ST. LOUIS (KTVI)-The Mayor of the St. of St. Louis is responding to a Los Angeles Times columnist who said the Los Angeles Rams are going to have trouble attracting fans to SoFi Stadium until the team is again viewed as belonging to that city and not being “a refugee from a dump of a city in the Midwest.”
The column by Dylan Hernandez came as the Rams have at times felt like a visiting team in their own stadium. It’s an issue the club faced in the final week of the regular season when the San Francisco 49ers went on the road and defeated the Rams to clinch a playoff spot. It’s an issue the team would like not to see repeated this weekend when the two teams play again, this time for a spot in the Super Bowl on the line.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones tweeted her thoughts on the matter late Tuesday night:
“There are 790 million reasons why #STL doesn’t care what @latimes sports columnist @dylanohernandez thinks. After the game, maybe we’ll see if we can change his mind. Thanks for memories, too, Rams. Sincerely, Mayor Jones”
The 790 million figure refers to the amount of the settlement the St. Louis region reached late last year with the NFL and Rams owner Stan Kroenke over the team’s departure. The case was scheduled to have gone to trial this month. How the money will be divided and spent after legal fees has yet to be determined.
Hernandez responded to a FOX2 question asking about the reaction to his column, saying “I’m worried the next time I visit St. Louis, someone will do something awful to me, like put Provel on my pizza.”
He did respond to a tweet from St. Louis Post Dispatch baseball writer Derrick Goold, who offered to take him to dinner in St. Louis.
“I would gladly hang out with you anywhere — even St. Louis. :),” he wrote.