Here you go boys and girls....one more team getting a new home.

 

 

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...egin+next+month

 

 

Cards say stadium construction will begin next month

 

 

By Doug Moore and Terry Ganey

 

The Cardinals plan to close on the private financing part of a downtown

ballpark on Dec. 18 and begin construction by the end of the year, team

President Mark Lamping said Tuesday.

 

Lamping's remarks came after a state board approved $29 million in tax credits

for the project and authorized a tax-supported $45 million bond issue.

 

The St. Louis County Council on Tuesday night introduced a bill that would

approve a $45 million loan to be funded from the bond issue - with the debt

being repaid from the county's motel and hotel tax. The council will hold a

public hearing at 5 p.m. Monday on the stadium financing. Bonds would be sold

16 days later to coincide with closing on the private financing.

 

State officials who signed off on the project said assurances are in place that

the new stadium, which is scheduled to open in April 2006, also comes with

adjoining development or the Cardinals will have to pay penalties.

 

The arrangement among St. Louis, St. Louis County, the state and

Cardinals owners is a "very responsible partnership," said Joe Driskill, state

Economic Development Department director and a member of the Missouri

Development Finance Board, which approved the credits.

 

The Cardinals plan to create a six-block office and residential area known as

Ballpark Village across Clark Street from the new ballpark and roughly where

Busch Stadium now sits. The Cardinals have committed $60 million to developing

one block by 2009 and a second block by 2011. The economy would dictate further

development, the Cardinals have said.

 

With a unanimous vote, the state board approved a package of $29.45 million in

contribution tax credits for the team. A credit is a direct deduction from

state income taxes. The Cardinals can sell the credits for about $25 million

and use the money for stadium development.

 

The board-approved resolution said $22.45 million in credits could be used

during this fiscal year. The $7 million balance would be taken from the state

treasury in the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2005.

 

Most of the credits will be charged against the state balance sheet at a time

when Missouri will be facing continued budget problems. The credits were issued

last fiscal year. They had to be reauthorized because the Cardinals did not

have all their financing in place by June 30.

 

The deal obligates the Cardinals to fulfill certain requirements. Those include

stipulations that if the team were sold, the public partners - city, county and

state - would receive a share of the purchase price.

 

To get the tax credits, the Cardinals have to turn over to the state land and

marketable securities equal to $58.9 million. The team owns the 14-acre site,

which now houses Busch Stadium and the land south of it where the new

46,000-seat ballpark would be built. The entire project is expected to cost

about $402 million and includes tearing down Busch Stadium and the Eighth

Street ramp onto eastbound Highway 40.

 

"It's a good day for us," Lamping said before heading to New York to continue

negotiating on the private financing.

 

The Cardinals will not say who the firm or firms are that would fund, build and

own the new stadium. The team is working with Banc of America Securities, which

is responsible for finding about $47 million from equity investors for the

project. An additional $183 million would be borrowed by the company that

commits to build and own the stadium.

 

The team, who would lease the new ballpark for 29 years, are putting in at

least $50 million of its own money.

 

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted 13 months ago to eliminate the

entertainment tax on Cardinals tickets, saving the team about $3.4 million. The

team will likely use the money to help make its lease payments. City leaders

were concerned that the Cardinals would move the team out of downtown after an

earlier financing package failed to make its way out of the Missouri

Legislature.

 

"This might be the first day we can say with assurance that this project will

get done," said Jeff Rainford, chief of staff for St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

The ballpark would represent the largest development project in the city and

serve as the first major development project under Slay's administration. The

Cardinals generate about $8 million a year in taxes for the city.

 

John Loyd, who is overseeing the construction of the new ballpark for the

Cardinals, said with the closing date in place, the Cardinals now have 27 1/2

months to build a new facility.

 

"It's an adequate amount of time but not a generous amount of time," Loyd said.

Experts in stadium design and construction say projects similar to this take 24

to 36 months.

 

More than half of the construction jobs have been let out for bid, Loyd said.

