CARDINAL DEAL GODS BEYOND CLICHES, BRICKBATS

Front and center before the Missouri General Assembly next January will be the plan announced in St. Louis last Tuesday for a new ballpark re-development project in downtown St. Louis.

On hand to give the new plan their blessing were Gov. Bob Holden, St. Louis County executive Buzz Westfall and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

Opponents need to get beyond the cliches and confront certain inexorable facts.

While it is easy to say the stadium plan is purely a St. Louis issue and shouldn't concern all Missourians, St. Louis without the Cardinals downtown is a city headed for fiscal collapse, which would have a statewide impact. Why is this deal necessary? Why is the current stadium not sufficient?

Busch Stadium is the last of the 1960s-era, multiple-use parks that isn't either already demolished or scheduled for demolition. Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Philadelphia all have either replaced their stadiums with new baseball-only parks or are in the process of doing so.

Cardinals owners are firm: They can't remain competitive in the current ballpark. The question isn't whether Busch will be replaced, but when, where, how and under what circumstances.

Could the ownership group dig deeper and build their own park, financed entirely from private sources?

Yes, with two provisions Missourians will find abhorrent:

First, if this is the case, then owners must look for the cheapest ground. Where is that to be found? Across the river in East St. Louis.

Second, if there is no public participation, then the owners will have to go the personal seat license route -- avoided in this proposal -- such as the Rams did on the TWA Dome. Asking fans to buy PSLs at $2,400 each would price the average fan out real quick.

Nobody's taxes are going up for this new facility. Existing taxes on tickets will be dedicated to this project -- a sort of user fee. The owners are contributing 42 percent of the cost of the stadium itself, far more than the 17 percent average private-equity contribution in other comparable new parks.

No other team in baseball has agreed to finance an adjacent development, as the Cards' owners are committing to in downtown St. Louis with the Ballpark Village.

Moreover, if the team is sold during the 35-year lease term, then state taxpayers will share in the proceeds.

The cheaper seats, now located in the upper deck far from the field at Busch Stadium, will be down lower and closer to the field in the new facility. Elevators and other amenities will make the new park much more accessible for the elderly and handicapped. The brick construction, with its human scale and Roman arches, is designed to fit into the neighborhood, complementing the adjacent Cupples Station project, a successful redevelopment now bringing hope back to downtown.

Illinois lawmakers are watching to see what is or isn't done in Missouri. The possibility of losing the team entirely is a real one for Missouri lawmakers to contemplate. This, indeed is the nightmare scenario: Losing the team altogether. If the team leaves the city, it isn't hard to imagine what remains of downtown St. Louis careening toward ultimate collapse. In that event, all state taxpayers could be looking at a state bailout of one of America's most rapidly declining cities that would make desegregation of the schools look like a Sunday School picnic.

The St. Louis Cardinals aren't just another team. With their charming and storied history, they are truly the crown jewel of the National League, indeed of all baseball franchises.

We encourage the state -- and state legislators -- to make this plan a reality for the good of St. Louis and for all of MIssouri.