Talk about throwing gasoline onto the fire.

Rams fans are already distrustful of Stan Kroenke because of his unwillingness commit to keeping the Rams in St. Louis beyond 2014. Now there’s a story out of L.A. that is sure to turn up the heat…

The LA Times reported last night that Rams owner Stan Kroenke has “explored” a potential bid  for the Dodgers. The report also noted that it was uncertain whether or not Stan had actually submitted a bid alongside the other contenders.

Combine that story with the speculation already out there regarding a potential move of the Rams to Los Angeles and you have that “gasoline + fire” combination I referred to in the first line.

I understand why this may set off a firestorm of speculation regarding the future of the Rams but let’s take this slowly and see what we can come up with. First, there are two things you need to know:

1) Even if Stan has offered up a bid to buy the Dodgers it doesn’t mean he will get the franchise.

2) Even if Stan gets the Dodgers, the NFL’s cross-ownership rules would not require any action on Kroenke’s part (as things stand at the moment) because there is no NFL team in Los Angeles. So long as that is the case, Kroenke could own both the Rams and the Dodgers without violating the league’s cross-ownership rules.

The problem is this: the NFL clearly wants a franchise in Los Angeles. If another team, say the Chargers, were to move to L.A. at some point that would place Kroenke in violation of the cross-ownership policy and he would then have to find a way to comply with that policy.

There are only two ways he could do that: sell the majority interest in one team to someone else (perhaps even a family member as he did with the Nuggets and Avalanche) or move the Rams to L.A. alongside that other franchise, giving L.A. two teams.

One thing I can state with absolute certainty is that Stan is not going to go through all of that effort to buy the Dodgers and then put himself in a position where he can be painted into a corner if/when a different NFL franchise moves to L.A.

If Stan buys the Dodgers then he will move the Rams to Los Angeles after the 2014 season.

That’s a big “if” considering how many big shooters are currently bidding on the Dodgers but that’s how I see it. It wouldn’t make sense for Stan to have both teams and risk the chance that another NFL team could slide into L.A. and squeeze Stan on the cross-ownership policy. He’d never allow that to happen.

These developments regarding a potential bid by Kroenke on the Dodgers doesn’t mean anything today. A lot has to happen before this really means anything to Rams fans here in St. Louis. But the fact that Kroenke is openly considering the idea of buying the Dodgers – and by extension openly considering the idea of moving the Rams to L.A. – is noteworthy.

He could have genuine interest in grabbing the Dodgers, moving the Rams to L.A. and using both of them together to “take over” the L.A. sports scene. Stan could also be posturing. Leaving this possibility out there could give him more leverage in negotiations of the Jones Dome lease.

Either way one thing is clear – the Rams are just a tool Kroenke is using to add to his own personal wealth. I guess you just can’t get by on $3.2 billion these days, not even when your wife is worth even more that. Making money on the Rams isn’t enough for Billionaire Stan. He needs to make MORE money.

These three things are clear to me:

1) Stan Kroenke does not care about the Rams franchise aside from it being an ATM for him

2) Stan Kroenke does not care about St. Louis

3) Stan Kroenke does not care about you.

None of that makes him evil but you need to understand these things when you’re deciding whether or not to spend your money on this franchise.

I know “it’s just business” but that doesn’t justify toying with people just so you, as a multibillionaire, can throw a few more coins in your pocket. Squeezing a region for more money – or concessions that will cost that region revenue over time – during difficult economic times is one thing. Using another city to blackmail that city is another.

Stan isn’t squeezing a city. He is squeezing the people who live in that city. He’s squeezing people who, in many cases, are just barely getting by. He’s squeezing a large number of people who don’t even care about football.

It’s one thing to earn the money people CHOOSE to spend on your franchise and it is another thing entirely to prey on the people below you on the food chain just because you can.

If that’s “just business” then our priorities are hopelessly out of whack.

There’s more to this world than money, Stan. Show some loyalty to the people who have put millions upon millions of dollars in your pockets over the years, even when your product wasn’t worth their investment (which has been most of the time).

I don’t know what Stan will ultimately do, so I will withhold final judgment until all of this is said and done, but that doesn’t change how disgusted I am by the way he’s going about all of this.

Don’t give me that “what would do you do in negotiations” crap either. At the level most of us play at our negotiations make a significant difference in the quality of our day-to-day life. They impact where we live, how we eat, how much free time we have, how we pay medical bills, how we pay for our kids to go to college, etc.

You know, real life things.

No matter how all of this turns out, the quality of Stan Kroenke’s life will not be altered in any way. There is nothing he could ever want or need that he can’t have and that won’t change just because he gets a better deal out of all this posturing.

When is it ever enough? When do you stop bleeding people dry just so you can add to the mountain of money that could never spend in 20 lifetimes?

I don’t have a problem with someone being a billionaire.

I have a problem with billionaires taking advantage of the rest of us just because they can.