Oaklandblue wrote:You guys can't have the Raiders. Sorry. I really think yall should keep the Rams, given the color scheme and let's be honest, how many things come out of LA and win the championship in the mid-west? Rams to me belong in the STL moreso than any other team.
And I do agree that they should have kept the Cardinals NFL franchise IN the STL. It always confuses me when they talk about the Cards, I'm like which one?! O.o lol.
One thing the leagues need to realize is that a team isn't just a commodity, it's a culture in an area, a rite of passage, a part of history of both a city and those that follow that specific club. I can't think of my grandparents, who are no longer with me, without thinking of the Athletics, Raiders, Invaders, etc. That was part of our rite of passage here and in some ways, it still is. It was part of growing up and passing it on to our kids and so on.
Sorry, I'm a romantic like that, but I feel that's true. Taking a team away with their history is a major crime on an area. Look at Atlanta and how many times they lost a team now. Think they'll welcome hockey back in? I blame the NHL for their failure, both times.
I 100% agree with all of this. I look at Europe and the football (soccer) teams there. No one moves. They either stay where they are or fold, but they don't move. They're a fabric of the community.
The thing I'd be concerned about if I were a Raiders fan, is that Oakland seems to have zero interest in building the Raiders a stadium. STL is making headway on a stadium, LA has a couple trying to get going, SD is finally starting to show interest in building a stadium. Oakland isn't.
Obviously, my number one choice is that the Rams stay here. But should STL go through with building the NFL a stadium (the 2nd time they've done so in 25 years, mind you), how can the league turn their back on them? They'll get a team and the Raiders will be on that list.
But I digress. Back to your original point. I want my son to be a Rams fan. I want to be able to take him to (home) games just across the river. The way leagues pit cities against each other so that billionaires can have their stadiums funded by the cities instead of our of their own fat pockets is pretty disgusting. But that's where we are, unfortunately.
I always get really wistful thinking of teams that moved away, mostly because of the fans left behind in that situation. A great documentary to watch about that is 'Sonicsgate,' which covered the Sonics move from Seattle to OKC.