Stan Kroenke will still be stuck on the St. Louis Settlement Scale tab

He won’t pay the entire $790 million, but he will pay most of it.

ESPN.com’s Seth Wickersham reports that NFL owners are You are expected to agree A decision that forces Rams owner Stan Kroenke to pay $571 million in unallocated settlement proceeds to St. Louis, settling the lawsuit arising from the transfer of Kroenke’s team.

The league has already raised $219 million from all of the NFL franchises. Kroenke wanted his partners to share the full amount of the settlement. His position was bolstered by sloppy wording of the relevant papers, along with the belief that the Chargers and Raiders’ efforts to advance a rival stadium project gave St. Louis a scheme to sue the Rams and the league.

The headline for the ESPN.com item is a bit confusing. It reads “NFL to OK Stan Kroenke Payment of $571 Million to St. Louis.” As if it was a Kronky Wants To do that. He does not. His partners make him do it. It’s not a happy decision for Kroenke.

For some owners, it is also not a good result. They think Kroenke should pay the bill in full.

In the end, they are all responsible. They all ignored the NFL’s transfer policy in order to justify taking a team away from St. Louis and dropping them in Los Angeles. They are all guilty of allowing Kronk to get what he wants, at the expense of St. Louis.

Were some, many or most of the owners who voted to agree to this move refused in the absence of a clear commitment by Kroenke to foot the bill if/when things go sideways? yes. However, they voted to approve a move arguably they should not have agreed to. They let the team escape their local market not because the local market was bad, but because Kroenke saw another market which he thought was better.

So while Kroenke should probably be financially responsible for most or all of the settlement, every owner who voted to approve the transfer of the rams is responsible for the outcome.