Reviving the St. Louis Stallions: A New Era for a Team that Never Was

Artwork created by Jason Stemm at stemmcreative.net

Now, if you remember the St. Louis Stallions expansion franchise that was supposed to be yet, never was. If you’ve always wondered what the team could’ve looked like, then you are in luck because in this delve into the past. With the tremendous talents of Jason Stemm from Stemm Creative, we have reimagined what the visual aspect of the Stallions franchise would look like today.

Artwork created by Jason Stemm at stemmcreative.net

As a market, St. Louis has had to suffer from two different teams that were failing in their current markets to cash in on the NFL starved market of St. Louis. The Cardinals from Chicago, and the Rams from L.A. Both teams had little success but, mainly, were failures in St. Louis. This had little to do with fan support and more to do with team ownership.

Artwork created by Jason Stemm at stemmcreative.net

Artwork created by Jason Stemm at stemmcreative.net

The original incarnation of the Stallions expansion franchise was dated or even cartoonish from its inception. I was never a fan of the horse head design in the early '90s (Which was ripped of by the Broncos) but, that's another story.

Artwork created by Jason Stemm at stemmcreative.net

When the original expansion bid failed, James Busch Orthwein came to the rescue attempting to relocate the failing New England Patriots to the vacant St. Louis market.

"The future of the New England Patriots was settled in New England's favor yesterday when Robert Kraft, a Boston businessman who bought the team's Foxboro Stadium six years ago, won a bidding war that included a nominally higher bid from a group that hoped to move the team to St. Louis.

Kraft wouldn't disclose the purchase price, but said the amount he agreed to pay James Orthwein, a St. Louis businessman, was not only substantially more than the $106 million Orthwein paid for the franchise two years ago, but also the most anyone has ever paid for a National Football League team. The Boston Globe has reported the bid at around $160 million."

Via The New York Times

Orthwein, Kraft

"In securing the Patriots, Kraft, a multimillionaire philanthropist who made his fortune in paper and paper products, bested well-financed rivals from Boston, St. Louis, Baltimore and Hartford. The chief competition came from Stan Kroenke, a St. Louis businessman who reportedly offered as much as $200 million with the intention of moving the team to St. Louis.

However, the Kroenke offer required Orthwein to assume all related costs, including league fees of as much as $20 million for moving the team. More ominously, the bid also required Orthwein to incur open-ended legal and other costs of getting out of the team's lease on Foxboro Stadium, which has eight years to run." Via The New York Times

Stemm Creative

Stemm Creative

Stemm Creative

We wanted to have fun with the idea of what it would look like if the Stallions returned in some form. I love to hear other fans' thoughts on team names on a potential expansion franchise in St. Louis. We hope this gets some of your creative juices flowing!

Please let us know your ideas. What would you like to see as a potential expansion franchise in St. Louis?