The City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, and the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority (RSA) filed suit in Circuit Court of St. Louis City demonstrating that the NFL, its teams, and owners violated their own Relocation Guidelines.
The suit cites extensively to these Relocation Guidelines, which bind the NFL, NFL team owners, and NFL teams to follow certain procedures before allowing them to relocate.
The suit further sets out many quotations by NFL executives, team owners, and a team executive showing that the various Defendants failed to follow the relocation guidelines even as they induced St. Louis to spend considerable time and money to generate a compelling new stadium development.
The suit also alleges actions of these defendants supporting a violation of the guidelines. This violation ultimately resulted in the loss of the St. Louis Rams franchise to the detriment of the Plaintiffs, and to the great benefit of the Defendants, who received a relocation fee of hundreds of millions of dollars by wrongfully allowing the St. Louis Rams to move. Meanwhile the Los Angeles Rams received an increase in value to its franchise of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The suit is filed in five counts and requests, as relief, extensive damages, including restitution to the plaintiffs of the wrongfully obtained relocation fee, and punitive damages.
The suit was filed on behalf of the Plaintiffs by Bob Blitz and Chris Bauman of Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch L.C. and James Bennett and Edward Dowd at Dowd Bennett LLP.
A copy of the suit, including the Relocation Guidelines, is available here.
Read more in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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