Of those $127 million in contracts that will be awarded once funding is in

place, 92 percent will go to Missouri-based companies, Lamping told the state

board.

 

Pulitzer Inc., which owns the Post-Dispatch, and Pulitzer's

chairman, Michael E. Pulitzer, are part-owners of the Cardinals.

Their combined stake is slightly less than 4 percent.

 

Stadium schedule

 

Tuesday: The Missouri Development Finance Board reissued $29.45

million in tax subsidies and approved the sale of $45 million in revenue bonds.

The St. Louis County Council introduced a bill that would approve a $45 million

loan to be funded from the bond issue with the debt being repaid from the

county's motel and hotel tax.

 

Nov. 24: County Council holds 5 p.m. public hearing on stadium

financing.

 

Dec. 2: Final vote by County Council on $45 million loan.

 

Dec. 18: Cardinals expect to close on private financing. Revenue

bonds to be sold the same day.

 

By Dec. 31: Groundbreaking on the new stadium.

 

October 2005: Busch Stadium to be razed to make way for completion

of new ballpark.

 

April 2006: New ballpark to open.

 

Reporter Doug Moore

E-mail: dmoore@post-dispatch.com

Phone: 314-622-3580

 

Reporter Terry Ganey

E-mail: tganey@post-dispatch.com

Phone: 573-635-6178

it seems so easy for everyone else.

That's the BS from the Cards PR Dept.

 

The Marlins are closer to a stadium than they are, private money is hard to find in Missouri and here is the article that says so.

 

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/st...elude+Cardinals

Stadium funds elude Cardinals

By Doug Moore

 

A year ago this week, on a parking lot south of Busch Stadium, Cardinals owners

announced with great fanfare that they had signed a contract with a Washington

firm to find investors for a new ballpark.

 

Today, the private financing is still not secured. The Cardinals fired the

Washington firm five months after hiring it and a series of deadlines have come

and gone for when owners said construction would begin.

 

And, for the first time, the Cardinals have offered a drop-dead date - March 31

- for when construction must begin for the Cardinals to make the April 2006

deadline for opening the new stadium. Team president Mark Lamping stressed

construction would begin well before then and the new stadium would open on

time.

 

"We certainly expect that we will have the financing closed well in advance of

any construction deadline that would force" moving the opening, Lamping said.

"The only important standard to apply in judging whether there has been a delay

or not is when the ballpark opens. That has not changed."

 

The Cardinals initially said financing could be in place as early as

July, and have given subsequent dates of August and October when questioned

about financing and groundbreaking. During the effort to secure financing,

Lamping, like other members of the team's leadership, has maintained that

private financing is not for public scrutiny, although some of the money for

the $400 million project comes from the city, St. Louis County and the state.

 

"We're in a very technical part of the financing. There's really not a lot that

can be discussed publicly," Lamping said.

 

The team has said it is in negotiations with an investor and that the low

interest rates that came with the weak economy bode well for the project.

 

Meanwhile, representatives from the city, county and state are meeting

regularly with the Cardinals to create an intergovernmental agreement. It would

outline each entity's right to ownership of the new ballpark in case those who

build and own the stadium would sell it before the Cardinals' 29-year lease

would expire. St. Louis County has agreed to kick in $45 million - most likely

in the form of a loan - although the County Council has taken no formal vote on

how the money will be paid and will not until the Cardinals have closed on the

private financing.

 

The balance of the public money will come from the city's eliminating a ticket

tax and from state tax credits. As well, the Missouri Department of

Transportation has agreed to tear down the Eighth Street ramp onto eastbound

Highway 40 (Interstate 64) to make way for the new ballpark. But MoDot, like

the county, will wait until the Cardinals have their private money in hand.

 

The private funding numbers continue to change as negotiations proceed. Banc of

America Securities, which stepped up when Property Funding Group was fired in

April, is responsible for finding about $52 million from equity investors for

the project. An additional $183 million would be borrowed by the company that

commits to build and own the stadium. The Cardinals are putting in at least $50

million of their own money, although those close to the negotiations say that

number is likely to increase as delays in the construction drive up the cost of

the project.

