An attempt by St. Louis, Mo. city officials to secure $40 million in state tax credits to aid in construction of a new facility for a potential Major League Soccer franchise isn’t going as smoothly as the interested parties had hoped.
St. Louis MLS Stadium Project Faces Possible Delay
When the St. Louis Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority presented its application for the funds to the Missouri Finance Development Board last Thursday, the reception for the presentation was met with less than enthusiasm.
Board member John Mehner’s response was that the group might be better off seeking the funding from the full state legislature as opposed to the 11-member board. He also called the application the least complete he had ever seen and stated that it made him uncomfortable.
The board now has until the end of the calendar year to vote on the application, but there is so much yet to be determined that the chances of approval for the funding aren’t looking good.
Undecided Components of the Plan
Nearly half of the funding for the project is expected to come from the city, but that’s relying upon a voter-approved tax increase. If the ballot measure fails in April, the LCRA will have to look elsewhere for $80 million of the $205 million projected cost. Tax increases to finance stadium construction projects have become increasingly less popular, as evidenced by the recent defeat of the National Football League’s San Diego Chargers bid for such funding.
Additionally, what form that tax increase will take has yet to be decided. If the targeted tax increase comes to the sales tax, then MFDB member Kelley Martin suggests that the tax hike be spread among the entire county, not just in St. Louis itself.
The construction project’s financing also depends on the LCRA being awarded $9 million in state transportation funding, which has yet to be awarded. Along the same lines, there are questions as to whether the stadium is even necessary.
MLS’ Hesitancy to Commit to St. Louis
The reality is that MLS has yet to officially award St. Louis an expansion franchise, or even commit to do so if the stadium can be completed. MLS President Mark Abbott has gone on the record in support of a St. Louis franchise, but all that is dependent on everything working out as MLS hopes. If applications for state funding for the stadium construction fail, and private investors can’t be found, then the likelihood of MLS spending its resources in St. Louis plummets.
That would in turn hurt the bid for approval for funding from the full legislature. St. Louis already has one stadium without an anchor tenant (the Edward Jones Dome, the former home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams) which taxpayers are still on the hook for. Expanding the tax burden of the city or all of St. Louis County for another stadium that could sit empty may not appeal to an even larger group of legislators.
Without massive public funding, it’s difficult to see the path forward for an MLS franchise in St. Louis. The path to securing that public funding appears just as difficult right now, however.
