As work on overhead lighting takes place on the floor of the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, The St. Louis Rams Super Bowl Championship banner continues to hang from the rafters, one day after it was announced that the football team will relocate to Los Angeles. In recent years have had the lowest attendance in the NFL. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
The final bill just to put a plan in front of the NFL and Stan Kroenke for a new football stadium in St. Louis, cost $16.2 million, according to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The article states that the public agency that owns the Edward Jones Dome paid 22 companies, from architects to engineers to financial advisers, to the law firm run by Bob Blitz, one of the two key players added to Nixon’s task force.
While the fans of St. Louis are considered the big losers, the big winners are architecture firm HOK which made $10.5 million. The attorneys, Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch, charged nearly $900,000. Thompson Coburn bond and financing lawyers billed $760,000.
As I’ve stated before, I felt the stadium plan was flawed and lacked solid concrete solutions. It was a plan that was originally thrown together in 60 days after Nixon first appointed Peacock and Blitz to oversee the stadium project. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t see the new stadium as a viable option and that opened up a vote of league owners which ruled 30-2 in favor of the Rams leaving St. Louis for Los Angeles.