 

Lamping said that even if financing had been secured months earlier, the

stadium would not be 100 percent finished by opening day 2006. Much of the work

cannot happen until Busch Stadium comes down in October 2005, in effect giving

construction crews five months to raze and clear the old ballpark to finish

building the new one. The Cardinals maintain about 85 percent of the stadium

would be finished when it opens and the rest completed three months later, near

the All-Star break in July.

 

Dean Bonham, who runs a sports marketing and consulting company in Denver, said

construction on a ballpark similar to what the Cardinals propose would take 24

to 36 months. If the Cardinals can begin building by Jan. 1, the team would

have 28 months to meet their deadline.

 

"It's going to be much more difficult if, in the middle of it, they have to

raze Busch Stadium," said Bonham. "That really complicates things and makes 28

months a very, very tight schedule."

 

The original plan called for tearing down a portion of Busch Stadium after the

2004 season and playing the 2005 season in a partially demolished stadium. The

idea was that more of the new stadium could be built during 2005 with part of

Busch Stadium out of the way. But concerns over public safety and the

difficulty of demolishing only a portion of the stadium nixed that plan.

Actually Cape, the story you linked was posted a week ago, the one from Das was today. They could be closer.

 

Then again, they may not be.

 

But to say the Fish are any closer would not exactly be an objective statement.

cgator, Das posted a story more recent than mine, but the Cards have made several announcements and nothing has happened. You can't seriously believe that in less than two weeks they fired their financial company, interviewed possible replacements, hired a replacement, and were able to solve all the problems the had with the old one as the suggest?

 

The Cards are about $183 million short, the Marlins are only $115 million short with a $60 million tax break from the state on it's way and an offer for a low cost loan from the union insurance company for $110 million to help them put the package together.

 

So who is closer now?

i can only go by what the recent stories suggest.

 

 

i recieved the link in an email.

 

 

you never know what is going on in st. louis if you are not there.

i can only go by what the recent stories suggest.

 

 

i recieved the link in an email.

 

 

you never know what is going on in st. louis if you are not there.

My sources say the Cards are trying to scam St. Louis out of more money.

 

The Cards are hoping to get a loan from the organization that will own the new ballpark to help pay it off. The organization is the city, county, and state. Didn't they already contribute? A law in Missouri prohibits anymore stadium deals without an election, but the Cards were grandfathered in at the 11th hour.

my sources say ever professional team tries to 'scam' the public out of as much money as possible.

And the first shots are fired in yet another stadium fight.

The Cards are about $183 million short, the Marlins are only $115 million short with a $60 million tax break from the state on it's way and an offer for a low cost loan from the union insurance company for $110 million to help them put the package together.

2 things:

 

1) the union loan offer is a joke and a miserable attempt by an anti-stadium politician to look like he is pro-stadium. the truth is, the vast majority of the money that the marlins have already agreed to put up for the stadium is in the form of expected loans and future earnings. i guarantee you this offer of a "low cost loan from the union insurance company" will not be taken up by the marlins. it was purely a publicity stunt. a loan would effectively do nothing to cover the amount that the marlins are short.

 

2) i would be very, very happy if a $60 million tax break from the state is "on it's way". i remember reading an article that said the legislature probably would not give such a tax break for the marlins. do you have an article that mentioning this? i've been scratching my head about that $60 million figure; if it's really true, i will be quite happy. however, if a $60 million tax break is granted, i wouldn't be surprised if loria accounts that under the team's contribution. still, i want to read this so i can know if it's really true.

The original plan called for tearing down a portion of Busch Stadium after the 2004 season and playing the 2005 season in a partially demolished stadium. The idea was that more of the new stadium could be built during 2005 with part of

Busch Stadium out of the way. But concerns over public safety and the

difficulty of demolishing only a portion of the stadium nixed that plan.

 

 

WTF were they thinking about?? :blink:

 

 

Well thats all great for St. Louis and everything....but has there been any word on OUR new ballpark??? :mischief2