Cardinals stadium bill filed

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Supporters of a new St. Louis Cardinals stadium filed legislation Monday committing state aid for a ballpark but penalizing the team if it fails to follow through on a nearby downtown development.

The legislation follows the basic outline of an agreement announced last June by Gov. Bob Holden, Cardinals officials and St. Louis city and county leaders.

A state-created development authority would issue $100 million in bonds to help support the $646 million project, which includes the stadium and a Ballpark Village of business and residential development. The city, county and Cardinals also would contribute to the project.

The state's share must be approved by the Legislature.

Under the bill, the state would pay back the bonds in increments of up to $7 million annually beginning no sooner than 2005.

Promoters of the downtown stadium project say it would generate significantly more than that in new tax revenues and would create 7,000 jobs.

Although the funding provisions have been agreed upon for a while, the bill for the first time includes a specific penalty -- $100 million -- if the Cardinals fail to build the Ballpark Village.

Also new is a requirement that a luxury suite be available free to the public, with a lottery or some sort of selection process used to determine who uses the suite each game.

Some previous drafts of documents had reserved a suite for politicians. If the Cardinals were sold, the team would have to pay the development authority according to a formula to be outlined in a still unfinalized project agreement.

That agreement -- among the state, city, county and Cardinals -- could be finished by the end of the week, said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. Provisions of that agreement would be added to the state legislation, said sponsor Rep. James Foley, D-St. Ann.