[RamsFanSince82]

[Stranger]

The question is, what bill since the proposal has changed and so far the alderman have not seen the revised financials that were sent to the NFL. The other issue is that the new term sheet still uses game day taxes to fund the stadium which is still the owners money since those taxes directly effect the prices the the team can charge.

Which is why it's an empty process. It's basically a PR exercise in apparent fairness to the existing home markets, but the NFL knows that none of them can meet the deadline. The home markets have always been irrelevant, but they can't come out and say that without disenfranchising existing fan bases. So, we have this game of charades.

[Hacksaw]

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – Recently KMOX News has learned plans are currently in the works to have a vote next week on the stadium and possibly meet the NFL’s deadline for the financing to be in place.

The Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Alderman Steve Conway, says he will schedule a vote on the stadium financing package for 9:00 a.m. on Thursday.

Conway is not making predictions, but others tell KMOX that it may barely get out of committee.It would have to pass the full Board of Aldermen before the NFL’s December 28th deadline.

He says they would also have to suspend the rules to allow a second reading and perfection on the same day.

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2015/12/04/ ... _M.twitter

[Hacksaw]

Keys to Keeping the Rams Further Crystallize
Shane Gray posted on December 04, 2015 16:09

Keys to Keeping the Rams Further Crystallize

While the NFL relocation puzzle is a highly complex one with almost endless factors and variables in play, the likely formula necessary to retain the St. Louis Rams is a rather simple one comprising just a few key elements.

Not necessarily listed in order of importance, the following need to occur to optimize the opportunity to keep the Rams in St. Louis:

Take Care of Business at Home

One, Governor Jay Nixon's Task Force must secure a fully funding stadium development plan by the NFL's December 28 deadline. This plan must be actionable, certain and stout enough to merit the approval of a sufficient number of owners.

The main hurdle remaining, of course, is the pending vote by the St. Louis Board of Aldermen on Board Bill 219. The Task Force must clear a committee vote and a subsequent full vote of the Board's 28 members in order to lock down the financial streams needed to effectively wrap up the venue's financing package.

The committee vote should occur on December 10. As for the full board vote, a special session could be called on December 18.

Beyond that, the only piece of financing that would officially need to be formalized would be the extension and sale of state bonds, both of which Nixon is legally authorized to execute.

Chargers and Raiders Must Stick Together

It will help the cause of St. Louis immensely if Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Raiders owner Mark Davis continue to honor their dual-commitment towards the Carson plan and shun attempts by Rams owner Stan Kroenke to bring one of them to Inglewood. To date, neither is considering the Kroenke option.

Please note, if Kroenke felt that his plan had a reasonable chance of earning the approval of three-fourths of ownership, he would not be attempting to entice another franchise to join him in Inglewood.

And thus, if the Chargers and Raiders continue on their current path -- with neither in position to get local deals by December 28 and both meeting a plethora of relocation guidelines that the Rams do not -- then it will aid St. Louis greatly in efforts to retain the Rams.

Secure a Significant Committee Recommendation

Assuming St. Louis finalizes its stadium plan and the Carson collaboration remains intact, the Task Force could then stand a real chance of receiving a united recommendation from the Committee on L.A. Opportunities. At a press conference this week, Commissioner Roger Goodell stated he not only expects them to make such a recommendation for either the Chargers/Raiders Carson collaboration or the Rams Inglewood initiative, but that ownership as a whole desires they do so.

This particular committee is very powerful, and a singular recommendation for STL/Carson would be very beneficial to St. Louis' cause.

Beyond that, it certainly wouldn't hurt if key members of the Finance Committee and/or Stadium Committee were to do something similar, even if not via a united, singular voice.

When Combining These Three Factors...

If the Task Force locks down their proposal, the Carson collaboration holds true and the league's L.A. Committee recommends a non-Inglewood solution, the chances to keep the Rams out of L.A. would appear to be rather high at that point.

Keep in mind, many believe the Chargers and Raiders are close to possessing enough votes to get approval for Carson.

With a finalized stadium plan in St. Louis and a recommendation from the L.A. Committee, chances seem reasonable that both together could push them over the top -- and thus -- serve to effectively keep the Rams out of Los Angeles and California ... a city and state that Kroenke has repeatedly claimed to have worked hard to get the Rams out of while subsequently making it clear he worked diligently to get the Rams to the Gateway City.

[ramfaninsd]

so shane advocates two cities lose their teams and to hell with their fans just so st louis can keep the rams. no wonder stan wants to move, who wants to do business with people who only think about themselves and screw everbody else. what a loser shane is!!!!

[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt ... be6ed.html

Task force leans on Missouri for last bit of stadium financing

David Hunn

ST. LOUIS • Gov. Jay Nixon’s stadium task force has cut a deal to fill the final financing hole in its proposed $1 billion downtown football facility.

And it leans, again, on the state and its AAA credit rating.

The new plan, its details still being hammered out by task force attorneys, would give stadium naming-rights cash to the National Football League. In exchange, the state’s stadium authority would keep certain anticipated tax revenue, such as those on tickets, parking and hot dogs.

