Edward Jones Dome / Faurot Field

I'd like to commend Post-Dispatch reporter Matthew Hathaway for his recent article, Dome deadline is bearing down on city.  Honestly its bearing down on the whole region and state, but the city especially.  Hathaway does a great job of setting the historical context.  Here's the stand-out quote,

"The Dome was largely financed with $256 million in revenue bonds, and the repayment of that 30-year debt will be $720 million. Every year, Missouri spends $12 million to pay off the debt, and St. Louis and St. Louis County both pay $6 million annually."

But while we still have another ten years to go on our debt, we're facing the tough position of having to spend twice as much as we did originally just to keep the team.  New NFL stadia cost as much as three times what St. Louis paid for the dome originally.  We haven't paid off our last effort, so paying for the next is troubling.

In response to Mr. Hathaway's article, Alex Ihnen at NextSTL.com posted a study about professional sports teams having no net economic benefit for metro regions.  In fact, with the large annual debt they create in public financing, they could be viewed as dragging cities like St. Louis down.  His conclusion:  Does St. Louis need an NFL team?  Obviously they have a role to play in a city's brand and marketing, local pride, and so on as well, but the economics is hard to ignore.

Should a private team be dipping into public funds for a new stadium?
Are we fans of teams that constantly threaten to move in order to extort our local governments?
St. Louis needs to step out of this cycle.  It isn't healthy, and it isn't a winning solution.

Contrast and compare St. Louis to a considerably smaller market,

St. Louis Rams, founded in 1936, moved a couple times before arriving in St. Louis in 1995, and might move again in 2015.  Play in a below-average stadium paid for by taxpayers with a capacity of 66,965.  Represent a metro of nearly three million people.

Missouri Tigers, formed in 1890, never moved, never will move.  Play in a stadium with a lot of history expanded slowly over a century with a capacity of 71,004.  Play in a city with only about 100,000 people surrounded by farm land.

Is it unfair to compare a college team to a professional team?  Why?  Which draws the larger crowd?  Which costs more?  Which does more for the community? 

When the Rams leave, we'll have an empty stadium rotting away downtown.  If a college team shared their stadium, we'd at least have an alternate use and a caretaker for the building.  More than that, college teams get donations.  Saint Louis University's Chaifetz Arena was given $12 million from a single alum.

I'm sure it's an unpopular proposal, but why not build a stadium for a local university if we build a stadium at all?  Let them share.  Look at the way the Rams used to dress,

Rams colors used to be Saint Louis University colors.  SLU is a division I school in the middle of the city, and they don't have a football team.  What if they did?  The next publically financed stadium should be donated to SLU (or some other school), partly paid for by SLU, and maintained by donations and endowments from the community.  The Rams can pay some too, and they can share.  Then later if the Rams choose to go away or demand a better stadium, the university can add their weight and funds to the conversation.

Where would one put a SLU football stadium?  How about here?

There's plenty of room around the new Grand Viaduct to build on air rights above the tracks and make the bridge into a normal street.  Depending on what's happening with the plans for the Chouteau Greenway, bike trails could be worked in too.  The important thing, again, is to not do what Nashville did.  If a stadium could be built above the MetroLink station, then it really ought to be oriented to take in the view of downtown in one direction and BJC in the other, just like Faurot Field is oriented to view Columbia.

Or maybe UMSL or SIUE could be the holders of the stadium.  It doesn't matter as long as it's a public body that can use and maintain such a structure and fundraise to improve it.  The CVC has a good relationship with the Edward Jones Dome, but they have no long-term interest in it as a football stadium.  It could just as easily be converted to basketball or perhaps the seats could be removed, a floor put in, and two levels of trade show space could be created for the CVC's boat shows and other conferences.

The often repeated line is, "NFL teams only use their stadiums 8 days a year, so what are we supposed to do with them the rest of the time?"  Adding another team is one option.  Why not add a soccer team too?  NFL and MLS combinations are common.  SLU has a pretty good soccer team.