Jul

22

St. Louis fighting to kill the Sprint Center?

July 22, 2004 |

OK folks, this post covers a lot of speculation and rumor, so please take it with a few grains of salt… Chatter on various KC, MU, and KU web sites over the last couple of days is pointing to some forces in St. Louis mounting opposition to Kansas City’s proposed new arena, which goes before voters on August 3rd.

It’s too early to tell if this is all coincidence or valid conspiracy theory, so we’ll just list some tidbits and then follow the Faux News motto of “we report, you decide.”


St. Louis fighting to kill the Sprint Center?
A few pieces of the puzzle…

*Fact: St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent a Car is providing most of the funding for the Coalition Against Arena Taxes.

*Fact: St. Louis-based Fleishman Hillard ad agency is in charge of the CAAT media campaign.

*Fact: For years, St. Louis has extracted tens of millions of dollar from Missouri taxpayers to subsidize their baseball and football stadiums, while keeping similar Kansas City stadium support to a token minimum.

*Fact: Suburban St. Louis legislator Wayne Goode added a last minute amendment to the Missouri Downtown Economic Stimuls Act (MODESA) that prohibits this new state program from being used for the KC arena, even though it was KC Mayor Kay Barnes that conceived and pushed for the law for that exact purpose.

*Rumor: St. Louis sports and business interests are worried about the NBA bypassing STL for KC, and/or a second NHL team in Missouri.

*Rumor: KC sports radio is saying that Bill Laurie, the Columbia businessman who owns the St. Louis Blues and Savvis Center, is losing $25-40 million a year on the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and their Savvis Center arena. A KC arena could further threaten the Blues’ solvency and/or dash Laurie’s hope of attracting an NBA team to the Savvis Center.

*Rumor: Bill Laurie complained to KC arena developer Anschutz Entertainment Group, expressing his opposition to any NHL or NBA team in Kansas City and claiming exclusive NHL and NBA rights in Missouri.

*Rumor: St. Louis downtown boosters are worried that Kansas City is having more success in redeveloping it’s Downtown and attracting new residents, businesses, and visitors.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. kevin elijah on December 10, 2004 6:33 am

    plz 4 christ sake 4give and 4get

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind