[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... fe016.html

St. Louis stadium naming rights proceeds now to go to NFL

by David Hunn

Updated at 3:20 p.m.:

IRVING, Texas • Naming rights cash for the proposed riverfront football stadium in St. Louis will no longer go toward stadium construction, according to the newest financing plan sent to the National Football League.

Instead, a league source said, the city of St. Louis will use anticipated game-day tax revenue created by the new stadium to back construction. Those taxes were, in previous versions of the deal, to be used to reimburse the NFL team for the loss of naming rights dollars.

Neither city officials nor members of Gov. Jay Nixon's stadium task force immediately returned requests for comment.

Our earlier story:

IRVING, Texas • The National Football League still cannot seriously consider any St. Louis proposal to build a new stadium and keep a team in town, a key NFL owner said Wednesday morning.

Houston Texans owner Bob McNair, a member of the league's Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities, said that Gov. Jay Nixon's stadium task force must pin down all financing details and governmental approvals before the league can consider the St. Louis riverfront stadium proposal.

"Until its certain, there's no deal," McNair said on Wednesday, before heading into the league's December owners meeting here. "You really can't consider it until its certain. So it's in their best interest to firm it up."

The task force plan is now stuck in the St. Louis Board of Aldermen's Ways & Means committee. The committee has held three public hearings, but has yet to schedule a vote on the city financing package. If the committee doesn't vote this week, the full board won't get the bill until Jan. 8 — the board goes on winter break in a week-and-a-half.

• Previously: Two key NFL owners hope for January vote on moving a team to L.A.

NFL owners vow to exhaust 'every option' before letting teams move

McNair frowned at the potential January aldermanic vote. "Yeah, that's not going to help them," he said.

McNair is among those owners pushing for a January league vote on moving a franchise to Los Angeles. St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has drafted stadium construction plans in Inglewood, Calif., and has proposed moving the Rams before next season starts. San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis have pitched a competing stadium proposal in Carson, just south of Inglewood.

The L.A. opportunities committee has heard stadium proposals, and updates to those proposals, for months now, from all three teams hoping to move, and from all three home markets trying to keep their teams.

The St. Louis plan has long been considered a front-runner among the home markets.

But McNair cautioned on Wednesday that the St. Louis effort is only as good as the final deal.

Owners largely want to vote on relocation in January. St. Louis needs its plan nailed down, and fast, to assure league owners that the task force can produce the money and approvals it says it can, several owners have said.

The L.A. proposals, McNair said, are solid.

"I think they're both in good shape," he said. "They've got good proposals."

But owners won't let teams move without knowing more about the local efforts to build new stadiums.

"Is the local community putting up a proposal that's a firm proposal — or is it just conversation?" McNair asked.

"In any of the three communities, we don't have any proposal that is a firm deal in which they say we've gotten all the governmental approvals, and we have the money, and we have the sources, and everything's ready to go," he said.

"And that's where we need to be in order to make a decision."

A local deal, McNair concluded, would prevent clubs from moving to Los Angeles.

[Hacksaw]

McNair said,, "A local deal, McNair concluded, would prevent clubs from moving to Los Angeles."

This is what the StLoo fans have been hanging on the whole time. I hope that opinin is in the minority. At least Goodell disagrees with McNair.