Judge: St. Louis residents don’t need vote on stadium funds

St. Louis can use city tax dollars to build a new NFL stadium for the Rams without a public vote on the matter, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Frawley ruled on Monday. Frawley accepted two of the arguments – that the law conflicted with state statutes governing development tools like tax increment financing, and that the law was too vague.

A 2002 ordinance requires a city vote before spending public money on a new sports facility. The ruling could move St. Louis closer to building that stadium and keeping the Rams there, although there’s question if that’s what Kroenke ultimately wants.

The city is trying to keep the NFL team from moving back to Los Angeles, where the Rams moved to St. Louis from in 1995.

This has long been considered a hold up as it relates to a new stadium in St. Louis. The court’s opinion is a victory for a bold and promising future for the NFL in St. Louis and the continued rebirth of our downtown.

“As we proceed to make wonderful progress on the stadium challenge, this can be a nice time for everybody within the St. Louis area to rally on behalf of one thing that may make a distinction in our financial system, nationwide profile and high quality of life for generations to return”, Peacock stated in a press release.

Many residents were outraged at the ruling, including St. Louis University Law Professor John Ammann, who has filed a separate suit that will compel a city vote on the stadium’s construction.

“If the Mayor doesn’t also appeal, he will have abandoned the voters and taxpayers”, Ammann said.

The legal team that sought to intervene in the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority’s (RSA) lawsuit against the city criticized that response. The dome operators support the stadium proposal, which would extend bonds that are still paying for construction of the dome.

Mary Ellen Ponder, the chief of staff to Mayor Francis Slay, said in a statement that the ruling was “very disappointing”, but that the city would “uphold the spirit of the ordinance to the extent that we can”.

The urgency is critical, a week before NFL owners meet in suburban Chicago to hear updates from Rams owner Stan Kroenke for a stadium he hopes to build in Inglewood, Calif., and from San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos and Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis on their combined efforts for a stadium in Carson.

“This validates what the task force has been doing, and it allows us to give certainty to the NFL as to how our financing will be approved and that the RSA is the proper party to issue the bonds”.

The St. Louis Business Journal quoted from the ruling: “The Court finds that, though each of the uncertainties in the Ordinance may be tolerable in isolation, ‘their sum makes a task for us which at best could be only guesswork.’…” The open-air stadium is expected to cost $998 million.