We’re Not Going To Be An NFL City, That’s OK

Over the last few weeks, listening to others and reading,  I’ve come to realize a few things about the NFL and the St. Louis Rams:

1. The NFL does appeal to many, providing instant cache for a city/region.
2. Even though the number of games are limited, the financial benefits to the region are very real.
3. Kroenke wants the Rams in LA — his investment substantially increase in value.
4. Kroenke is a real estate developer, he enjoys building stuff and owning it.
5. Kroenke wants more than a stadium plus parking, he wants to build an experience — and to profit from it. See #4 above.
6. Kroenke appears willing to move the Rams without approval of his fellow NFL owners.
7. St. Louis advocates of a new NFL stadium are setting us up for a big fall when we’re no longer an NFL city.
8. The first 4 decades of the NFL St. Louis wasn’t an NFL city, we had our first NFL team for 28 years (1960-1987). We’ve been an NFL city only half years the NFL has been a league!
9. St. Louis stands a good chance of getting an Major League Soccer (MLS) team. St. Louis has a rich history of European football.
10. Soccer players don’t like playing in NFL stadiums, see Playing MLS games in NFL stadiums.
11. 13 of the MLS’ 19 teams (68%) play in soccer-specific stadiums, with seating ranging from 18,086 to 27,000. See MLS’ Soccer-Specific Stadiums and Major League Soccer’s Stadium Revolution.
12. Soccer fans like to tailgate, but also prefer a downtown location. Those who don’t tailgate like pubs.
13. The largest record attendance (48,263) at Busch Stadium was not baseball, but a soccer match in May 2013.
14. In May 2014  St. Louis became an expansion city for Division III soccer, the Saint Louis FC’s home opener is Saturday April 11th, at the 6,000+ seat Soccer Park in Fenton.
15. A 20,000-25,000 seat soccer-specific stadium could possibly be built in the North Riverfront area without razing any historic buildings or displacing residents, businesses.
16. After the Rams return to LA, an MLS expansion team could play in the Edward Jones Dome while a new outdoor stadium is being built.
17. The smaller-sized MLS stadium would fit much easier into the North Riverfront, parking would be less and could be in a combination of garages and surface.

Based on the above I think we as a city/region/state should:

1. Accept that the Rams will leave, the cost to retain them or entice another team to move here is just too high a price to pay given the benefits. Move on knowing we have baseball & hockey.
2. Encourage the Blues owners to get an NBA team to play in the Scottrade Center.
3. Use this as an opportunity to put our efforts into getting a Division I MLS team, while supporting our new Division III team.
4. Develop a plan to continue the ongoing efforts in the North Riverfront area, creating a mixed-use neighborhood in the remaining buildings and building new to infill the gaps.

I’ve accepted that St. Louis will not be an NFL city, just like it wasn’t when I moved here nearly 25 years ago. Our best years of population growth and prosperity were well before NFL arrived in St. Louis.

— Steve Patterson

Sunday Poll: Should All Children Be Required To Get Vaccinations Against Diseases Like Measles, Mumps, Whopping Cough?

Measles, once largely eradicated in the US, is back:

Ninety-four people have now been infected with measles across eight states; 67 of those cases are linked to the Disneyland park.

“We don’t know exactly how this outbreak started but we do think it was likely a person infected with measles overseas,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Schuchat says the reason for the outbreak is because people are failing to get vaccinated. (Time)

This recent outbreak has intensified the debate on vaccinations, making it a great topic for today’s poll.  Here’s the exact poll question:

When it comes to childhood diseases like measles, mumps and whooping cough, should all children be required to get vaccinations?

I’m trying something different today, for each of the three answers I’m asking you to select one based on your political view (Democrat, Independent, Republican) — this will permit comparison to a national poll.  The Sunday poll is at the top of the right sidebar, is open until 8pm.

On an unrelated health note, it was seven years ago today that I had a massive hemorrhagic stroke, the statistics aren’t pretty:

• Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease (with which it is closely linked) and cancer.
• Stroke affects more than 700,000 individuals annually in the United States (approximately one person every 45 seconds). About 500,000 of these are first attacks, and 200,000 are recurrent attacks.
• Someone in the U.S. dies every 3.3 minutes from stroke
• Stroke is the leading cause of disability among adults in the U.S.
• While subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) represents only about 7 percent of all strokes, it is the most deadly — with more than a 50 percent fatality rate. Of the survivors, approximately half will suffer permanent disability.

