Used Car Dealer In South Dakota Owns Los Angeles Rams Domain

The St. Louis Rams are moving back to Los Angeles, so it would appear safe to assume that they’ll be changing their official website from www.stlouisrams.com to www.losangelesrams.com. But there’s a catch!

It turns out that the owner of a used car dealership and storage facility in South Dakota has already registered the losangelesrams.com domain. Brian Busch of Rapid City purchased the domain back in 1997, which was two years after the Rams moved to St. Louis from L.A., but he had no idea it would have the potential to become extremely valuable 19 years later.

“I’m a lifelong Rams fan,” Busch said. “I bought it in order to set up a tribute site. I have a signed Roman Gabriel jersey in my office.”

Busch explained he was devastated when the team moved to St. Louis, but the idea that they would move back to Southern California wasn’t something he expected at that time.

“I’d always hoped they’d go back,” he said. “I hoped they’d go back as a fan more than a chance to cash in on any money, because that was the furthest thing from my mind back in 1997. I didn’t think they’d ever move back to L.A. back then.”

Busch was always a big fan of the team, even though he lives more than 1,300 miles from Los Angeles. As a kid, he fell in love with their iconic blue helmets with the white horns, and enjoyed serving as the antagonist for his friends and classmates who were all Vikings fans. He especially liked it when the Rams and Vikings would square off in playoff games at Metropolitan Stadium.

“I got to be the one guy that was fighting the crowd,” he said.

Although Busch’s plans to commemorate the glory days of the Los Angeles Rams was the reason he registered the domain, he never actually got around to setting up the website. Regardless, he estimates he has spent between $1,000 to $2,000 to retain ownership since that time, as the renewal process was considerably more expensive in the late 90s and early 2000s.

But maybe his investment is about to pay off in a surprising way! Last February, Major League Baseball purchased Rangers.com for $375,000 from Future Media Architects. Considering the fact that both LARams.com and Rams.com are already owned, Busch could soon be in for a big payday, but he says he’s not going to get too far ahead of himself.

“It crosses your mind that I have something that they want, but whether you’re ever really going to get it to pay off – I’m not one who counts his fortunes before I have them,” he explained.

He doesn’t yet have a specific amount of money in mind if the team comes asking, but he plans to explore the market value to come up with a fair deal. However, he does have another request that he would like to bring to the table.

“Maybe we can work out some way to get season tickets in the deal,” Busch said. “I could fly there and watch a couple games a year. For being a lifelong fan who’s only gotten to see them play twice, that’d be pretty cool for me.”

The NFL will have to change the domain for the Rams before the start of next season, and Busch is most likely the league’s best bet to get a new relevant address. Maybe the longtime Rams fan will soon get what he’s asking for and more!