GatewayRedbirds.com

That doesn't make the deal any more attractive. That is just too much public money. Eff the NFL.

i dont see how a sun roof generates any more money for stan kroenke anyway, so why does he care if there is one or not?

If the NFL leaves, you don't have a rooting interest in the NFL anymore and those in Stl don't have to pay for it and presumably there will be more disposable income for the best baseball team evah!! It's a win-win-win really.

_________________

You bring up a valid point. The Rams and the NFL leaving StL would likely have a positive effect on the Blues (maybe not so much the Cardinals, who are already top dog). At least some of the advertising and suite money would make its way over. And I'd rather see an empty dome than spend $700MM to fill it 10 times a year.

Or if the City is dead set on giving away $700M to 'better' the City (what exactly is the argument/debate?), they could go ahead and develop Ballpark Stadium and bring in year round tax revenue, a couple thousand residents and rejuvenate the downtown area. I wouldn't recommend that by any means and I don't know what the Rams are asking for. But, I don't see how spending money on the Rams stadium will bring the City much more money...if that is what the argument is.

_________________

The Rams have a clause in their lease that they can move if the dome is not a "top 8 stadium" after this season. I have no idea how top 8 is quantified, but by any measure the Dome is firmly entrenched in the bottom 8. So the city/area/state is left with the decision to spend money to spruce up the Dome (or build a new stadium), or take a chance that the Rams leave.

I take the chance that they leave. The dome cost $280MM of mostly public funds to construct in the first place in 1995. Now they're talking of spending an additional $500-$700MM to add a retractable roof and some other snazzy stuff. I don't think having the Rams in town brings that back to the city/state in revenue. Adding the new stuff doesn't help much to attract extra events (Final Four, Super Bowl, conventions). At least not to the point that I'm willing to gamble that much.

This is a question I honestly don't know the answer to, but much $$ are the Rams worth to the City? In other words, I assume that all the food/beer/merchandise/etc at Rams games brings in revenue that gets taxed. People come to the City to see the Rams play. They rent hotel rooms/eat/drink/gamble/buy gas/etc and all that gets taxed. I don't know about payroll taxes and all that, but I'd imagine the city gets a chunk of payroll as well? So...what is the economic impact of the Rams departing?

_________________

BTW, I think Cowboys stadium had a final price of about $1 billion. So....$700M seems insanely high for renovations.

_________________

A complicated question. I believe the Rams have an exemption from the city entertainment tax (as do the Cardinals, the Blues pay in), so their ticket revenue isn't taxed by the city, and I'm not sure how that affects concessions and merchandise sales.

So then you are left with the ~60,000 fans that are downtown 8 times a year, plus a couple preseason games. I'd venture to guess that at least half of those are local (within the city/county), so you probably don't get that much extra boost from them (i.e., they'd be doing something else in the area that day anyway, eating, buying gas, etc.). We're down to the taxes collected from the ~30k remaining--and assuming that they only come for regular season games. Simple math, let's take 30k fans x $150 spent per fan x 8 games per year x 5% collected by local taxes = $1.8MM per year.

To break even on spending $700MM on renovations, you'd have to bring in $35MM in added revenue each year for 20 years (when they'll want another new stadium, if not before then). That's an average of ~$100 per fan. I don't think the impact of each fan is $100 every game.

Don't team employees pay taxes in the city? Wouldn't parking lot income be taxed as well? Do you really think 30k fans live in St. Louis City? I haven't lived there in awhile so I don't know how it works, but if you lived in North/West/South county all that stuff you buy at restaurants and bars downtown goes to the city right? I'm not suggesting it's entirely worth it, but I'd bet the necessary impact is less than $100/game.

_________________