Regional leaders reject Rams’ request to upgrade Edward Jones Dome
ST. LOUIS • The Edward Jones Dome will not get a $700 million upgrade on the public dime, at least not now.
This week, regional leaders charged with running the dome officially rejected the request of the St. Louis Rams to overhaul the football stadium.
“The CVC is not in a position to commit to the St. Louis Rams, LLC, regarding the financing or as to otherwise implementing such improvements,” wrote Kathleen “Kitty” Ratcliffe, president of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, in a July 3 letter to the team.
In a separate letter sent on the same date, Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority chairman Jim Shrewsbury said it would not be “prudent” to make the improvements recommended by arbitrators earlier this year.
“We still want to negotiate,” Shrewsbury said Friday. “But we’re not going to (make the improvements) unilaterally with no negotiations. We simply don’t have the money to do it.”
The Sports Complex Authority owns the dome. The CVC runs it. Both are government bodies run by representatives of the city, county and state, which funded the dome’s construction.
The lease with the CVC binds the Rams to stay at the dome for two more football seasons. But this week’s letters mean that, if nothing changes, the team could leave St. Louis after the 2014 season.
Kevin Demoff, the Rams Chief Operating Officer, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The issue stems from an unusual clause in the Rams’ contract, requiring the CVC to provide the Rams with a “first-tier” stadium — in the top eight of 32 National Football League teams — by 2005, and again by 2015.
The first time the two sides tackled stadium updates, it took four years to finish negotiations.
In 2012, the two sides began trading proposals for the 2015 marker.
The CVC’s final plan featured a new glass addition, outdoor terraces and a four-sided center-hung scoreboard. It estimated the total cost at under $200 million, and wanted the Rams to kick in half.
The Rams proposed tearing down half the Dome, extending it across Broadway and building a large glass wall. The team also wanted to add a sliding roof, reconfigured seating, two end zone “party platforms” and new, larger entrances. CVC contractors estimated the plan would cost at least $700 million.
Both sides rejected the opposing proposals. Arbitrators took up the case in the middle of January. They ruled on Feb. 1, just a week after arguments concluded. The Rams’ proposal, they decided, was the only way to make the building a first-tier football facility.
CVC leaders immediately said that it was unlikely the state, St. Louis city and St. Louis County would agree to such an expense. The three are still paying a combined $24 million a year toward the bonds taken out to build the Dome.
But the arbitrator’s ruling was binding. The letters sent this week, while expected, mean the Rams can go year-to-year after the 2014 season.
Still, Shrewsbury, the Sports Complex chair, said Friday that the issue is hardly off the table.
Gov. Jay Nixon has decided to handle the case personally, Shrewsbury said. He wasn’t sure if Nixon had started talks with Rams owner Stan Kroenke. But nobody else, Shrewsbury said, is doing anything.
“If anything’s going on, it’s between Stan Kroenke and the governor,” Shrewsbury said.
“This thing is still fluid.”
