Missouri Considering $3M Annual Tax Credit Aimed At Drawing Amateur Sports Events

A bill that has been pre-filed in the Missouri legislature ahead of this spring’s session “would set up a new tax credit program designed to help bring more amateur sporting events to Missouri,” according to Tim Logan of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The bill would “dedicate up to $3 million a year to draw Olympic, college and youth events.” While pro sports stadiums like Edward Jones Dome and Busch Stadium have “long received public subsidies, more tax money is starting to flow, too, into the business of hosting college and Olympic tournaments, as cities and states hunger for the tourism such events can bring.” State Sen. Eric Schmitt, who is sponsoring the bill, “points out that his tax credit would be flexible enough to be used for anything from a Final Four to a youth baseball tournament, and he hopes it would be used for events in all corners of Missouri, not just the big arenas in St. Louis and Kansas City” (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/7).