With Rams gone, Chiefs think St. Louis could be 'great opportunity'

The St. Louis Rams are long gone, now in Los Angeles, their new (old) home, where they'll play next season. But St. Louis remains, as do those fans who spent two decades cheering for the team that abandoned them earlier this month.

So now what?

The void could be an opportunity for the Kansas City Chiefs to sell themselves to the disaffected as the wholesome Midwestern alternative to the Rams' new Hollywood city-slicker persona. Kansas City is 250 miles from St. Louis.

"I've gotten texts and emails from fans saying 'I'm now a Chiefs fan,' and we appreciate all that," Chiefs president Mark Donovan said, via the Kansas City Star's Terez Paylor. "But we're going to take a strategic approach to that -- we're going to be respectful. They've been through a really tough process.

"We're going to continue to do what we do, and we think with the success we're having on the field and the success we're having off the field, it creates a great opportunity for us."

Donovan says that the Chiefs could have the chance to market themselves in the St. Louis area.

"The way the league rules work, there are differences with tickets, broadcast, television and radio (and) what you can and can't do," Donovan explained. "Because it's in the state we're in, we have some rights there from a marketing perspective, but you've seen other teams reach out already. Indianapolis put a little campaign together to welcome fans over to Indy, and like I said, we'll be strategic about it but we'll be respectful about it."

Indianapolis is 242 miles from St. Louis, though Donovan hopes Chiefs' game will be regularly broadcast in the St. Louis area.

"We'll see what happens," he said. "We're in conversations right now with the league on how the league's going to look at that, and we'll make our case there."