Each of the three plaintiffs who sued the NFL over the departure of the Rams from St. Louis will receive less settlement money than the plaintiff lawyers.
The Dowd Bennett and Blitz Bardgett & Deutsch law firms banked $276.5 million for representing the plaintiffs after the parties reached a $790 million resolution a year ago.
The St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Authority (RSA) board approved a split last month that enriched the City of St. Louis with $250 million, according to media reports.
“From a public standpoint and when you're dealing with that much money, you probably have a good deal when everybody is unhappy,” said Randy Karraker, 101 ESPN Radio morning host. “RSA didn't get as much as they wanted. The county didn't get as much as it wanted. The city didn't get as much as it wanted. So. that probably means everybody is as happy as they are going to be.”
St. Louis County was apportioned $169 million compared to $70 million for the RSA.
“It’s interesting that they were able to reach an agreement pretty quickly after they had finally agreed to put the money in an interest-bearing account,” Karraker told the St. Louis Record. “So, if they're comfortable with it, the constituents should be comfortable with it, too.”
As previously reported in the St Louis Record, the RSA sued the NFL and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke in 2017 over a stadium deal that went sour.
“Teams that are in the market for a new stadium will be more reluctant to talk about moving and more reluctant to avoid those relocation guidelines because of what happened here, and I think a template has been set that it's going to be very, very difficult to move an NFL team now,” Karraker said.
Another $30 million was allocated to help pay for America’s Center convention center, which is adjacent to the Dome.
“The RSA will get an opportunity to upgrade the Dome, which they want to do, not at the level that the Rams wanted, but at least they'll have some money so that they can upgrade the Dome and they'll have a fund if more upgrades need to take place because the dome is going to be here, the Mizzou football team is going to play there next year," Karraker added.
"They have events on a regular basis there, so the RSA needs to provide some upkeep for the facility.”