By Blaidd Drwg
The St Louis Rams apparently have one of the more bizarre leases I have seen, as a result, they are “in negotiations” with the city of St Louis to renovate the Edward Jones Dome. The city is proposing $124 million in improvements and the Rams are asking for…wait for it…$700 million in improvements, or what amounts to a new stadium.
The Jones Dome is less than 20 years old, not an old building by any means, but old by greedy millionaire sports owner’s standards. The Rams have a 30 year lease for the stadium, but can break it because of the following:
The 30-year lease signed when the Rams arrived in St. Louis from Los Angeles prior to the 1995 season requires that the dome remain among the top eight of the 31 NFL stadiums or the team can break the lease at certain junctures, the next being after the 2014 season. Owner Stan Kroenke has been non-committal about the team’s future if the dome isn’t improved.
I love the use of the “give us what we want or we will leave” gambit. The stadium opened in 1995, was completely publicly funded and won’t be paid off until 2025. The construction costs were $280 million, but with improvements made over the years and interest on the bonds, the stadium will end up costing the taxpayers around $720 million dollars.
The Rams want a retractable roof, among other things, which would require the stadium and adjoining convention center to be closed for 3 years. Additionally, the Rams want the entire thing funded by public money. The estimate is that will cost $500 in revenue. Based on that, the cost of the stadium would be somewhere around $2 billion dollars when all is said and done. Somehow I think that the city, county and state would all be better off if they told the Rams to take a hike and spent their money elsewhere rather than give a bunch of really rich people a place to socialize on 10 Sundays a year.
FlatbreadGarden 