The public "may yet have a voice in the proposal to send tax dollars" to a new football stadium in St. Louis, as decade-old laws in the city and St. Louis County "require voter approval before either government helps pay for 'the development of a professional sports facility,'" according to David Hunn of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Former A-B President David Peacock and current Edward Jones Dome Authority attorney Robert Blitz "laid out plans" Friday for a 64,000-seat, open-air stadium north of downtown on the Mississippi riverfront. They said that the stadium could "cost as much as" $985M. Peacock and Blitz outlined a list of potential financing sources, which "promised no new taxes. But not the absence of tax dollars." The two "proposed 'extending' the bond debt still being paid down" on the Jones Dome, and "cashing out" as much as $350M for the new stadium. But the laws "prohibit any 'financial assistance' from the city and county to a professional sports facility without voter approval." However, the laws "define 'financial assistance' quite broadly, including tax reduction, tax increment financing, land preparation, loans, donations, payment of obligations, and the issuance, authorization, or guarantee of bonds" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/14).
PERMISSION SLIP: In N.Y., Ken Belson notes civic leaders in St. Louis "are disappointed with comments" made by Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones. Jones said that an owner "could move a team without league approval." Jones said that while he "preferred that owners got league approval, it was possible for teams to move without it." Peacock: "We’re disappointed that anyone associated with the NFL might dismiss the bylaws they wrote to govern themselves. We’ve put a lot of faith in those bylaws.” Peacock said that he has been talking with league officials and Rams Exec VP/Football Operations & COO Kevin Demoff -- although not with Rams Owner Stan Kroenke -- "about the proposed stadium" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/14). But In St. Louis, Jim Thomas cites team sources as saying that Kroenke "will not go rogue -- he would not move the franchise" to L.A. "without league approval." With the Rams, Chargers and Raiders "able to escape their leases after this season, the NFL is trying to 'control'" the L.A. market in terms of "preventing a frenzied race into the nation’s second-largest market" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/14).
