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Do you agree with or oppose using public funds to enhance the ballpark in the next two to five years at an estimated cost of approximately $500 to $600 million?
New: The Cardinals are gearing up for a big ask for more public funding for Busch Stadium. The team president compares the potential scale of the project to two other franchises that each obtained more than $500M in public funds for stadium upgrades. https://t.co/gOUFOFmeT3
— Riverfront Times (@RiverfrontTimes) April 17, 2024
From the article:
“We are absolutely committed to winning,” DeWitt III says. “We pretty much put all of our resources that we have available because of our great fan support and other revenue streams to fielding the best product we can on the field.”
As to what the future holds for that field and stadium, DeWitt III says, “I think it would be in everybody’s interest for the Cardinals to be downtown indefinitely, and that’s certainly our goal, but we also need to make sure our facility is viable.”
I think it is getting to the point where citizens are not seeing the promised benefits to the community, and these initiatives will have a tougher time getting passed.
Professional sports teams are building these “ballpark village” type areas and monopolizing the public good. The promised increased revenues are not necessarily going to existing businesses.
The future might be that in order to get public funding, the citizens are going to require an ownership in the asset. In order to persuade people to vote for public funding teams might have to create some sort of “funding” portfolio where the taxpayers within the stadium district get to financially benefit from the revenue increase, rather than clubs having their cake and eating it too.
And perhaps a limit into how much the organization can own other ventures in the area.
These guys kill me. The last time these impoverished paupers had their hands out and asked to get on the dole they threatened to build the current ballpark across the river in Illinois if they weren’t fed and nourished with assistance in the form of public funding. The rich and greedy have no shame…
Get back to me when you hoist another flag Billy. The stadium is plenty good enough for competitive.
About a thousand economists have studied this 100 thousand times and the conclusion is always that stadiums NEVER bring in the economic windfall promised by owners.
Bill DeWitt is now worth multiple billions per Forbes and others. He needs to spend his own money. Period.
Haven’t been to the stadium since 2019, and it seems great then. Wonder what kind of renovations they feel have to be done.
Bottom line, they won’t get the public to pony up so they need to finance it themselves. And moving is ridiculous – way more expensive than renovations would be.
Dewitt can’t even say how much the upgrades will cost, or how much he’ll need, or what it will provide. Sort of ridiculous, and the city should give him a rousing “no” in response. If the team was being consistently investing in, maybe the attitude of the fans would improve.
I am opposed to any taxpayer funds being used to subsidize the private business interests of billionaires.
To put his ask in perspective, he bought the club for $150 million.
Cities need to wise up and let the billionaires move. After a few of them go bankrupt, they will realize the grass is not always greener.
Everybody remember that Foxconn giveaway a few years ago?
It would have taken 86 years at 0% interest for that giveaway to break even in the best case scenario.
After Fight for $350M in Memphis Stadium Funds, Dust Finally Settling
In December, 2023, the AAA affiliate in Memphis was left out of a $350 million grant to help renovate Autozone Park. The stadium could have used all of the money…I have a question regarding ownership and couldn’t find it on line.
How liquid are the Dewitt Family? How much money do they really have? I see what they bought the team for and what it’s worth now and I get how sometimes people can get that confused with they have that much money. It’s kind of like an Insta models net worth but they actually don’t have that money to spend.
Also assuming they have partners which do have a minority stake. How much money do they have? Not how much they’re worth but how much actually money do the possess if they needed to pony up?
$500 million is a lot of money. I personally don’t think the taxpayers should be on the hook for all of it but I do think a good faith gesture on both ends would go a long way.
I remember when the NFL crap was going on. Specifically the ownership by the Spanos and Mark Davis of both the Chargers and the Raiders. Yes they had wealth but as far as owners go It was reported IIRC that Davis didn’t have enough money on his own to fund a stadium deal. I believe the same was reported with the Spanos family.
I am not in favor of public funding for stadium improvements. Additionally, the issue is clouded by the lack of transparency with the team’s financial statements. It is hard for me to say if ownership really “needs” the money or “would like the money”.
Busch Stadium is more than adequate housing right now for a mediocre baseball team.
I would “consider” public funding only after ownership specifies precisely what “enhancements” are necessary and if ownership pledges to to match the public funding dollar for dollar out of it profit margins.
if ownership pledges to . . . .
After last year’s payroll increase smoke and mirrors BS, what ownership/management pledges wouldn’t mean diddly in real life.
I cant imagine a bill to improve the stadium at taxpayers expense would be approved. Is this organization really that numb to the current public opinion of them at this time? Whether that opinion is correct or not.
How liquid are the Dewitt Family? How much money do they really have? I see what they bought the team for and what it’s worth now and I get how sometimes people can get that confused with they have that much money
They don’t have to have $500M liquid. I would imagine any legitimate bank would give them a line of credit based on equity that would be sufficient to do the upgrades. They could then pay down the line of credit over time. Asking the public to do this is ridiculous.
This happens all over the country though. Owners cry poor, threaten to move to the suburbs or out of the area altogether in attempts to get the taxpayers to cave.
This is why Oakland had attendance of 3k per game on our most recent visit. It isn’t that fan support won’t support a team there. Their fans are livid at their ownership and have decided to boycott the final season. I have actually followed that situation fairly closely, and while there are usually two sides to a story, their owner appears to be a rascal. He has ran that organization into the ground, doesn’t appear to even have enough money to finalize the deal in Las Vegas, and is begging for public funds in Vegas which may or may not happen. I would give the odds of them actually moving to Vegas at no better than 50%. They might end up in Sacramento permanently, move to Salt Lake City permanently, or be sold and move back to Oakland. It is a real fiasco and of course Manfred is supporting the incompetent A’s owner.
Gscottar is correct in that net worth can be turned to cash either from loans or by selling some of the assets that make up the net worth. Much of it is likely the club’s stock, and owners are usually reluctant to share their power in running an organization so I doubt DeWitt would sell any part of the club. But finding the dollars is not a problem.
Asking the public to help is wearing thin with fans who already pony up a lot of their hard earned dough in tickets and concessions. We will see more and more of these proposals voted down.
Yeah, I have heard that Oakland owner is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He used to berate Giants fans and if there was anything slightly negative about the Giants he would be all over it. People like that who are hyper-focused on their rival are generally not real good at managing their own affairs.
There is a way to generally quantity what value a professional franchise brings to a city and county.
The Cardinals are a regional draw and so visitors to the City coming in for Cardinals games generate local sales tax and hotel tax amounts and they eat out and shop to also boost local businesses.
There is an equitable split between public and private dollars that will make some sense.
If the Cardinals pick up and move to say, Nashville – what would the economic impact be to the City, the County, and the downtown hotels, restaurants, and bars? You can put a number on that.
Sure, if offered the owner of whatever pro team will allow 100% public money to be used but unless a City is luring a franchise to relocate that isn’t generally how it goes.
The middle ground is usually the fairest and best choice when it comes to these types of facilities improvements.
Now, the question I have is – Does the stadium actually NEED major improvements or will some maintenance of what is already there work for another 10 years?
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