The team ownership is not looking for public handouts yet.
There doesn’t seem to be any threat from Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals’ franchise owners of leaving the city but the franchise’s president Bill DeWitt III is thinking that the team’s 18-year-old home stadium needs a facelift. DeWitt told the St. Louis Business Journal that, “it’s going to need that influx at some point. Nobody is talking about how we’re going to finance yet. It’s so premature to say something remotely implying that we’re out there asking for public assistance.” DeWitt added that it is “too early” to detail what the ownership feels needs to be done. “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.”
The Riverfront Times or the River City Journalism Fund reported that the Cardinals’ franchise owners want to make significant renovations to the stadium in the next five years and the ownership would likely seek public funding for the project. The Cardinals’ franchise ownership request for public money is just part of a trend that is going on in sports. In Oakland, local politicians apparently did not play ball with the owner of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics franchise John Fisher in providing him with money to build a new ballpark. Fisher took his ball and bat to Las Vegas where he got $380 million of a commitment from Nevada politicians as seed money for a Las Vegas baseball stadium. Maryland officials plan to upgrade the Baltimore Orioles’ ownership local stadium, the Milwaukee Brewers’ ownership is getting a handout from Wisconsin politicians for a stadium upgrade. St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, Florida lawmakers are gifting money to the Tampa Bay Rays’ ownership and helping to build a new baseball park. It is just business.
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Bill Dewitt III