Home of iconic NFL dynasty facing ruin as states pull support after bitter $780 million split ...Middle East

The turn-of-the-century St. Louis Rams will always be remembered as The Greatest Show on Turf.

Between 1999 and 2001, the franchise ran an almost unstoppable offense under innovative coach Mike Martz, taking a clean sweep of MVP awards.

Quarterback Kurt Warner was the man pulling the strings, while Marshall Faulk ran opponents into the ground. The passer was named MVP in 1999 and 2001, with his teammate taking the award in 2000.

Two Super Bowl appearances, one victory and a then-NFL record 7,075-yard season in 2000 — which has only been bettered by three teams since — established St. Louis as the home of the hottest ticket in town.

Warner sat down with talkSPORT in 2024 to compare his offense to Patrick Mahomes’ high-powered Kansas City Chiefs.

“Oh, yeah, we were better,”he said confidently. “That’s for sure.

“I’m not sure the quarterback was better. But, overall, we were better. I mean, we had more talent … Hall of Famers all over the place.

“We did something in an era that had never been done before.”

The city built the 67,000-seater Trans World Dome to lure an NFL franchise and got its wish when the Rams moved in for the 1995 season.

Five years later, it appeared to be a match made in heaven as the Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV.

But unfortunately, it was soon a case of The Greatest Show on Turf Toe as Faulk and Warner suffered from injuries and poor form alongside many other key pieces.

A struggling defense and poor draft selections also contributed to a rapid decline, which widened cracks that were already appearing off the field.

As part of the deal to tempt the Rams to St. Louis, the stadium was required to feature amenities that would be maintained in the top 25 percent of all NFL venues. 

By 2005, the arena had fallen out of the top quarter, giving the franchise the right to break the lease, which bosses agreed to waive in exchange for improvements.

That led to a $30 million renovation in 2009 to replace scoreboards with LED video displays and add premium areas. In 2010, the home locker room was rebuilt and new turf was laid.

But key figures on both sides began to grow frustrated, with the city worried about splashing more cash and the team frustrated by negative perceptions of its HQ.

The Rams placed in the bottom five of the league in attendance every season from 2008 to 2015.

By 2012 talks were well underway over options for the future.

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Owner Stan Kroenke purchased land for a new facility in Inglewood, California in 2014.

In a desperate bid to keep its team, a St. Louis city board approved a $1 billion financing package to build a state-of-the-art new arena.

It was a deeply unpopular move over the use of $150 million in public funds and protestors picketed the meeting.

“I”m going to have to stand up here in support of [the city] comptroller’s very clear warnings of the financial pitfalls in this project,” said Alderwoman Cara Spencer. “This is a 15 percent subsidy to a $100bn industry, the NFL; to a team owner who has a net personal worth of $6.3bn.”

The naysayers ultimately got their way as Kroenke headed for the Sunshine State and a massive Los Angeles market — at a staggering price.

The land in Inglewood is now the gleaming SoFi Stadium, which hosts the 2022 Super Bowl champions, as well as the Los Angeles Chargers.

As well as pouring $5 billion into SoFi per The Athletic, Kroenke also saw his franchise sued for over $1 billion in damages by the city he left in the lurch.

The NFL was also named in the suit.

A $790 million settlement was reached in November 2021 with much of the money split between the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County.

Around $30 million was put aside to fund an expansion of the America’s Center convention center attached to the dome that hosted the team.

Now known as The Dome at America’s Center, the St. Louis Battlehawks frequently drew crowds of over 30,000, but it is struggling to bring in money.

Kelsey Landis of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in May that the stadium needs $155 million in repairs over the next decade.

St. Louis County and the state of Missouri are no longer providing capital and NBC Sports claims a draft of an audit of the St. Louis Regional Convention & Sports Complex Authority concluded that “the long-term viability of the Dome may be at risk.”

Kendrick Lamar will play there in June, but the venue is going unused most of the summer.

St Louis will always have The Greatest Show on Turf but, as the league casts its eyes further afield to London and Madrid, football may be a thing of the past and the Dome may soon join the list of abandoned colosseums that dot the USA.

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