Goodbye, St. Louis, hello L.A! The highly esteemed, former St. Louis Rams have confirmed their move to the illustrious city of Los Angeles, taking their new title as the Los Angeles Rams for the upcoming 2016-17 NFL season. Stan Kroenke, owner of the Rams, plans on moving the team to Inglewood, California and inhabiting the site of an old Hollywood racetrack, leaving behind the iconic Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Kroenke proposes to spend about $1.86 billion towards the construction of the new stadium in Inglewood. He has appealed to the San Diego Chargers to support this idea, suggesting that they share the future facility. Even with the new renovations and costly changes, L.A fans seem to be accepting the very familiar team with great pride and anticipation. The Rams, who originally represented L.A from 1946 to 1994, statistically performed better during their time with the City of Angels, proven by their 21 appearances in the playoffs and 0.549 winning percentage, as reported by ESPN.

Nevertheless, although everything seems to be moving smoothly for the Rams, some bitter and unresolved feelings remain in St. Louis.

Days prior to approval of the move, St. Louis officials offered Kroenke an investment of $1.1 billion in the construction of a riverside stadium in hopes of keeping the Rams, as stated in a recent article published by NPR. Unfortunately, Kroenke refused the proposal, stating that better financial and social prospects were available in L.A.

Justin Kransdorf ’16, who intends to attend Washington University in St. Louis next year, expressed particularly strong feelings on the matter; when asked about the move, Kransdorf shared, “I can’t believe that the Rams are out of St. Louis! Without an NFL fan base or community, the next four years will be a bit calmer than what I had expected. I was really looking forward to catching a Rams game in St. Louis.”

A strong sense of resentment has indeed swept through the members of the St. Louis community, who question the decision to move while fighting a sense of loss over their only NFL team. After hearing about the move, Nikhil Akenapalli ‘17 commented, “I don’t see how this move will greatly affect the league as a whole. But I can understand what the St. Louis fans are feeling and hope the Rams are able to play better in L.A.”

NPR published an article in January detailing the St. Louis Rams fans’ betrayal through various personal accounts, including destroyed Rams memorabilia piled up at Rams’ Park, insulting remarks towards Kroenke both on social media and on public networks, and negative and degrading chants at a St. Louis Blues NHL game. These passionate fans have attempted to destroy all St. Louis Rams traces from their hometown and intend to look forward to see which NFL team will next take over their city.