Fake Stan nailed it.
Mayor Francis' Facebook post:
https://www.facebook.com/mayorslayMayor Francis G SlaySeptember 4 at 1:53pm · Edited ·
Not everybody who is reading this supports construction of a new stadium or the use of any public funds to do so. There are good reasons to oppose it. I am going to make the other case.
Let’s start here:
(1) There will be no stadium unless the NFL and a team commit to invest millions of private dollars to build it. This is not a build it and they will come project.
(2) There will be no new taxes to build this City amenity.
The discussion below is premised on the two points above. As you prepare your comments, remember those two points.
A riverfront stadium would be a nearly $1 BILLION investment in the City of St. Louis and the more carefully designed addition to our skyline in decades.
It will be a place for gathering, for public art, for biking, for eating and drinking, and for enjoying the Mississippi River. It will, of course, be a place for football.
This project will put a lot of people to work – building it with our union workforce, building it with opportunities for new businesses, minority owned businesses, and women owned businesses; and staffed by hundreds of St. Louisans year around and on game days.
It will redevelop a part of the riverfront that should be the best part, but as you can see for yourself, it is not.
It will connect the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge to the CityArchRiver Project to spur further economic development, north, south, and west. East, finally.
It will free up the Edward Jones Dome for more and bigger conventions that are currently not even possible nearly six months out of the year.
And, it may also very well put us on a path to landing a major league soccer franchise.
St. Louis is a sports town. Professional football is part of the fabric of our City. And St. Louis has to have a stadium to keep football here.