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RSL owner plans to make run at NFL's Rams

Dave Checketts, the Bountiful native and former Utah Jazz executive whose purchase of the Real Salt Lake soccer team four years ago began a quest to build a professional sports empire, plans to make a run at buying the NFL's St. Louis Rams in order to keep them from leaving their city.

"We have the ability to get this done and we have communicated this to the Rams," Checketts said in an e-mail provided by spokesman Eric Gelfand.

The current majority owners are preparing to sell their stake in the Rams after inheriting it last year from their mother, the late Georgia Frontiere, and the team announced Monday that they have hired investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to arrange a deal. The asking price remains unknown, though Forbes magazine has valued the Rams at $929 million.

Although his personal fortune would not normally be considered large enough to afford an NFL franchise, Checketts said he can assemble the needed partners and raise the necessary money -- probably at least $450 million, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- to buy the 60 percent stake in the team held by Chip Rosenbloom and his sister, Lucia Rodriguez. Billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, owns the remaining 40 percent.

The sale of the team has been expected since Frontiere died, but it also has fueled anxiety in the city that lost the NFL's Cardinals in 1987 and was passed over for an expansion franchise in 1993. Only when Frontiere moved the Rams back to her hometown in 1995 did St. Louis regain its team, and Checketts plans to keep the team in town.

"We approached this with the Rams months ago," Checketts said in the e-mail, "and have since that time put together a partnership of both concerned St. Louisans and outside capital. Last week, we communicated to Chip in no uncertain terms, that he now has a clear St. Louis buyer. We are that buyer. We have reason to believe the NFL would approve our group, as we have carefully explored their ownership requirements."

Checketts was vacationing Tuesday and unavailable for further comment.

Checketts already owns the NHL's St. Louis Blues, which he purchased from Bill and Nancy Laurie in 2006, not long after he landed RSL as an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer. The Blues have made great strides under his stewardship, too, returning to the playoffs this season for the first time in five years and rekindling interest in St. Louis -- though RSL has strained this season to live up to the expectations generated by its first playoff appearance last year.

Just because he wants the Rams, however, does not necessarily mean Checketts will get them.

Checketts also was considered a favorite to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2003, but the team went instead to real estate mogul Frank McCourt. Checketts also was involved in a failed bid to buy the Boston Red Sox, according to The New York Times , though he's reportedly good friends with Rosenbloom, which could give him an advantage, this time.

By Michael C. Lewis, The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 06/02/2009 06:05:49 PM MDT
RSL owner plans to make run at NFL's Rams - Salt Lake Tribune