Is St. Louis Preparing For The Bengals? Should Fans Want Them?

     Being from St. Louis, ever since the Rams have left any hint of a new team returning absolutely blows up. The 2 most popular ones I can remember was the Chiefs changing their name to the "Missouri Chiefs" and playing some games in St. Louis and the Chargers moving to St. Louis because the owners private jet was spotted in St. Louis one time. Well, there's a new rumor that has picked up steam in the St. Louis area. I would like to be the first to welcome Joe Burrow and the rest of the St. Louis Bengals.

"The never ending story of the Bengals and Hamilton County as Paycor Stadium lease talks continue"

    So to catch everyone up, the Bengals rent their stadium from the city of Cincinnati and their lease is expiring soon. The Bengals owner has already come out and said that if they don't get exactly what they want in the new lease, they are leaving. That immediately went VIRAL in the 314. Football fans in St. Louis are going through the first stages of excitement. People online are already saying "Oh my god it's happening" without really any real evidence that this is nothing more than negotiating tactic. Well allow me to add fuel to the fire.

St. Louis Dome to spend $50 million on upgrades. Plan uses Rams cash"

    That's right, it's officially time to sound the alarm. St. Louis already invested in a new turf field and now they are adding $50 million in upgrades. Now the negative side of me is saying that this is just for the Battlehawks and the high school playoff football games that are played there, but I'm fine with being delusional. There is one BIG tell for me and how they will use the money. They desperately need a new jumbotron. It looks like it's the same one from 1995 (It very well might be). 

    I'm going to officially say it, it's now time to get excited. There hasn't been a rumor about an NFL team or expansion team moving back to St. Louis where an actual second step took place. Can you imagine Joe Burrow being in St. Louis? He would be a king.

    

    I will say that the Bengals may not be the franchise that St. Louis wants though. They need a franchise that an owner actually likes instead of just viewing like it's an investment. The most recent news out of Bengals camp is very alarming for football fans from St. Louis.

"Cincinnati's unsigned first-round draft pick Shemar Stewart now has left mandatory minicamp, per source. Stewart had been attending team activities, but without a signed contract and with the Bengals asking for certain clauses, no longer."

    This is exactly what you don't want if you're St. Louis. You don't want another bad owner like Kroenke. It will only cause more headaches. The landscape in sports ownership is changing. People aren't tolerating greedy owners anymore. Looks at what's happening with the Chiefs and the St. Louis Cardinals. Chiefs fans voted against spending more tax dollars to renovate the stadium and are probably moving to Kansas, and the Cardinals fans aren't showing up to games in protest of ownership not spending any money. The last thing St. Louis needs is another bad owner to move a third team away.