The Rams and NFL reached a settlement with the city of St. Louis last November, ending the four-year lawsuit over the team’s relocation to Los Angeles. The settlement was for $790 million, and Rams owner Stan Kroenke agreed to pay the legal costs that came with this move from St. Louis.
Since then, Kroenke has attempted to get out of covering those legal expenses, which angered other NFL owners during the league meetings last October. To help pay for the settlement – which, according to The Athletic, Kroenke argues is different than the legal fees he promised to pay – the NFL has taken $7.5 million from each team.
Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reports that was deducted from each team’s revenue-sharing payments, a sum that comes to $232.5 million. Understandably, team executives were surprised by this costly development, with no clarity of whether the money will be paid back to them if Kroenke covers the entire amount himself.
The team executives described surprise at the move and complained that the action had caused budgeting issues because of the sudden charge and not knowing whether the money would be returned if Kroenke is ordered by the NFL to pay the whole sum.
As beneficial as the move from St. Louis to Los Angeles has been for the Rams, it’s also been a costly one for Kroenke and the other NFL owners.
