Here's a look at some of the main issues surrounding the current proposal to build a new downtown stadium for the Cardinals:
Q. What is the new stadium plan?
A. The plan the city of St. Louis is developing in consultation with the Cardinals calls for the construction of a ballpark on land directly south of the team's current home, Busch Stadium. The project would be financed largely with private money. An earlier plan that called for the city, St. Louis County and the state to cover about 60 percent of the cost died in the Missouri Legislature in May.
Q. Why do the Cardinals want a new stadium?
A. The ownership group that bought the Cardinals after the 1995 season wants to replace Busch Stadium because it is becoming more costly to maintain and cannot provide the team with the additional revenue it needs to keep up with richer rivals.
Cardinals President Mark Lamping noted Tuesday that a new baseball-only stadium would give fans better sight lines and bring them closer to the action.
Q. How much would the stadium cost?
A. The price tag on the city's plan is $333.2 million, or about $13 million less than the earlier plan for a publicly financed ballpark. Lamping says the shift to private financing has forced the Cardinals to limit the project to what they could comfortably afford.
Q. How does the cost break down?
A. The plan budgets $260.4 million for the stadium itself, $4.1 million for site work, $10.6 million for traffic and transit improvements and $58.2 million for other, unspecified expenses.
Q. When would the new ballpark open?
A. The plan calls for the Cardinals to play their last game in Busch Stadium in 2005 and begin play in the new ballpark on opening day in 2006.
Q. Why the rush to complete a deal for a new stadium now?
A. The city is competing with proposals in Illinois for publicly built stadiums using state-backed bonds. Additionally, city officials want the publicly funded part of the deal done before St. Louis voters decide Nov. 5 on a ballot measure that would require a separate vote whenever there is a proposal to use taxes to build a sports facility.
Q. How would the new stadium differ from Busch Stadium?
A. The stadium would have 45,000 seats, compared with 49,676 in the Cardinals' current home. It would have 60 corporate suites and 44 party rooms, versus 70 suites and 26 party rooms at Busch. The new stadium also would have more higher-priced club seats. However, the Cardinals also would be required to keep a minimum of 6,000 seats available for each game at a price equal to $12 or less, in today's dollars.
Q. How would the new stadium generate extra revenue for the Cardinals?
A. The suites in the new stadium would be larger and more luxurious than those in Busch and would thus command a higher price. An increase in the number of club seats, which often come with waiter service and other amenities, would boost the average ticket price at the new stadium. The Cardinals have drawn more than 3 million fans a year for the past few years, so every $1 increase in the average ticket price would yield $3 million in additional revenue. The team had $132.4 million in total revenue last year.
Q. How would the stadium be financed?
A. If the city of St. Louis and the Cardinals sign off on the deal, their consultants will tap the financial markets for the money to build the stadium. Pitney Bowes Inc., a business-machine company that also invests in real estate, is interested in taking an equity stake in the project. Other sources, such as insurance companies and pension funds, might be interested in providing loans for the venture.
Q. What would the Cardinals pay under the arrangement?
A. The Cardinals would pay rent on the stadium and also would be responsible for operating costs, maintenance and taxes. The investors who finance the construction would simply act as landlords.
Q. What about Ballpark Village, which was part of the previous stadium proposal?
A. The Cardinals would commit to developing at least two of the six blocks originally targeted for a mixed-use project adjacent to the new stadium.
The new proposal calls for a 300,000-square-foot, seven-story building with retail, office and residential space, a 27,000-square-foot, two-story building with retail and office space and a 23,000-square-foot, two-story building that would house the Cardinals Hall of Fame. The plan also includes two levels of below-ground parking.
Q. What happens if that development never materializes?
A. Just as in the previous deal, the Cardinals would be subject to financial penalties if they fail to redevelop the land on which Busch now stands. Those penalties could total as much as $60 million, an amount equal to the projected spending on the buildings.
The proposal calls for the Cardinals to complete the first block of Ballpark Village by the end of 2009 and the second block by the end of 2011.
Q. What's in this deal for the city of St. Louis?
A. The city is betting that the new stadium, Ballpark Village and development in surrounding blocks will generate more economic activity downtown and more tax revenue for the city's general fund.
Although the Cardinals would be freed from the city's 5 percent amusement tax under the plan, the city expects the increased revenue from other taxes to more than offset the $3.4 million a year that the team collects in amusement taxes each year.
Q. What would the city lose if the Cardinals moved to Illinois?
A. About $8 million a year in combined tax revenue from the team, or nearly 2 percent of the city's $415 million general fund, which is used to pay for daily operations.
Bars, restaurants and other downtown businesses that cater to the baseball crowds also would suffer.
Q. What's in this deal for the Cardinals?
A. The Cardinals would get a new stadium, in virtually the same location as the old one, with the potential to generate significantly higher revenue and profits. Marc Ganis, a sports consultant, says teams typically do not take on the risk and headaches of a ballpark construction project unless they can boost stadium revenue by at least 20 percent.
Q. What kind of deal might the Cardinals get in Illinois?
A. Lamping and Illinois Gov. George Ryan have been discussing a deal in which a new stadium would be built with public money, in the form of bonds that would be retired by revenue from a ticket tax there.
The most likely site would be across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis.
Although that stadium deal would be more attractive financially to the Cardinals, many fans maintain that they would not cross the river to see the team play because of concerns about traffic and safety.
Q. What's in this deal for the investors in the stadium?
A. Richard Gross, one of the consultants working with the city on the deal, says taking an equity stake in the stadium project can be attractive for a large corporation with surplus cash to invest.
Pitney Bowes, or any other equity investor, could profit from the combination of the rent the stadium generates, the depreciation it could take on the property and other tax benefits it might realize.
Q. Would any public money be used for the project?
A. The city plans to ask the state to contribute about $40 million for improvements to streets, highways and other infrastructure around the stadium. It also wants St. Louis County to help out by providing $2.2 million a year for 30 years from its hotel tax receipts. St. Louis County had agreed to those payments the last time around.
