Turns Out St. Louis Was Right to Reject Public Financing for a Soccer Stadium

[TexasTowelie]

"Get off your ass." That was the message delivered by Dave Peacock to the crowd of soccer fans and investors gathered in a hotel ballroom in April 2017, mere minutes after St. Louis voters conclusively rejected a proposal to funnel $60 million in public funds to a stadium for a professional soccer team.

Peacock, a partner in the project rejected by voters, seemed to target those opposed to the tax giveaway as naysayers to the very concept of progress.

"It doesn’t have to be soccer," Peacock said at the time. "It could be whatever you want. But to me, people sit on the sidelines, chirp and bitch, and they don’t do anything."

In a way, St. Louis listened to Peacock's advice, though perhaps not in the manner he had intended. On Tuesday, a new ownership group announced plans to build a $250 million soccer stadium on the same site featured in the failed 2017 bid, land just west of Union Station in downtown. This time, the proposal includes no public funding — and no Dave Peacock.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/10/10/turns-out-st-louis-was-right-to-reject-public-financing-for-a-soccer-stadium

[Sherman A1]

1. Been watching this development locally and while not a sports fan

I think it’s great to see. As long as the owners are not seeking tax dollars 💵, I’m all for it.

[3Hotdogs]

2. Yeah, no more public welfare for millionaire team owners.

[marble falls]

3. But Millionaires are an endangered specie. So very many of them have turned into billionaires.

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Absolutely. After the Rams left when owner Stan K. wanted to move the team to Calif. ...

from STLMO, the voters of St. Louis MO got ripped off by K's team and left holding the bag for $30 million bucks (money used to build a stadium, etc. I think it's still in the courts. Stan K., a beneficiary of the Walmart fortune didn't even need the money and is an ultimate hypocrite and a liar, as the city of St. Louis found out.

Never again. The voters are so opposed now to any public dollars to any professional or paid sports avenue and will be for some time. We spends tons of money supporting the Football cardinals, the Rams, and got our hearts ripped out.

What's funny about it, is that we have a world class baseball team, year after year, a world class chess club on our own for the most part (I don't think we have public dollars supporting the baseball cardinals) and the club club in the central west end of St. Louis city is an amazing accomplishment, being done on it's own by people who simply love chess and quietly put the club together and here we are now, 10 years later. Wonderful.

Folks love soccer too here in MO. I'm constantly amazed by the sheer number of people who go for it. This effort will work the same as our chess club buddies proved to all of us, that we don't need the likes of Stan K. or other rip off scammers to steal city tax payer dollars.

Let me ask all of those who read this article. How many feel that Stan K. should have done the right thing, thanked the city of St. Louis for its help in supporting the Rams, and said since I'm leaving w/ the Rams, here's my $30 million in advance as final payment and gift to the city. He could have done this, he has the money. He's a Walmart baby worth millions. The original Mr. Walmart would have according to my sister (who works at Walmart by the way and has met him several times).