 11/15/2002 5:58 pm ET
Cards' stadium plan takes big step
By Matthew Leach / MLB.com
ST. LOUIS -- Nothing is sure until they start breaking ground. But a new Cardinals stadium in downtown St. Louis looks likelier than ever. The team announced Friday it has assembled the group to acquire necessary funding for a privately financed ballpark that would open for the 2006 season.
"This is the most optimistic I've been through this entire process, without question," said team president Mark Lamping.
The new ballpark would hold approximately 45,000 people, and at times it has seemed that plans have gone through that many different iterations. A plan that relied heavily on public financing died in the state legislature in the spring, and the team even considered offers to move across the Mississippi River to Illinois. But with Friday's announcement, it seems highly unlikely the Cardinals will play anywhere but in the city of St. Louis for at least the next 30 years.
"From the very beginning, our focus was on downtown St. Louis," Lamping said. "Today's announcement brings us even a step closer to realizing our objective of staying in downtown St. Louis."
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Where would the new ballpark be located?
Directly south of Busch Stadium.
When would the new stadium open?
The Cardinals would play at Busch Stadium through 2005 and then open the 2006 season at the new ballpark.
What is the expected cost of the new stadium?
The stadium is expected to cost about $325 million and will be paid mostly through private financing. The Cardinals would donate $50 million upfront for the construction of the new ballpark. The Cardinals will also donate the land the stadium will be built on, which has been appraised at $40 million.
What will the seating capacity be and how does it compare to Busch Stadium?
Plans for the new ballpark call for a seating capacity of 45,000. Busch Stadium's seating capacity is 49,814. The new stadium would have 60 suites and 44 party rooms, compared to 70 suites and 26 party rooms at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals will also have a minimum of 6,000 seats priced at $12 or less (in today's dollars).
Will there be PSLs (personal seat licenses)?
The Cardinals will not have a traditional PSL program. For luxury boxes and premium seating, there will be deposit program. Cardinals president Bill DeWitt said the total number of seats involved in this program would be no more than 10,000. As part of the financing agreement, the Cardinals must secure 10-year purchase agreements on at least 30 of the 60 suites.
How long of a lease will the Cardinals have?
The Cardinals will sign a 29-year lease with several renewal options.
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The announcement was made in a press conference in a parking lot at Busch Stadium, at the approximate location of home plate of the new stadium. Cardinals chairman William O. DeWitt Jr. described the new stadium as "a state-of-the-art, family friendly new ballpark worthy of the best fans in baseball."
The team hopes to have the financing deals completed in three to six months, with a possible groundbreaking in the summer of 2003. Should the stadium open for 2006, as planned, Lamping said the Cardinals are confident that they will host the 2008 All-Star game.
Under the deal, the team will pay $50 million up front toward the $325 million project, as well as contributing the land necessary to build the new facility, which will be located just south of Busch Stadium. A financing group headed up by Property Funding Group of Washington, D.C. will attempt to secure the remaining money from private investors.
Also involved in the financing team, along with Property Funding Group, are Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Securities, KPMG and the St. Louis organization Civic Progress.
DeWitt said the Cardinals will sign a 29-year lease and will pay rent on the stadium estimated at over $14 million a year. The club is required to make arrangements with a concessionaire for the stadium as well as secure at least 30 long-term deals on luxury suites. The team will be required to pay for operating, maintenance and capital improvement expenses on the stadium.
The long-discussed Ballpark Village, which was considered a critical element of any deal financed by local government, will still be built. The team itself will inhabit office space adjacent to that complex.
"These are sizeable commitments and our decision to proceed was not made lightly," DeWitt said. "After a tremendous amount of deliberation, we have concluded that this project is right for the Cardinals and for the community and fans."
Some help from local government is still needed to make sure the project happens, in the form of infrastructure improvements and the like. But Lamping declined to discuss the specifics of what might be needed from local government.
"We don't want to get ahead of ourselves," Lamping said. "Our focus right now is to try to finalize the private piece of it as it relates to anything that will follow. And what our hope is, as we go down the line, is that this project will be viewed the same way as other projects that have been put in front of public entities where a company wants to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the area.
"There will be absolutely no money under any scenario that will be coming from the state that will go into the construction of the ballpark, the operations of the ballpark, maintenance of the ballpark or capital improvements."
Rick Gross, president of Property Funding Group, emphasized that any public aid would be minimal in the context of the project as a whole.
"This is a substantially privately financed building," Gross said. "The amount of public money is relatively insignificant compared to the overall private funds that are being raised."
In response to another concern, the team emphasized personal seat licenses, or PSLs, will not be used in the way and to the degree that they have been in many other new stadiums, including the Edward Jones DOme, home of the NFL's St. Louis Rams.
"The question of permanent seat licenses has come up," DeWitt said. "And I can say that there will not be a traditional, across-the-board PSL program. We will require, however, a deposit or rights program for luxury and premium seating which will represent a limited number of seats which we will have in the new ballpark."
He characterized the number of such "premium" seats as approximately 10,000.
Matthew Leach is a reporter for MLB.com. He can be reached at Matthew_H_Leach@yahoo.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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