The St. Louis task force developing a stadium plan to keep the NFL in town has hired Premier Partnerships to gauge the market’s commercial opportunities, one element of the venue proposal the local group plans to hand over to the NFL by the middle of next month.
NFL owners meet this week in New York to discuss Los Angeles, but those talks will largely revolve around relocation and other fees, not the St. Louis, San Diego and Oakland markets, which house teams that have designs on relocating to Los Angeles.
However, Dave Peacock, co-chairman of the St. Louis
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Premier Partnerships will gauge corporate support for the proposed NFL stadium.
Photos by: HOK (2)
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task force, has been in regular contact with the six owners on the league’s Los Angeles committee. He and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon met last month with committee member John Mara of the New York Giants.
“We should have everything buttoned down by mid-November,” Peacock said of a St. Louis stadium proposal.
The NFL is expected to make a choice about relocating to Los Angeles for 2016 between late December and early February. The St. Louis task force is proposing a $1 billion waterfront stadium, with roughly a 50-50 public-private funding split. The city still needs to approve extending the bonds on the Edward Jones Dome, an action that would cover a portion of the public funding. There would be an additional state appropriation, as well.
While some Missouri legislators have attacked Nixon’s plan to appropriate funds for the stadium, Peacock is nonplussed. He notes that Missouri has maintained a AAA credit rating through the state’s appropriations to cover venue debt. “When the [Edward Jones] Dome was built more than 20 years ago, we had legislators argue over the appropriation,” he said. “And at the end of the day, we continue to have a AAA credit rating.”
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PEACOCK
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Peacock also is addressing one of the principal assertions raised against the St. Louis market, especially by Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who sources said has privately told owners that the city cannot support an NFL team. The task force hired Premier, which has done market studies for the NFL and other sports teams, in August. A final report is due in a few weeks.
“We are working hand and glove with Dave,” said Randy Bernstein, Premier’s president and CEO.
The NFL has conducted its own market study of St. Louis, and that report, sources said, raised some concern about the corporate support necessary for the Rams to remain in the city. Peacock has vigorously argued against that, noting that St. Louis boasts a larger corporate base than many other NFL cities.
According to SportsBusiness Journal research, St. Louis has eight Fortune 500 companies, compared to, for example, five in San Jose-Santa Clara, Calif., and none in Baltimore and Buffalo.
The million-dollar question ultimately is, if St. Louis does come through with what the league determines to be a viable stadium proposal, will NFL owners force Kroenke to engage in St. Louis, or will they allow him to depart to his planned stadium in Inglewood, Calif.
The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders are proposing a joint stadium in Carson, Calif.
Twenty-four owner votes are necessary to secure relocation, and it does not appear, at the moment, that either proposal has that number. The NFL is expected to relocate only one or two teams, not three, to Los Angeles.
