St. Louis — When Gov. Jay Nixon announced a two-man task force last November charged with keeping the NFL in St. Louis and building a new stadium to do just that, the second-term governor appeared at first to be coming a little late to the party.
In November, Nixon announced that Dave Peacock, a former longtime Anheuser-Busch executive and top-tier attorney Bob Blitz would be tackling the job of keeping St. Louis an NFL city, and almost certainly building a high-end stadium to meet that goal.
The move seemed late with the Rams rapidly approaching the end of their lease in the Edward Jones Dome until word later leaked that the office of Mayor Francis Slay, Peacock, and others had begun quietly working for a new stadium more than one year before Nixon’s announcement.
The details rolled in quickly enough. The new stadium would be downtown on the riverfront, a few blocks from the existing Dome. It was planned for a blighted area, a kind of massive single redevelopment, knocking down more than 50 mostly dilapidated buildings in a sweeping change for one of downtown’s roughest areas. Early during the process, Nixon’s task force appeared to be steaming along nicely. Nixon’s office announced deals with Ameren and the local train authorities to move tracks and power lines, St. Louis labor leaders announced 24-hour construction schedules to speed up the build time, the governor announced his intention to secure matching funds from both the NFL and team ownership.
For a little less than $1 billion, St. Louis could have its new stadium. But in politics the devil is nearly always in the details.
