanding the season and issues with the collective bargaining agreement. But the big topic in the one-day meeting will be the bid by Kroenke to purchase the remaining 60 percent of the team, and add to his franchise collection.

          None of the principals involved in the sale has said much beyond prepared statements the last several months. The price has widely been reported at $750 million, no matter that the franchise has been staggeringly inept with a 6-42 record the last three years.

          In a statement issued in June, Kroenke said he planned to keep ownership of the NBA's Denver Nuggets and NHL's Colorado Avalanche in the family if he gains full control of the Rams. The most likely way he would dodge the NFL's rule against owning more than one professional franchise is by handing off his other franchises to family members.

          The Nuggets are restructuring the front office after declining to extend the contracts of executives Mark Warkentien and Rex Chapman. That could mean a larger role for Kroenke's son Josh, a former Missouri basketball player.

          Maybe a much larger role. Such a transfer would have to be approved by the NBA board of governors.

          Rosenbloom and Rodriguez inherited the franchise from the late Georgia Frontiere and are selling because of inheritance tax issues.

          They also are keeping really quiet.

          "I really can't comment on anything right now," Rosenbloom said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "I am happy to talk with you on other subjects, though."

          Asked to discuss the team's progress in training camp, Rosenbloom said that would have...
          -08-20-2010, 03:48 PM
        • MauiRam
          Rosenbloom confident on Rams sale ..
          by MauiRam
          BY JIM THOMAS Posted: Tuesday, August 3, 2010 12:08 am

          With a scheduled vote three weeks away on Stan Kroenke's bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams, team owner Chip Rosenbloom remains confident the deal will get done.

          "We're optimistic that the transaction will be supported by the owners and the league," Rosenbloom told the Post-Dispatch on Monday. "Our relationship with Stan has been and continues to be excellent. We're finalizing documents and expect it to be voted on Aug. 25."

          Rosenbloom's comments come on the heels of a SportsBusiness Journal report that some members of the NFL finance committee were upset at Kroenke's two-tiered approach to purchasing the Rams.

          Kroenke exercised a right of first refusal in April, in essence deciding to match the bid by Illinois businessman Shahid Khan to purchase the 60 percent of the Rams currently up for sale by Rosenbloom and sister Lucia Rodriguez.

          It's believed that Khan's offer was not a single-payment offer. In other words, Khan would pay part of the franchise purchase price initially, and then buy the rest of Rosenbloom's and Rodriguez's 60 percent share at a later date.

          Kroenke "inherited" those terms when matching Khan's offer. But realistically, the terms probably have been tweaked over the course of discussions and meetings involving Kroenke, Rosenbloom and the NFL.

          It's not that Kroenke couldn't pay cash in one installment if he had to. In fact, he paid cash for his current 40 percent share of the Rams when the franchise moved to St. Louis in 1995.

          But on one level, it seems puzzling if members of the finance committee indeed are against a two-tiered payment method by Kroenke because there is precedence for such purchases. Most recently, Arthur Blank bought the Atlanta Falcons in two installments, as did Steve Bisciotti with the Baltimore Ravens.

          The NFL is scheduled to vote on Kroenke's bid Aug. 25 in Atlanta.

          Through a spokesman, Kroenke declined to comment.
          -08-03-2010, 09:51 AM
        • Ramblin` Ram
          Khan seeks to join exclusive club
          by Ramblin` Ram
          Shahid Khan seeks to join exclusive club as owner of the St. Louis Rams

          BY JIM THOMAS
          ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
          03/21/2010

          By the end of May at the latest, Shahid Khan will learn whether he has gained admission into one of the wealthiest, most exclusive and, at the same time, most eclectic clubs in America as one of the 32 controlling owners of a National Football League team.

          "It is kind of a strange group," said a league insider. "Very strange. You know the group."

          It's a group that will convene Monday in Orlando, Fla., for the NFL's annual owners meetings, where Khan's bid to buy the Rams will be one of the items discussed.

          Among the exclusive club of owners, there's the old guard, such as the Halas/McCaskey family, which has been involved with what is now the Chicago Bears since the inception of the NFL in 1920.

          The Mara family founded the New York Giants in 1925, when Tim Mara (who was a bookmaker, among other things) and partner Billy Gibson bought the team for $500. The Maras have owned all or part of the franchise ever since.

          The Cardinals franchise, now based in Arizona and led by the shy Bill Bidwill, has been in the Bidwill family since 1932. In Pittsburgh, the Rooney family founded the Steelers with a $2,500 purchase on July 8, 1933.

          In Oakland, age is catching up with one of the league's all-time mavericks, Al Davis. He shows up for league meetings wearing either an all-white or all-black workout suit, now needing the use of a walker to get around. Then there's the frugal Mike Brown of Cincinnati, son of the late Paul Brown, a legendary coach and owner.

          There's also a new group of owners who entered the league beginning with the last wave of expansion in 1995. Wayne Weaver of the Jacksonville Jaguars made his money in shoes, rising through the ranks of the St. Louis-based Brown Group Inc. Paul Allen of the Seattle Seahawks co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1976.

          The Philadelphia Eagles' Jeffrey Lurie once was an assistant professor at Boston University. Steve Tisch, who owns half the New York Giants (the Mara family still owns the other half), may be the only person on the planet with a Super Bowl ring and an Academy Award (as co-producer of "Forrest Gump").

