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What’s Going On Shows California Love

In the citaaay of L.A.

So the Rams have officially moved to L.A., officially ending what had turned into a very ugly process. (Speaking of ugly, it looks like the Rams won’t be going back to their old uniforms when the move happens.) Stan Kroenke disparaged St. Louis in his bid to relocate, saying the city couldn’t support three pro sports teams, the economy of St. Louis wasn’t growing, and the league would be harmed if any team played in St. Louis with their stadium proposal, among other things. (Rams’ full relocation bid here.)

Is St. Louis a growing market? No. (Worth noting – Inglewood ranked lower than St. Louis in the economic study Kroenke cited in his relocation bid, so there’s that. Inglewood always up to no good.) Is the Edward Jones Dome a dump? Absolutely. Did St. Louis get a raw deal here? You bet. As one dismayed Rams fan points out here, St. Louis was the only city in danger of losing its team to L.A. that did anything at all to keep it. Oakland is still twiddling their thumbs, despite the fact that the O.co Coliseum has had problem with raw sewage backups. San Diego is wringing their hands. The NFL has offered both the Chargers and the Raiders $100 million to help build new stadiums in those cities. My guess is that San Diego takes them up on that offer. I think given the choice, Kroenke would rather not share a stadium with the Chargers. The Raiders, I’m not as sure about. Mark Davis doesn’t seem to eager to stay in Oakland, saying the relocation vote was not a win for the Raiders and not mentioning Oakland at all, despite the fact that the NFL is willing to give him $100 million to help build a new stadium there. If I had to guess, they move to San Antonio.

P.S. Stan Kroenke’s full name is Enos Stanley Kroenke, after Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial, so I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the “Best Fans in Baseball” demand he change his name.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, democracy simply doesn’t work

John Scott was voted into the NHL All-Star Game as a captain by the fans. John Scott had a career-high 4 points last year with the Sharks, has only 11 points in his 8-year career, and has played only 11 games with the Coyotes this year. But, he was voted into the All-Star Game, because people love to screw around with fan votes like this. Any other year, the NHL might have embraced this as a fun story. This year, though, they’re trying a new format: a 3-on-3 tournament where the winning team wins $1 million. It’s kind of a big deal to them, so of course, something had to be done about the Scott thing. The NHL and Coyotes both asked Scott to bow out of the game, but he said no, so the Coyotes shipped him to Montreal, making him ineligible for the game.

I understand why the league was upset by Scott being voted in; this All-Star Game is a big deal to them. They’re trying to get more fans interested in the game and bring in more money. The NHL doesn’t make as much as any of the other big four leagues and the last three times the CBA has been negotiated, a lockout has taken place, one of which cancelled an entire season. Any additional money and interest the league can bring in helps. However, this was a lousy way to address the situation. To ship the guy across the continent over something like this is shameful. Ideally, Scott would have bowed out and opened up the spot for someone more deserving and the NHL would still have called him the Pacific Division captain and given him his share of the winnings should that team win. But, he was voted in, because the NHL was too stupid to do something simple like set a minimum number of games each player has to play before being eligible for voting, and if he wanted to play, he should have been let play.

Hair today, in the paper tomorrow

Brian Urlacher has hair now. Apparently, he used the same people Eddie Olczyk plugs (No pun intended. Okay, kind of intended.) during Blackhawks games. The day Urlacher revealed his new look, Mikey wrote this saying he doesn’t care and doesn’t see why this is news. So, of course, the following day, this was given a full page in the Times:

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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