ST. LOUIS -- While the St. Louis Rams are in Oxnard, California, practicing near the city they one day could call home again, more progress was made Tuesday in the attempt to keep them in their current city.
The Missouri Development Finance Board approved $50 million in tax credits for the proposed NFL stadium on St. Louis' north riverfront. The credits call for $15 million this year, with the other $35 million paid out over the next two years.
The approval of the tax credits comes on the heels of a pair of recent court rulings that also have gone in favor of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon's task force and its efforts to get public dollars put in place to try to keep the Rams or the NFL in St. Louis.
St. Louis stadium task force leader Dave Peacock was pleased to check off another box in the quest to secure about $388 million in tax credits and state and city bonds.
"The benefits of a new NFL stadium in downtown St. Louis are clear, not only to our metropolitan region but the entire state of Missouri as well," Peacock said. "That was underlined today by the approval for $50 million in tax credits by the Missouri Development Finance Board. We appreciate the board's support as we continue to make meaningful and measurable progress toward keeping the St. Louis Rams here in St. Louis."
As with most of the steps the task force has taken, the tax credits are contingent upon the stadium being built. That process remains up in the air because the current proposal still calls for a $250 million investment from an NFL owner plus another $200 million in the form of the NFL's G4 loan. The rest of the financing for the stadium includes $187 million in tax credits, $201 million in state and city bonds and about $160 million from the sale of personal seat licenses.
The Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority and the task force recently won rulings at the state and city levels that help Nixon's efforts to extend the current bonds on the Edward Jones Dome toward the new stadium. The tax credits won't be paid until there's evidence an owner has committed to St. Louis and of a lease being signed for the proposed venue.
The RSA filed for the tax credits in July, and it's expected that applications for the other proposed tax credits will be filed in the near future.
The approval of the tax credits comes on a day when the Rams were holding the second of two practices with the Dallas Cowboys just north of Los Angeles. Team owner Stan Kroenke, who attended the team's Monday practice with the Cowboys, pitched his plan to build a new stadium for his team in Inglewood, California, at last week's owners meetings.
