Controversial conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh announced this week that he and Dave Checketts, an owner and chief operating officer of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, have submitted a bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams. The Rams are the only NFL team publicly for sale. The current owners are the heirs of the late Georgia Rosenbloom Frontiere, who moved the team from Los Angeles. Frontiere passed away in January 2008, and her two children, Chip Rosenbloom and Lucia Rodriguez, have been exploring options regarding their 60 percent stake in the team. Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Colorado Avalanche holds a 40-percent share in the team.

Rams have been on the market

After Frontiere’s death, her heirs were presented a sizable inheritance tax bill based on the appreciation of the Rams from the time she took them over and the date of her death. The size of that bill on a date-of-death assessment of $800 million would conservatively be $150-$200 million on the Frontiere heirs’ 60-percent share. This inheritance tax bill is the reason Rosenbloom and Rodriguez are selling their interest in the team, and they have retained Goldman Sachs to facilitate a sale.

Despite a Forbes valuation of $928 million, it’s expected the Rams would only sell in the $800 million neighborhood, and it isn’t unlikely that a buyer in this economy could expect a significant discount for a faster or more cash-friendly transaction. If Kroenke’s share is not included -- and currently he can’t become the majority owner under league rules since he owns a major sports franchise in another city -- majority ownership in the Rams could be had for under $500 million. This represents a real bargain in NFL terms. Add in the fact the team has a very favorable stadium lease that would allow it to terminate if certain conditions aren’t met and that the team used to be the Los Angeles Rams, and it’s one of a handful of NFL teams considered “relocate-able.” If an owner could buy the Rams for under $500 million, that owner would also still have the resources left over to privately finance a stadium in Los Angeles. So the Rams are a very intriguing buy, and even I was approached last year to advise a group interested in them.

Nothing moving

But the Rams haven’t sold despite having some great curb appeal. Sports teams’ sales are glacially slow even in normal times, but in this economy, barring some sort of clear turning point for the better, every day a team doesn’t sell is good for the buyers and bad for the sellers. So no one really knows how much any team is worth, and with a number of teams (Bills, Lions, Titans, Raiders, Panthers, Saints, Jaguars, Bears and Cardinals) facing the possibility of potentially crushing inheritance tax bills in the not too distant future, it’s speculated that the Rams aren’t the only team potentially on the market, even if such speculation is quickly denied. This was what the Steelers’ situation was about last year.

Checketts may face questions

If I were an NFL owner, I’d have a number of issues with selling the Rams -- not to Limbaugh but to Checketts. He’s one of the smartest, most exceptional sports executives in the country and is pure as the driven snow, but he doesn’t have a lot of his own money to put in and needs partners like Limbaugh. And both by rule (which could be finessed) and practicality, he locks the Rams in St. Louis by virtue of his ownership of the Blues. As an owner, I wouldn’t care if the Rams ultimately stay in St. Louis, but having a number of franchises freely able to move to Los Angeles helps all franchise and marketing values. So Checketts would add talent and experience to the pool of NFL owners, but his presence might come at some cost.

Back to Rush

All of which brings us back to Limbaugh. In normal economic times, Limbaugh, love him or hate him, wouldn’t stand a chance of getting the two-thirds approval of existing ownership to be a managing partner of an NFL ownership group. He is simply too controversial and polarizing. Every day, he has a chance to cause embarrassment to other owners in front of millions of people on the radio. He also has too great a record of involvement with two issues that scare league people to death: race and drugs. So while I may think he would be a good owner, he comes with a lot of baggage.

Being an NFL owner is not like buying a piece of property. It’s more like joining a very exclusive club, and while any number of owners might share Limbaugh’s political leanings, very few want to talk openly about those feelings, especially while trying to market their product to the widest possible audience. This is undoubtedly why Limbaugh is paired with Checketts in this purchase. The fact that the two are really inseparable also could damage their chances. Limbaugh makes money like few others, and his reported $100-million annual earnings would seem to be more than enough to get him in the club -- and Checketts needs that infusion of capital.

While Checketts moderates the image of Limbaugh, he does so with some limitation. So this is still far from a done deal. The reasons Limbaugh publicly announced what had been a fairly open secret raises questions of its own: Is he campaigning openly after getting a chilly reception from the league, or is he close to a deal and needs to do some last-minute shoring up?

If Limbaugh were to get approved, it might be a signal that NFL owners and league sources are concerned about franchise values dropping even more and are willing to welcome into their staid group a controversial figure who makes Al Davis and Jerry Jones look like shrinking violets. This one is worth watching as it may tell us more about the real interest and demand for the league’s franchises than just about who owns the Rams.