Conservative political radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and National Hockey League (NHL) club owner Dave Checketts are joining forces on a bid to buy American football’s St Louis Rams.
The Rams, off to an 0-4 start in the National Football League season with a league-low 24 points, are on a 14-game losing streak over two seasons and are a woeful 5-31 since 2007.
Despite the losses, the Rams have an estimated value of US$929 million, according to Forbes magazine. Limbaugh said he and Checketts, who owns the St Louis Blues, would operate the Rams, who moved from Los Angeles in 1995.
“Dave Checketts and I have made a bid to buy the Rams and we are continuing the process,” Limbaugh said.
Former owner Georgia Frontiere, who moved the Rams to her hometown, died last year. Her children own 60 percent of the Rams. Billionaire Stan Kroenke, owner of the NHL Colorado Avalance and NBA Denver Nuggets, owns the rest.
Limbaugh, who grew up about 160km south of St Louis, briefly worked as an ESPN NFL commentator.
Checketts, 53, has assembled an investor group to buy the Rams after first talking over the idea with current ownership. He bought the Blues in 2006 and his company also owns Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer.
NFL rules allow ownership of other sport teams in the same market but in no others, which prevents Kroenke from taking a majority role in the Rams while owning NHL and NBA clubs in Denver.
Checketts, who became the youngest person to run an NBA club in 1984 when he took charge of the Utah Jazz at age 28, could take a majority stake, however, since the Blues are based in St Louis and the cross-ownership policy has not applied to soccer teams.
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