The stadium authority would use those projected tax dollars to pay off bonds backed by the state’s credit rating, said David Peacock, co-chairman of the task force. And the bond dollars would finance the last piece of stadium construction.

Peacock said his team would provide information to the city’s Board of Aldermen in time for a committee meeting scheduled for Thursday.

The solution, if it works, would backfill the hole created when the task force agreed last week to shift naming-rights revenue from stadium construction back to the team.

“The amount of money really isn’t different,” Peacock said. “It’s just the construct of it. And it has certain implications.”

To woo owners, the task force is now offering the team the proceeds from the $158 million naming-rights deal. But it’s not clear if that’s enough to satisfy them. Some league owners and executives don’t much like the prospect of paying taxes on sales at the new stadium, either.

Owners, league executives and St. Louis Rams officials all declined to discuss details publicly. But more than one pointed out that a city law appears to waive the single largest portion of those game-day taxes — those paid by fans on game tickets — when sports teams contribute more than $200 million to a new “recreation facility.”

Several state legislators, angry with Nixon for circumventing them, have promised they would filibuster any debt payment on a new St. Louis stadium.

Still, with the city’s credit maxed out, and St. Louis County out of the picture, the task force had little option but to turn, again, to the state for help.

Peacock and his team are hustling to pin down their proposal and improve their chances of keeping the St. Louis Rams in town. Owner Stan Kroenke wants to move the team to Los Angeles and is finishing the design of a nearly $2 billion stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders have pitched a competing two-team stadium just down the freeway, in Carson, Calif.

Nixon and the task force will have until Dec. 30 to submit their proposal. They received a letter late Friday from the NFL listing deadlines and expectations. Similar letters went to hometown efforts in Oakland and San Diego.

Owners will meet Jan. 12 to debate the hometown plans and two L.A. proposals. Several owners said they hope to vote on relocation at that meeting, too.

Nixon said on Friday in a statement that he expected the vote then. St. Louis is in a “strong position” to meet the NFL deadline, he said.

But the task force still has one other hurdle: The last portion of the financing plan, the part paid out of city coffers, still needs four votes at the Board of Aldermen plus approval by at least two of the city’s three chief officials — Mayor Francis Slay, board President Lewis Reed or Comptroller Darlene Green.

Green has already said the deal is bad for taxpayers and she won’t support it.

And before the board can vote, it needs to see the new financing package.

Most of the task force plan stays the same: It relies on $450 million from the team and league, $245 million from the state, $160 million from seat license sales and about $70 million from a city bond measure. Roughly $6 million a year — money the city now spends to pay down debt on the Edward Jones Dome — will back the bonds.

But the task force needed the city to commit another $75 million in order to make ends meet.

At first, it thought it could ask the city to bond the game-day tax revenues. City officials, however, worried more debt would further hurt their overburdened credit rating.

Then, in October, the task force announced a 20-year naming rights deal with National Car Rental and its parent company, locally based Enterprise Holdings, worth about $7.9 million a year. City legislation introduced at the Board of Aldermen then made clear that money would back another bond issue.

Some NFL owners and executives, however, didn’t like that. They wanted the naming-rights money to go to the team.

On Monday, Nixon’s stadium task force sent an email to the NFL’s Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities offering, among other things, to give the cash from Enterprise to the team.

The letter also offered stadium operations to the team, Peacock said. If agreed, the team would gain responsibility for maintenance and upkeep, and also the proceeds from concerts, college football games and other events.

Under the new proposal, about a third of the stadium taxes would still fill city coffers. The city would send the remaining two-thirds, not to the team, but to the state stadium authority. The stadium authority would use those taxes and team rent payments on the new facility to pay off $75 million in additional construction bonds.

Most of the game-day tax revenue — about $3 million a year — is projected to come from the city ticket tax. Peacock said he didn’t think the city would grant an NFL team a ticket-tax waiver. The Cardinals got one, but Busch Stadium had substantially less public support, he said.

He also didn’t think the NFL would be overly critical. Other cities — Chicago, Baltimore, Washington — also have ticket taxes, some even higher than St. Louis’ 5 percent rate.

Alderman Steve Conway, chairman of the board’s Ways & Means committee, said Friday that the new deal was just fine. “I think in the big scheme of things, not much is going to change,” Conway said.

And he said the financing bill would get through the board by the NFL deadline. “If that has to be done, that has to be done,” he said.

Jim Shrewsbury, chairman of the state stadium authority, noted that, even if the bill passes the board and the NFL accepts the proposal, there’s still a long way to go.

“If we get a team,” he said, “there’s going to be a lot more negotiations.”

“And if we don’t get a team, there’s not going to be a lot to do.”

[RamsFanSince82]

[RamsFanSince82]

[Stranger]

These last tweets are so revealing. Why in the the hell are StL and MO trying to incur more debt given their current financial state. He's right, it is freaking criminal.

[RamsFanSince82]

Yeah. The state is already in a lot of financial trouble, and they're spending a ton of money on another stadium they can't really afford. It's already been proven that stadiums are a bad investment.



Even though I don't think it will matter that much (The Rams are going to be approved to move in 16' even if STL comes up with the 30% of the substandard stadium plan), I love all of this uncertainty with the STL stadium proposal.