JEFFERSON CITY聽鈥 As the St. Louis Rams discussion rages on, a Missouri House committee soon will begin analyzing the benefit of having an NFL team in the city.
House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town and Country, announced Wednesday that the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee, headed by Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, would look at the current stadium's monetary impact on the state.
The ongoing debate over public aid for a new stadium to keep the Rams in St. Louis was punctuated last week by a statement from the Nixon administration that聽聽allows them to issue bonds for a new stadium without approval by the Legislature. The law states that 榴莲视频 or any agency or department of the state can enter into a contract, agreement or lease to finance or develop a convention or sports facility.
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A task force appointed by Nixon recently unveiled a proposal for a 64,000-seat stadium on the Mississippi River. The stadium would cost nearly $1 billion, with as much as $405 million paid by taxpayers.
To cover much of that cost, the task force 鈥 Jones Dome attorney Robert Blitz and former Anheuser-Busch President David Peacock 鈥 suggested 鈥渆xtending鈥 payments that now go to pay off debt on the Edward Jones Dome. Of that, the state pays about $12 million a year for Dome debt and upkeep.
But Diehl calls all these statements "hypothetical." Before any of those scenarios can be discussed, he said a cost-benefit analysis needs to be conducted to determine if having the Rams in St. Louis is even a good thing for the state.
"How can we say we should or shouldn't until we know what the numbers are?" Diehl said Tuesday.
Barnes' committee will address the following questions:
--How has the existing stadium has directly impacted state revenues on a year-to-year basis?
--What are the state鈥檚 existing financial obligations in relation to the current Edward Jones Dome?
--Has the current stadium been a net gain or loss to the state during its nearly 20 years in existence?