I was very fortunate, enjoy today’s game!

— Steve Patterson

The Streetsblog Network Expands By Adding Southeast US, Ohio, Texas, and St. Louis

The Streetsblog Network yesterday expanded into new territory: adding coverage in the Southeast United States, the states of Ohio & Texas, and the St. Louis region.

From yesterday’s post announcing the expansion:

A little more than six years ago, we launched the Streetsblog Network as a way for people across the country writing about livable streets, sustainable transportation, and smart growth to band together and share ideas. There are many wonderful things about the Streetsblog Network, but I would put this is at the top of my list: It is both profoundly local, full of people working on the nitty-gritty of street design, transit service, and planning issues in their hometowns, and broadly distributed, with hundreds of members operating in cities all over the nation.

For a long time we’ve been thinking about how to build on these strengths. And today we’re going live with a new way to channel the energy of the Streetsblog Network and broadcast it to the world.

We are launching affiliate sites that combine the work of Streetsblog Network members in four regions: St. Louis, Ohio, Texas, and the Southeast. These sites are based on a different model than our other city-based Streetsblogs with full-time staff. Each Streetsblog affiliate syndicates material from several blogs in its region and runs a daily dose of headlines to satisfy the universal craving for morning news. Have a look. (Doesn’t it blow your mind to see the words “Streetsblog Texas” in a site banner?)

The post continues with a list of blog included for each new area, here’s the St. Louis list:

Streetsblog St. Louis:

• NextSTL
• UrbanReviewSTL
• Gateway Streets
• Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation
• Headline aggregation by Carrie Zukoski

I’m honored to have UrbanReviewSTL be included as one of four blogs representing St. Louis! Be sure to check out Streetsblog St. Louis at stl.streetsblog.org. Also visit Streetfilms for excellent videos.

— Steve Patterson

Tonight on NineNetwork’s Stay Tuned Program: Sports & their impact on our region

As expected, the St. Louis Rams have opted to go to a year-to-year lease on the Edward Jones Dome, they’ll play in St. Louis for at least another year. Reality is setting in:

The chairman of the region’s tourism bureau, landlord of the Edward Jones Dome, said on Wednesday that he believes the St. Louis Rams want to leave for Los Angeles.

The fight to keep the football team here, said Andrew Leonard, chairman of the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, will have to be a “spectacular effort.” (Post-Dispatch – ‘Spectacular effort’ would be needed to keep Rams, CVC chairman says)

Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought land in the LA area over a year ago, recently announced a deal with an adjacent property owner to build a stadium. He’s said he is willing to move the Rams without  approval from fellow NFL owners.

Tonight on NineNetwork (PBS) the topic ‘Sports & their impact on our region’ will be examined. I’ll be among the guests on Stay Tuned tonight starting at 9pm Central. This program can be viewed live online at http://staytuned.ninenet.org/live. The conversation will also take place on Twitter @StayTunedSTL and hashtag #StayTunedSTL

See you on 9.1 tonight.

— Steve Patterson

Readers Not Optimistic About ICM/Summer Rocks Concert Series

Readers on Sunday were cynical about the future of the ICM/Summer Rocks concert series that was to start this year:

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Q: ICM/Summer Rocks has notified St. Louis they won’t hold a concern Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend is uncertain. Thoughts?

1. This is why I opposed contracting with an out of state talent agency 7 [22.58%]
2. Tie 5 [16.13%]
   1. Meh, was going to be a country concert
   2. The Slay Administration screwed up…again
3. Predicted last year this would happen 4 [12.9%]
4. ICM’s first music festival, their inexperience shows 4 [12.9%]
5. Other: 3 [9.68%]
   1. If gamble on ICM is why we lost Bluesweek and Taste = Poor decision STL Leadrshp Add as a poll answer
   2. Combination of “out of state” and “predicted this would happen”
   3. Could be a very wise decision! STL is a DANGEROUS city.
6. Unrest in the region for the last 6 months is to blame 2 [6.45%]
7. Unsure/no opinion 1 [3.23%]
8. Someone else will jump in with a downtown event that weekend 0 [0%]

We’ll have to wait 5-10 years to really know, but it’s off to a rocky start. On Sunday I appeared briefly in a Fox2 report, see ‘No ‘Summer Rocks’ concert event this Memorial Day‘.

— Steve Patterson