(St. Louis) The NFL and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke will pay $790 million to settle a lawsuit filed by St. Louis interests over the club’s relocation from Missouri to California, according to a joint statement from the City and County of St. Louis.
Posted Nov 24, 2021
Details of the deal were not disclosed, nor were the specific amounts paid by Kroenke and the owners of 31 other NFL teams.
Authorities in St. Louis have not yet determined how these funds will be used.
The settlement, reached in mediation, puts an end to proceedings of four and a half years. Kroenke and the NFL failed in their attempts to have the lawsuit dismissed or at least moved to another jurisdiction. The courts have responded positively to St. Louis’ requests to reveal the owners’ financial information, resulting in this quick settlement.
The more than $1 billion lawsuit, filed in 2017 on behalf of the City of St. Louis, County of St. Louis and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, was scheduled to be heard Jan. 10. She alleged that the Rams’ move to Los Angeles deprived the region of millions of dollars in various taxes, that it was fomented as early as 2013, that the team subsequently lied about its intentions and that the league ignored its own relocation rules by allowing this move.
The NFL, the Rams and Kroenke argued that these rules are not cast in stone and that the league had the right to approve this move which was clearly in the interests of the league and the owners of the 32 teams.
A series of setbacks in court by Kroenke and the NFL expedited the settlement in that case.