          Many of the owners inherited their fortunes. Some made theirs from humble beginnings. After Arthur Blank and friend Bernie Marcus were fired by the Handy Dan home-improvement chain in California in 1978, they opened a couple of similar stores in 1979. Thirteen-hundred Home Depot stores later, Blank bought the Atlanta Falcons in 2002.

          Maryland businessman Steve Bisciotti was only 39 when he bought 49 percent of the Baltimore Ravens in 2000. (He purchased an additional 50 percent of the team four years later.) When he opened his first business, the staffing...
          -03-21-2010, 07:14 AM
        • r8rh8rmike
          St. Louis Rams' Hands Are Tied Pending Sale
          by r8rh8rmike
          St. Louis Rams' hands are tied pending sale

          By Bryan Burwell
          ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
          05/12/2010


          Watching billionaire minority owner Stan Kroenke go through the latest machinations in his effort to acquire 100 percent control of your St. Louis Rams makes me understand that apparently filthy rich men are no different from the rest of us when it comes to the American male's obsession with acquiring "stuff," even if that "stuff" just happens to be an $800 million NFL franchise.

          Yet Kroenke seems to be turning the relatively simple task of buying the Rams into a convoluted adventure that reminds me of a gluttonous kid who rolls into the candy store with a fistful of dollars but can't quite figure out how he will be able to haul out all the jellybeans, maltballs and Twizzlers he just bought, even though all he has to do is just hand his half-eaten sandwich and half-empty soda pop to his salivating baby brother.

          Enough already. Just buy the darned team, will ya?

          Kroenke has enough money to own just about anything he wants twice over, but for some reason he seems to have a hard time getting this deal done. This could have been done two years ago when Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez first inherited the Rams from their mother, Georgia Frontiere. But Stan sat back and waited until someone else expressed interest in the team, came in at the 11th hour, blocked Shahid Khan's ownership bid, then spent the last few weeks bobbing and weaving his way around the NFL's prohibition on cross-ownership of pro franchises.

          So now we learn that Kroenke's latest plan to circumvent the rules involves trying to pass the check over to his filthier rich wife, Ann, even though the chance of that flying through the NFL's scrutiny without dispute seems to be unlikely. The NFL has already balked at granting Kroenke any favors on the cross-ownership front and now indicates it won't rule on his ownership efforts later this month, which means the process could drag on all summer or even longer.

          And you know what that means, don't you?

          Kroenke's plans are botching up the already daunting task of rebuilding this moribund franchise.

          No matter how much general manager Billy Devaney and team president Kevin Demoff swear that they have not been hamstrung by the ownership being in limbo, we have to know better. Our own Jim Thomas has said that he's had several conversations with agents who have been told by Rams officials that they can't get business done on the free agent marketplace because they don't have the cash to make deals.

          No matter how much Rosenbloom says that he hasn't put the clamps down on spending, think about it. If you were selling a house, how much would you be willing to spend beyond the most superficial improvements?

          So now might be a good time for NFL Commissioner...
          -05-12-2010, 11:01 AM
        • MauiRam
          St. Louis Rams owner prefers Stan Kroenke take over team ..
          by MauiRam
          BY JIM THOMAS

          05/27/2010

          IRVING, TEXAS — In many ways, it has been a long 2 1/2 years for Chip Rosenbloom as controlling owner of the Rams.

          "Emotionally, there's so many things that go into it," Rosenbloom told the Post-Dispatch. "The issue of whether we would hold onto the team, selling the team, the timing of that, all of those issues are from a family that has been in the sports business since 1953 — 11 years before I was born.

          "It's part of the fabric of our family's lives. Emotionally, it's been very tough. And that's been one of the keys in finding the right buyer."

          Rosenbloom and sister Lucia Rodriguez inherited 60 percent of the team when their mother, Georgia Frontiere, died of breast cancer on Jan. 18, 2008.

          Between Rosenbloom's father, Carroll Rosenbloom, and his mother, the family has owned an NFL franchise — first the Colts, then the Rams — for 57 years.

          But largely because of estate tax issues, Rosenbloom and Rodriguez can no longer make a go of it as NFL owners. And after a long, tedious process characterized at times by frustration and surprise developments, the goal line is in sight.

          Although Rosenbloom wouldn't speak to it, progress was made at the just completed NFL owners meetings in the Dallas area. If all goes well, team owners could approve Missouri businessman Stan Kroenke's bid to purchase controlling interest in the team as early as August.

          In his first extensive interview since late January, Rosenbloom talked about the sales process and why Kroenke is a good choice as the Rams' next owner, and paid homage to Illinois businessman Shahid Khan.

          "It's been interesting," Rosenbloom said. "We're tackling a lot of issues here. We're trying to find the right buyer for us, the right buyer for the NFL, the right buyer for St. Louis. And do it in a way that respects the process."

          In a move that surprised many, Kroenke exercised his right of first refusal in matching a sales agreement reached by Khan to purchase Rosenbloom's and Rodriguez's 60 percent share.

          "Stan has been a great partner, a friend to our family for 15 years," Rosenbloom said. "It's his right to do what he chose to do here. We're happy that we have such a good friend in Stan and that St. Louis has such a good friend in Stan."

          In no way, Rosenbloom pointed out, should that be construed as a sign of disrespect to Khan.

          "I have great admiration for Shad Khan, and I consider Shad a friend," Rosenbloom said.

          Nonetheless, Rosenbloom would be gratified to see Kroenke take over the team because in a sense Kroenke would continue the family legacy in the NFL. He joined Frontiere as a business partner in 1995 when he agreed to purchase 40 percent of the team, a transaction that ensured...
          -05-27-2010, 09:23 AM
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