This is great Soccer Town, But is funding

for new soccer stadium such a good idea

                                    By Tom Anselm

We have been seeing this phenomenon of tax revenues being used to help support private developers who then end up with either owning the properties they build or with very favorable deals on leasing and use. (See Stan Kronke and Edward Jones Dome’ and Bill DeWitt and Busch Stadium III’).

It seems to this very unknowledgeable person when it comes to finance (The Lovely Jill has always done our bills,) that the last straw may have just broken the poor old camel’s back.

The newest example of this has jumped into the spotlight with the news that a private consortium of local and national investors, called SC STL, want $80,000,000 from the City of St. Louis and $40,000,000 in tax credits from the State of Missouri to foot some of the bill for the construction of a soccer-specific stadium to be built at the corner of Market Street and Jefferson Boulevard in the city. Lot of zeros in them-there numbers, right sports fans?

A lot of people have the feeling, with a nod to former St. Louisan Yogi Berra, of “déjà vu all over again”, vis-à-vis the disastrous debacle that surrounded the recently-departed Rams organization. Didn’t the powers-that-be learn anything from that circus? Did they really think people would welcome this new attempt to pick their pockets?

That fiasco left them and our region with enough egg on their faces to feed an Easter Day brunch for my family. The Cardinals bosses want to push more development with perks, and just the other day, the Blues management decided to try to cash in on the hype from the NHL Winter Classic to ask for public help in making the Scotttrade Center a ‘fixer-upper.” Man, that is some major league chutzpah we got going on here in our fair town.

Much of the talk has been like this.

Disclaimer time here. I am a Cards fan, Busch Stadium III is a marvel, thought the Winter Classic was a huge success and very well done, and have loved soccer since I was a 6 year old sloshing around at Bissell Hills Park . I would therefore be thrilled to see a Major Soccer League team take hold here. Not too thrilled about the location, since I am not a big fan of going downtown, given the very real danger a walk to your car after an event can present. What’s wrong with a county site or even a midtown locale?

That might better serve the region, access- and safety-wise. But be that as it may, I see nothing but great things for our area, for those of us who love the game and even the future of the league if a team is able to be secured. Much has been accurately said of the city’s roots and traditions with the game, and it seems that the demographics have been proven to be supportive of higher levels of competition, with strong numbers for international matches in recent years, and for the mid-level team playing at the World Wide Technology Soccer Park.

I hope that the financial issues can be ironed out. It looks like the state is not going to be a source of support, given the position of the new governor, Eric Greitens. And the St. Louis Board of Aldermen just put the nix on a proposal for citizen help. Interestingly, the MLS itself has not pulled the plug on The Lou as a location, even with all this not going the way of the hopeful consortium, SC STL.

Maybe that is a good thing. Maybe all involved will miraculously “find” other money sources in the private sector   On the other side of this issue are those who say that this type of development is worth the public cost, yielding jobs and tax revenues and prestige to an area that is in dire need of all three.

However this goes, there could be a new day a-dawning when it comes to use of the people’s money–one where the politicians are finally taking the side of taxpayers

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