Rejoice, Rams Fans! Team to Sell But Stay Put in St. Louis

Hometown fans can get understandably jittery when rumors and rumblings surface about the sale of their city's sports teams, and no doubt this might be the case with football fans in St. Louis. After all, they are well acquainted with the sting of a local team whose owners choose to pull up stakes and leave town from the move of the Cardninals to Arizona in the late 1980s. This left them with no home team until the Rams left Los Angeles in 1995, and as we have recently written, LA is primed for the siting of a new or relocated football teem to fill its new, green-design stadium.

But with reports from the Los Angeles Times and MSNBC among others of an agreement to sell majority stake in the NFL's St. Louis franchise, Rams fans can breathe a sigh of relief. The man identified as the new majority owner has indicated his intent to keep the team right where it is. Examiner.com reports that the sale, from the heirs of late former owner Georgia Frontiere who died in 2008 to Illinois businessman Shahid Khan, offers great news on two fronts.

First, the transaction would follow through on a promise that the family had made to the fans to specifically seek out a buyer committed to keeping the team in St. Louis.

And secondly, the prospective buyer is an individual with a fascinating and inspiring story. Originally from Pakistan, Khan found his was to The University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for his education, and has stayed in central Illinois ever since. After college, he took a job at car bumper manufacturer Flex-N-Gate, but eventually left to start his own build-a-better-bumper company out of his garage. Over time and through hard work, his success allowed him to buy the same Flex-N-Gate that offered him his first job out of college. Examiner.com describes Khan as a generous benefactor to his alma mater where a recently constructed tennis facility bears his name.

Khan would often make the trip from central Illinois to attend several of the Rams' home games, becoming a true football fan and die-hard supporter of the Rams in particular. If the NFL approves the sale, which is widely expected to go off without a hitch, the team will be in the hands of someone who knows and loves the game, and who is invested in the team staying right where it is.

Photo courtesy of BrokenSphere via Wikimedia Commons