St. Louis Rams owner says money won't be a factor in hiring new coach
January 3
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Rams owner Chip Rosenbloom said that general manager Billy Devaney is not under any financial restrictions in the search for a new head coach.
"There have been no constraints put on Billy in terms of spending on coaches," Rosenbloom told the Post-Dispatch. "We may be one of the few teams in the league that has not said money is a factor in the decision. Although I do think that some salaries are out of whack, if Billy thinks the best guy will cost $6 million a year, that would be who we hire."
League sources told the Post-Dispatch earlier this week that the Rams' price range in hiring a coach would be $2 million to $2.5 million per year.
However, Rosenbloom said that neither the ongoing process of paying estate taxes following the death of his mother, Georgia Frontiere, nor the possible future sale of the team has any effect on how much money the Rams spend - for a coach, or for anything.
"I'll stick by what I've said before about the possible sale of the team," Rosenbloom said. "If the right offer comes along - maybe I'm interested; maybe I'm not. But we're not in a position where we have to sell the team. We're in a position where we're trying to make the team as good as possible.
"So it's not accurate to say we're cheap or we're trying to save money because we want to sell the team. If we were doing that, we didn't have to fire the coach (Scott Linehan), we didn't have to make changes in the front office."
If he wanted to position the team's finances to sell the team, Rosenbloom said he could have traded out of the No. 2 spot in the draft last April to save money. (Rosenbloom said it's possible the team could trade down this year from the No. 2 spot, but only if Devaney thought extra picks were the best way to improve the team.)
"We've attempted to do the right things to make this better," Rosenbloom said.
He said he's as angry, just like Rams fans, over the team's 5-27 record the past two seasons, including a 2-14 mark this season. "Things got screwed up and we're trying to straighten them out," he said. "It's not as though I'm saying let's just keep the status quo."
Rosenbloom said the Rams are in the bottom fourth of the league in terms of revenue. The team receives very little in parking revenue; its luxury suite prices are much lower than what teams such as Dallas and New England command; and the Rams' income from local radio and television is miniscule compared to high-revenue teams.
"And yet we spend to the (salary) cap," Rosenbloom said. "Now, we have not spent wisely necessarily, and we're trying to correct that. But we are not the Dallas Cowboys or New England - rolling in money - yet we're spending to the cap."
Although he may be a neophyte owner, Rosenbloom pointed out that he grew up around an NFL team and NFL owners in his late mother and his late father, Carroll Rosenbloom.
"There's a lot of other owners that are relatively new to the league who can't sa
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