St. Louis Rams fans appear eager to let the NFL know how they feel about the franchise's possible relocation to Los Angeles.

The NFL has closed registration for Tuesday night's scheduled public hearing on the matter at St. Louis' Peabody Opera House, declaring that the 1,500 available seats are now claimed, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke wants to move the franchise to Los Angeles. A new billion-dollar riverfront stadium is being proposed in St. Louis, though it's unclear if the city will have an NFL team when such a stadium is finished.

Similar hearings are scheduled for Wednesday in San Diego and the next day in Oakland. Those two cities and St. Louis are in danger of losing their NFL teams to relocation to Los Angeles next year.

The NFL capped the number of participants in the public hearings -- mandated by provisions in the NFL's relocation guidelines -- at roughly 1,500 for each market, partly because the venues in Oakland and San Diego are smaller than the 3,100-seat Peabody.

The NFL said the majority of the 1,500 requests are being reserved for season-ticket holders, though a portion of that bloc will go to non-season ticket holders.

No signs will be allowed inside the Peabody Opera House.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, citing draft measures by St. Louis' governing board, reported Friday that St. Louis city will pay $6 million a year toward a new stadium and rebate an undetermined portion of game-day taxes to the team.

The yearly $6 million is the same amount that now covers debt payments on the current Edward Jones Dome, covering roughly $70 million of the $150 million that Mayor Francis Slay's office has committed to the billion-dollar project's construction and planning. The second half of the money will not be paid by the city but by the public authority that owns the Jones Dome, according to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen legislation. That would be done largely by leveraging a recently announced $158 million naming rights deal involving the proposed stadium.

The public details of possible city financing for the stadium come as some on the aldermanic board are pressing for a public vote before the city is allowed to spend $150 million on the stadium. A St. Louis judge in August declared as invalid a city ordinance requiring such a vote, calling sections of it "too vague to be enforced."

 

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