The 18-year-old stadium is getting long in the tooth according to Cardinals owners.
The Major League Baseball owners want for more public money to build a venue or renovate a current facility train has stopped in St. Louis where Cardinals ownership wants around $600 million to fix up the Cardinals’ 18-year-old stadium. Cardinals’ ownership, after flirting with moving to Madison, Illinois, was able to wrangle money from public pockets to help pay for what would become a ballpark-village. It is unclear exactly what one of the team owners Bill DeWitt III wants to do with his aging ballpark. DeWitt said the stadium will need a “significant capital infusion” in two to five years. “Our goal would be to handle whatever back of the house things need to happen and to fix, as well as probably create some cool and interesting new features for fans.” How much is needed to fix up the stadium? DeWitt said the cost would likely be in a similar range to recent Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles stadium upgrade projects. Brewers ownership is getting around $500 million from Wisconsin taxpayers to fix up the Milwaukee ballpark and the Orioles ownership will be getting $600 million from Maryland taxpayers as part of a $1.2 billion investment to upgrade the Baltimore baseball park and the Baltimore football venue.
Major League Baseball owners are looking for public money in Chicago, Kansas City and Phoenix for either new or refurbished ballparks. Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher is looking to secure money from Nevada politicians for a Las Vegas ballpark but is facing opposition. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated that his business wants to expand. Utah politicians are poised to spend money for a ballpark if MLB decides Salt Lake City is a perfect market. Nashville investors are actively seeking a team and need public money. Getting public money for a stadium is an MLB game.
Busch Stadium St. Louis.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com