Rush Limbaugh told KMOX-AM St. Louis several months ago that he was eying a bid to buy the St. Louis Rams. Now he’s confirmed to the station that he and a partner have indeed made an offer to buy the NFL team.
Limbaugh, whose show airs in St. Louis on KMOX, sent the station a response to rumors that he and NHL St. Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts are trying to buy the Rams:
“Dave and I are part of a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process. But I can say no more because of a confidentiality clause in our agreement with Goldman Sachs. We cannot and will not talk about our partners. But if we prevail we will be the operators of the team,” Limbaugh told the station.
Goldman Sachs is evaluating potential bids for the team, although a sale is not certain. Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, the son and daughter of late owner Georgia Frontiere, own 60% of the team and are investigating the possibility of cashing out. The other 40% owned by Stan Kroenke might or might not be for sale as well. So, it’s still a preliminary process.
Limbaugh, who hails from Cape Girardeau, MO, and Checketts would definitely keep the team in St. Louis. It is not known whether other bidders are interested in moving the NFL franchise elsewhere. For that matter, it’s not yet known what other potential bidders are talking with Goldman Sachs.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Rams might fetch $800 million in the current economy, down from the $900 million Forbes magazine placed on the team in its last valuation of all NFL teams.
RBR-TVBR observation: If you’re going to buy a very expensive toy, make sure it’s one you really, really want. Just as Mark Cuban is a huge basketball fan who bought an NBA team, Rush is a huge football fan, so he might as well put his money into something he will really enjoy.
Sure, some Limbaugh haters are already posting comments on local St. Louis sites that they will never support the hometown team if Limbaugh is an owner. But this isn’t about politics, it’s about football.
For some pro sports franchise owners, it appears to us that they are primarily in it for an ego boost – they own something which puts them in a very exclusive club that mere mortals can only dream of. But when a true fan actually has the financial wherewithal to become a team owner, you get the kind of passion put into play that you see with the Dallas Mavericks under Cuban’s ownership. Our guess is that Limbaugh would bring a similar passion to ownership of the Rams, if that actually materializes. And that would be good for the hometown fans in St. Louis and the surrounding area – including Cape Girardeau.
