Get Ready: St. Louis NFL Stadium Plans to be Unveiled Today

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – At long last, the Gateway City’s football stadium plans are expected to see the light of day.

The task force appointed by Gov. Nixon to investigate stadium options for the St. Louis Rams will hold a news conference at noon today. Sources say the event will be at Union Station and officials will outline and show plans for a new stadium.

It’s been anticipated that this proposal centers around an open-air stadium development on the near-north riverfront, just north of Laclede’s Landing. Gov. Nixon said in November that public funds for the project could come from taxes already in place to pay off the Edward Jones Dome’s bonds.

He also said this week that “nobody is going to shake down Missouri.”

KMOX News has asked Gov. Nixon’s staff if he will be a part of Friday’s event.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s company announced on Monday that it would partner with a firm to build an 80,000 seat NFL stadium as part of a massive development in Inglewood, Ca., a Los Angeles suburb. Inglewood Mayor James Butts told CBS Los Angeles at the time that Kroenke did not promise to move the Rams to occupy the stadium.

It set off a frenzy of speculation in both St. Louis and Los Angeles.

Kroenke has been silent on the matter.

In fact, St. Louis political leaders are telling media outlets from coast-to-coast that the Rams owner won’t even answer their phone calls.

On KMOX’s  Mark Reardon Show, Mayor Francis Slay even hinted that the Rams might not be the team to eventually occupy this proposed stadium.

“I do think that we have to be prepared to position ourselves with the NFL and with other potential suitors, once the Rams decide they’re going someplace else, to be prepared to put together a proposal to remain an NFL city,” Slay said.

The Governor’s task force of former Anheuser-Busch president Dave Peacock and attorney Bob Blitz talked more in their latest statement about negotiations with the NFL than with the Rams. And Gov. Nixon’s latest statement didn’t even mention the word “Rams.”

Nixon, however, did say that he expects any stadium proposal to accomplish several goals, including, “protecting taxpayers, creating jobs, and making significant use of private investment to clean up and revitalize underutilized areas.”

Since the city lost its 2013 arbitration case with the Rams regarding the Edward Jones Dome — the two sides were $580 million apart — all talk has centered on building a new stadium.

Rams Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff has told KMOX’s Sports on a Sunday Morning that the team will definitely pick up a year-to-year option on the lease, meaning there will be NFL football in St. Louis in, at least, 2015.

But any hopes beyond that hinge on what’s unveiled today.