After protracted battle, Rams and NFL settle over the club’s relocation from St. Louis to LA

The agreement brings an expensive conclusion to a 2017 lawsuit filed against the league and its teams by St. Louis, St. Louis County and the Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority. The suit alleged the NFL had violated its own relocation rules when the Rams left St. Louis for Los Angeles, where they have played since 2016.

The lawsuit didn’t just place the NFL at odds with local governing bodies that claimed significant financial losses stemming from the Rams departure. It also produced an internal feud between billionaire Stan Kroenke, the Rams’ owner, and other owners over the proceedings and cost of the litigation. Owners were at odds with each other over a fundamental issue: who would foot the bill. The judge in the case at one point fined the owners when they refused to turn over financial records to calculate damages.

It is not immediately clear who will pay the settlement.

Owners approved the Rams’ move to Los Angeles believing that an indemnification clause signed by Kroenke would shield them from any legal costs that could potentially arise. Then those projected costs — including both the settlement amount and cost of the legal defence — grew as the proceedings unfolded.

Tensions between ownership on those costs erupted during a closed-door meeting in October. ESPN reported at the time that owners were informed that Kroenke held a different view of the indemnification clause and that he said he would not be responsible for all of the costs. The revelation put the billionaires who run the NFL at odds with each other over who would pay an extraordinary sum.

That discord ramped up even further last week when representatives for Kroenke informed the league and other teams that the Rams could settle their portion of the case for between $500 million and $750 million, while leaving other owners to fend for themselves. That missive, first reported by Sports Business Journal, was part of another bid by Kroenke to get the rest of the league to share in the liability.

The settlement and price tag of more than three quarters of a billion, which was first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, reflects the NFL’s repeated legal losses in the case. When the lawsuit was first filed, the league dismissed it as illegitimate and said the relocation process was fair. But when it actually got to court, the league lost again and again, with efforts to move the trial out of St. Louis or to get the case dismissed all falling flat.

“This historic agreement closes a long chapter for our region, securing hundreds of millions of dollars for our communities while avoiding the uncertainty of the trial and appellate process,” mayor Tishaura O. Jones and St. Louis County executive Sam Page said in a statement. “The City, County, and STLRSA are still determining how settlement funds will be allocated.”

The parties were in mediation ahead of the settlement, and the clock was ticking to strike a deal, with the case set for trial in January.

That trial would have loomed over the NFL’s playoffs, including the NFL’s crown jewel: this season’s Super Bowl will be played at the Rams’ new stadium that Kroenke constructed — at a cost of over $5 billion.

-The Wall Street Journal