The Rams want us to buy them a new house. Just fixing up its current home—the Edward Jones Dome—won't do. Instead, the St. Louis football franchise expects an extreme makeover, to the tune of $700 million, as it is estimated by a company hired by the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) to analyze the team's counter proposal to a the CVC's own plan to upgrade the Edward Jones Dome with a $124 million facelift.
If someone doesn't cough up the $700 mil to redo the Dome, it is feared the team will take its football and go home to Los Angeles, where it came from before it was the St. Louis franchise.
All of this wrangling was set in motion in 1995 when the team negotiated a 30-year lease with the CVC. It was stipulated that the CVC had to keep the Dome in the "first tier" of NFL stadiums in the league or else it could terminate the lease and would be free to move out of St. Louis.
The current Edward Jones Dome was financed by the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the state with $256 million in bonds, a 30-year mortgage that ultimately will see the three entities spend $720 million to pay off.
But whether there will be a team playing in St. Louis by that time is a big question as the Rams' vision of first-tier status appears to be out of the current reach of city, county and state budgets. On KWMU's St. Louis On the Air yesterday, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said no, we can't spend any amount of money to retain the team.
The cold reality of the Rams "business" decision to seek a massive renovation to the Dome appears lacking in any civic partnership between the team and the fans that pay to watch its games. The football played in the Dome during the team's 17 years in St. Louis has been alternately great and frustratingly inept. There is a Super Bowl season to savor, and many losing seasons that were endured.
However, does it really matter how well the team plays? Is it important only to have a team?
Today's questions are: How far are taxpayers willing to go to support the Rams? Should the possibility the Rams leaving St. Louis be enough to persuade people to build a new house for the team? In this age of impersonal business dealings, should Rams fans expect any civic loyalty from the team they have supported for 17 years?
Please weigh in with your two cents, or 700 million cents, by commenting below.
you're a bunch of morons.
Not sure how many times the Dome is used per year; it is more than 10 times. I know the Home Show and Auto Show both use the Dome and the Rams play 10 games there each year. I think the NRA also used the Dome when they were here. NCAA tourney games as well.
I'm tired of millionaires wanting the taxpayer to cover their expenses. The taste of Bidwell's demands still leaves a bitterness in my mouth. As I was growing up, I often wondered why St Louis couldn't have a good team like the Rams of the 60's. It was like a dream when they moved here. Reality check time now. St Louis is too small a market to keep up with the larger cities in the league. No sense in trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Thanks for the 1999 season, Bye
What is the saying: putting the cart before the horse.
I couldn't find anything on the St. Louis Blues. I would expect thier impact to be much lower than the NFT, MLB, and NBA though.
Think of this another way. People are getting worked up over the $700m price tag right now. When (if) it ends up being $300/400m some people may see that as a deal now. Yet, if the process had runs it's course and a tentative agreement reached at $300/400m those same people may have been up in arms over that amount.