In terms of football, Stan Kroenke isn't quite done with St. Louis. Or rather, St. Louis isn't quite done with Stan Kroenke.
Four St. Louis Rams fans have hired a lawyer and are suing the Rams owner for moving the team to Los Angeles, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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The plaintiffs claim the Rams violated Missouri's Merchandising Practices Act through "deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise."
The newspaper explained that any sort of deception or omission of "material fact" regarding the sale of merchandise is illegal in Missouri. The suit "seeks to recover actual and punitive damages for those people who bought Rams merchandise between 2000 and 2015," the Post-Dispatch reported.
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The plaintiffs are Rams fans James Pudlowski, Louis C. Cross III, Gail Henry and her husband, Steve Henry, but their lawyer, Steven J. Stolze said he hopes their complaint turns into a class-action suit representing tens of thousands of disgruntled St. Louis football fans that bought Rams game tickets and/or Rams merchandise.
The suit claims the fans bought their tickets and St. Louis-labeled NFL merchandise on the promises from Kroenke and other team officials that the Rams were going to remain in St. Louis. The plaintiffs found multiple public quotes from Kroenke and Ryan Demoff, listed as a "top executive," as far back as 2010 that the team was committed to staying in St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch reported.
"I'm going to attempt to do everything I can to keep the Rams in St. Louis," Kroenke told the Post-Dispatch in 2010. "People know I am an honorable guy. "I'll do my damnedest (to keep the Rams from leaving)."
"It's not our desire to ever lead the charge out of St. Louis," Kroenke told the Post-Dispatch later in 2010.
In a radio interview in 2012, Demoff said, "Our entire focus is on building a winner in and for St. Louis," the suit noted.
"Our goal is to build a winner in St. Louis not only in 2012, but in 2022, 2032 and beyond," Demoff said on the team website in 2012, the suit added. And even after Kroenke bought property in Inglewood, where the new stadium will be built in time for the 2019 season, Demoff said he expected the Rams' future to be in St. Louis to a local radio station.
The plaintiffs also claim the Rams never specifically addressed their fans about their intentions of relocating to Los Angeles until Jan. 4 when the team filed its relocation application to the NFL.
The suit does not specify that amount of damages sought.
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