Cardinals fire group raising financing

ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals have fired the group hired to corral private financing for the club's new downtown stadium, citing "concerns about some of the investors" who have included a man mentioned in a federal investigation of possible terrorism funding.

The Cardinals had hired Washington-based Property Funding Group in November but opted to part ways last week after learning of the federal probe, Cardinals president Mark Lamping told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a story published Friday.

The Cardinals now have tapped Bank of America Securities to take the lead among financial advisers and consultants in the private-financing initiative for the $402 million effort to replace 37-year-old Busch Stadium.

That project remains on track, with the team still planning to close the deal in June, break ground the next month and open the new 45,000-seat ballpark by the 2006 season, Lamping said.

"The project is moving forward," Lamping told The Associated Press. "Someone has picked up more responsibility and some have lost, but our schedule is unaffected."