St. Louis has naming rights to a football stadium that doesn't exist yet
PostPosted:9 years 8 months ago
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutd ... 44547.html
St. Louis has naming rights to a football stadium that doesn't exist yet
Well, St. Louis has naming rights for its football team's new stadium.
Except, the city may soon have neither a football team nor a new stadium.
National Car Rental has pledged $158 million over 20 years for the naming rights to a proposed riverfront stadium project just north of downtown St. Louis, according to Sports Business Daily and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The rental car company is owned by Enterprise Holdings, headquartered in the city.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's task force orchestrated the agreement between Enterprise and the St. Louis Regional Sports Authority, which would own the stadium under the proposed deal. First reported by SBD's Daniel Kaplan, the news conveniently comes hours before NFL owners discuss this very topic.
However, the commitment is missing a vital piece to the puzzle — an NFL team to call the supposed stadium home. Rams owner Stan Kroenke has made no secret of his desire to move the franchise to Los Angeles. Fellow owners are meeting Wednesday morning in New York City to discuss the relative merits of proposals to move the Rams, San Diego Chargers or Oakland Raiders — or two of the three — to L.A.
Of course, even if Kroenke gets his wish, there's still the possibility of either the Chargers or Raiders ending up in St. Louis, so the $158 million pledge might still help save the sport in the city. According to the Post-Dispatch, the state has committed $240 million and the city could foot another $150 million of the estimated $1 billion costs for a new stadium, although voters could have a say about that.
That leaves $610 million in private funding — a quarter of which would be alleviated by the naming rights — but at least one NFL owner doesn't sound convinced that's enough to keep a franchise in St. Louis.
Based on artist renderings of the stadium, it looks beautiful, even if National Car Rental Field doesn't have such a sweet ring to it. But Kroenke will probably be calling Hertz instead to get home from the airport.
