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          NFL Nation

          St. Louis leaders respond to L.A. stadium plans

          • Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff WriterJan 5, 2015, 04:45 PM ET
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              Nick Wagoner is an NFL reporter at ESPN. Nick has covered the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL at ESPN since 2016, having previously covered the St. Louis Rams for 12 years, including three years (2013 to 2015) at ESPN. In his 10 years with the company, Nick has led ESPN's coverage of the Niners' 2019 Super Bowl run, Colin Kaepernick's protest, the Rams making Michael Sam the first openly gay player drafted to the NFL, Sam's subsequent pursuit of a roster spot and the team's relocation and stadium saga. You can follow Nick via Twitter @nwagoner
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          EARTH CITY, Mo. -- As you'd expect after the news came Monday morning that St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke plans to be involved in building a new football stadium in Los Angeles, responses from the team's current home have been pouring in.

          St. Louis city mayor Francis Slay was among the first to respond, taking to Twitter to offer a couple of thoughts.

          Later Monday afternoon, a representative of the two-man task force working on a St. Louis stadium proposal released a statement on behalf of former Anheuser-Busch president Dave Peacock and local attorney Bob Blitz.

          "The news today is another reminder of how much competition there can be for National Football League franchises and projects that include NFL stadiums, but it does not change our timeline or approach," the statement read. "It is important to remember this will be a long-term process, but one that the State of Missouri and the St. Louis region are fully pledged to seeing through. We are ready to demonstrate our commitment to keeping the NFL here, and to continue to illustrate why St. Louis has been and will always be a strong NFL market. We will present a plan to Governor Nixon this Friday as scheduled, and we expect that it will meet his criteria, thereby allowing us to share our vision with the public shortly thereafter. In the meantime, we will continue to have discussions with the NFL, as well as Rams leadership."

          Clearly, the next step in the process is to see what St. Louis is going to bring to the table. That announcement was expected any day but the statement makes it clear that Friday is the day the plan will be presented to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. It stands to reason it will be revealed to the public soon after. The conversations will only heat up from there.