[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metr ... SI.twitter

Key NFL owner says funding details for St. Louis riverfront stadium are overdue

By David Hunn

NEW YORK • Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's St. Louis stadium task force has not turned in the financial details of its riverfront stadium proposal to a key National Football League committee as expected, a committee member and influential team owner said on Wednesday.

Bob McNair, owner of the Houston Texans, chairman of the NFL finance committee and member of the league's Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities, said that the L.A. committee anticipated getting what he called "term sheets" on St. Louis' proposed riverfront football stadium a few weeks ago.

"That's what we have to see is the term sheet — you know, what's the firm commitment," McNair told the Post-Dispatch during a break between sessions of the NFL owners' October meeting here. "If they're going to do something, they need to act."

McNair said he did not know what was holding up the process.

Dave Peacock, a former Anheuser-Busch executive and co-chairman of Nixon's task force, said the delay was in hammering out the city of St. Louis' commitment to the project.

"The term sheets define the full scope of financing for the project, both public and private," Peacock said. And the public side, he said, needs to be "fully conceived."

City officials have said St. Louis will cover $150 million of the $1 billion stadium. But that agreement must be written into legislation, voted on by the city Board of Aldermen, and signed into law by Mayor Francis Slay.

And Slay's staff has had some concerns about the first draft of the bills. The issue is how to use game-day revenues — taxes, for instance, on stadium parking, hot dogs and the like.

The city is likely going to issue bonds backed by the $6 million in annual general revenue spending on the Edward Jones Dome debt. But that's not going to be enough to cover all $150 million.

So leaders are considering also issuing bonds on the backs of the game-day revenues. Alternatively, the city treasury could pocket the tax increase and pay more out of general revenue toward a second, or larger, bond issuance.

Peacock said task force and city officials are searching for other options, too. "There are a number of ways to make this work," Peacock said.

The goal, he said, is to avoid over-burdening the city's general budget and also avoid negatively affecting the city's credit rating, which has taken some recent hits.

Either way, Peacock acknowledged the deal with the city "needs to be very soon."

[Hacksaw]

DAVID PEACOCK, you are on the clock.

[BuiltRamTough]

The owners are waiting, waiting for that box to be checked.

[bluecoconuts]

Sounds like he's looking for additional loopholes to use in order to rush things through.

[TSFH Fan]

From Alderman Ogilvie (Ward 24):

[bubbaramfan]

The fact is, St. Louis has only come up with less than 500mi, about half of what they need to build a stadium. And They are still asking Kroenke and the NFL for the other half. all the talk about creating bonds really doesn't solve the money problem if no one buys them.

[SoCalRam78]

this plan is back to the track, at the wall, gooooone!

[Hacksaw]

this plan is back to the track, at the wall, gooooone!

Are you saying their plan is a home run????? Blasphemy !!

j/k,, I catch your drift.

[Elvis]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nf ... /73553874/

Bell: NFL's return to Los Angeles seems both inevitable and hugely complicated

Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY Sports 10:59 p.m. EDT October 7, 2015

NEW YORK — For all of the momentum the NFL has built toward moving at least one franchise (and maybe two) into that land of enormous revenues in Los Angeles, there sure were a lot of mixed signals expressed Wednesday in the hallways of the grand Waldorf Astoria at the league meetings.

Sure, for some time it’s been a race between three teams — the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams — to claim the nation’s second-largest market. But the process is complicated by the cities that could be left behind.

“We need to be ... sensitive and thoughtful to the fans that have supported us in these markets that they’re in today,” Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank told USA TODAY Sports. “Having said that, fans are voters and they elect officials. At the end of the day, officials decide whether to have a competitive situation, stadium-wise, in their markets, or they don’t. If they choose not to, I’m not saying the fans have spoken, but the voters have spoken.

“In that case, the owners have other options.”

And the owners are expected to settle the L.A. question with a vote in January. The clock is ticking.

San Diego has submitted a term sheet to the league for a downtown stadium plan pushed by mayor Kevin Faulconer. There’s no imminent plan for a new stadium in Oakland. But never say never.

Meanwhile, St. Louis’ plan for a riverfront stadium, spearheaded by Missouri governor Jay Nixon, is in the works. News of a $158 million naming rights deal with National Rental Car circulated while the owners convened. But while there’s an outline, there’s still no term sheet to consider.

As Commissioner Roger Goodell put it, “It’s important to have a proposal that’s actionable.”

We’ll see. When public dollars are involved, the debate intensifies.

“They’re being given an opportunity to put their best foot forward, and they’re trying to do that," Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II told USA TODAY Sports when asked about St. Louis' situation. "I think there’s a lot of respect in the room for what they’re trying to do.”

Even so, you can find different interpretations of the NFL's relocation policy. Basically, the league doesn’t want to come off as abandoning a market, which might seem even worse than holding taxpayers hostage to pay for a facility where private owners will reap the benefits. As one executive told me, the relocation guidelines still come down to a business judgment that involves weighing a viable plan in an existing market vs. a new opportunity.

In the Rams’ case, where team owner Stan Kroenke is set to finance a stadium and retail plan in Inglewood, Calif., can St. Louis have an offer more viable than that? Really?

“It’s got to be past the talk, in writing, and it’s got to be sustainable from this governing body to the next governing body so that when Joe Blow’s out of office, (it becomes) ‘Well that was his deal, not my deal,’ ” Blank said. “You can’t live with that.”

In the Chargers’ case, after multiple San Diego mayors devised plans that were not as strong as the current one, will they risk a once-in-a-generation opportunity? The Chargers are aligned with the Raiders for a stadium in Carson, Calif. Yet there’s speculation that the Bolts might instead join forces with the Rams and leave the Raiders to fend for themselves.

But first, the existing market option (according to the relocation guidelines) must be vetted.

Blank, in the midst of having a sparkling, taxpayer-supported, downtown stadium built in Atlanta, knows the stakes and the nuances as well as anyone. And he also knows big business. Adding franchises to the Los Angeles market will include the ripple effect of increasing the values of all 32 franchises.

“This is not about chasing the buck,” said Blank, who co-founded The Home Depot. “It’s about doing the right thing, for the existing markets, regardless of their size.

"You want to have a winning situation for everybody.”

More mixed signals as part of a complicated end game.

[Hacksaw]

Spanos is making it complicated from where I sit....