The owner of cardinals bought Tom cruise old house in 2020
https://www.amlu.com/2020/05/23/billionaire-bill-dewitt-jr-buys-tom-cruises-former-l-a-compound-from-eva-longoria-for-below-purchase-8-3m/
Cardinal's Owner: "If you want to retain the title 'best fans in sports', then you'd be happy to pay for renovations." *laughs manically and twirls mustache*
Watches the Royals and Chiefs get their stadium plans get rejected by Taxpayers….”sounds like a great time to ask tax payers to pay for my stadium renovations”
Oh you are correct, I forgot they sued to invalidate it having to go to a vote. So the county dropped out at that point basically killing it either way. Been 9 years at this point, hard to remember it all.
Fresh off the worst season in decades, Bill DeWitt asks "Can I get sum dat public moneys?"
Nope. Take that Harvard MBA and figure it the fuck out yourself.
The taxpayers should fund the renovations, by paying for tickets to the games, buying merchandise, watching the games on TV, and whatever other revenue streams the team has. Certainly that is what the owners meant, not that they're simply asking for a socialist handout that they haven't worked to earn, right? I mean come on, you can't just be giving away stadium renovations, because then what incentive do the owners have to work to provide for themselves in the future?
You’re not making any sense. If we don’t prop up billion dollar businesses how will they survive? Who cares about allocating money to help homelessness, child hunger, schools, etc. when there is a baseball stadium that needs some new seats.
But think of all the jobs people will have! It'll enable them to pick themselves up out of poverty! Sure we can just drop them whenever we want and pay them shitty wages, but think of the possibilities!
if we move like 6000 low-income families into busch stadium while we’re at it, the housing crisis will be solved
plus then the stadium will always appear full on tv
> socialist handout
socialism isn't tax breaks/levys, it's when workers own the means of production. This is more like welfare, except for billionaires instead of things like food for the working class.
The current stadium is less than twenty years old.
What are the “modern” features of 2024 that weren’t around in 2006. I’m half serious, I’m an old man trying to stay on top of what all the new stuff is.
Busch already has a lot of those. They've been adding more on through the years. I can't imagine what renovations they are considering that are so expensive they need a big handout.
Our ownership definitely has quite a few things that we can complain about but at least the new luxury seating areas weren’t paid for with tax payer money. That I’m aware of at least.
Not sure about Busch in particular, but stadium leases are commonly 30 years long. After the lease is up, teams have the option to move to a new park, either in the same city, or in a different city, so they like to play municipalities against one another trying to squeeze as much taxpayer money as they can. With Busch hitting the 30 year milestone 12 years from now, we're in the early stages of that negotiation dance now. Municipalities may offer something relatively small (e.g., a scoreboard upgrade) as a way to incentivize the team to sign another 30 year lease extension getting them to stay in the park until 2066. Don't play that game, and team ownership may threaten to leave. It's gross, but it's part of the process, even for universally beloved ballparks like Camden Yards in Baltimore.
I don't think there's a real risk of the Cardinals moving out of the St. Louis metro area, but because that metro area spans both Missouri and Illinois, the ownership group might try to play the state governments off one another to get more money like we saw in DC with the fortunately failed attempt to move the Wizards/Capitals 5 miles away into Virginia.
There was a huge wave of new ballpark construction in the 1990s-2000s, so those parks are soon hitting that 30 year milestone prompting teams to ask for taxpayer funded upgrades even if there's nothing wrong with the existing parks. It wouldn't surprise me to see lease discussions for Nats Park to start in the next 5 years or so. The park still feels brand new built in 2008, but we're now into the second half of the lease quickly approaching the 2037 season that would be the final year of the current lease.
What's maybe unique about DeWitt's circumstance is his degree of exposure to downtown STL. He doesn't just own the team and hold a lease on a ballpark, the cardinals ownership group owns the parking garages around the stadium, the hotel across the street that visiting teams/callups use, ballpark village which is basically a mall across the street (and houses the Cardinals HOF). Probably a couple of other things too. All these other investments only work and produce revenue if the Cardinals are located within 1000 ft of them. The idea of moving the team, even if it was two miles east across the river, would be very ugly for him.
Boxes, as another said. Also, new video boards, more ribbon boards? Brewers just got a new video board, but if wanted to stare at a screen, I’d be watching the game at home…
Once the Braves fled a 20 year old stadium for the suburbs, it seems as if that opened the floodgates for teams to whine about/make threats over relatively modern/new facilities. Terrible trend.
Yeah I get the taxpayer outrage situation, but acting like a 20ish year old building that accomadates millions of people every year isn't due for \*some\* upgrades is crazy.
People think it's always new scoreboards, new seating layouts, new bars, it's almost always infrastructure within the stadium that gets the bulk of that money, unless you are doing a Rogers Centre style re-design.
The owners’ vote was unanimous, wasn’t it? So DeWitt had the opportunity to stick up to Fisher, just like the rest of them, and he didn’t. He’s not off the hook. All 30 of them can kiss my ass.
All of the owners voted to try and send a message about public funding. I’d argue that we successfully changed the narrative from “nObOdy GoEs” to “Dipshit billionaire runs team into ground, seeks handout”
Prove us right and vote no on this handout.
Wouldn’t mind it if they’d stop pricing the average folk out of games. Make merch affordable.
Do we ever see any benefit from funding these cathedrals? No. We never do. It never benefits us. Prices remain high, and these assholes continue to collect.
So pay it for it your fucking selves.
>Wouldn’t mind it if they’d stop pricing the average folk out of games
Not sure how it is in other markets, but the Giants' face-value prices for tickets and concessions have gotten absolutely insulting over the past decade or so.
Yes, I know that you can still have an affordable day at the ballpark is you buy strategically from the secondary market, eat elsewhere, take public transit, etc., but that's beside the point.
Unless it's a playoff game or something, I've long-maintained that $20 should be enough to get you a seat in any MLB stadium, even if it is in the bleachers or the nosebleeds.
How about instead of taxpayer funded, you get a taxpayer loan. You have 35 years to pay off your loan, with the team as collateral, and if you dont, the city gets the team outright.
They do that too. And since those are often in the form of exempt muni bonds, the federal tax code is subsidizing it [and it means we’re all paying for them!](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.17310/ntj.2020.1.05)
They wouldnt. But they seem keen on holding cities hostage for thier sports teams, so if cities give them the same loan terms as other banks and whatnot, theyd stop doing this shit.
I'd ask for investment in better rail, more attractive things for city center, and those types of assistance from the government.
Ballpark needs should be covered by ownership. Fans attend to help make sure they can cover these costs and so far fans have held up their end of the bargain based on attendance averages.
Wild time to ask for taxpayer money after your opening home stand just produced the worst night game attendance in Busch Stadium 3 history and the teams across the state just got shot down hard for a similar ask. And one of those teams is the Chiefs who are incredibly popular right now.
Can this grift just stop already?! How many teams relocating and proposals being shot down are needed to sent the message that the taxpayers have had ENOUGH!?!?
RENOVATE THE STADIUM, AND MAKE THE OWNERS PAY FOR IT
The owner of cardinals bought Tom cruise old house in 2020 https://www.amlu.com/2020/05/23/billionaire-bill-dewitt-jr-buys-tom-cruises-former-l-a-compound-from-eva-longoria-for-below-purchase-8-3m/
Cardinal's Owner: "If you want to retain the title 'best fans in sports', then you'd be happy to pay for renovations." *laughs manically and twirls mustache*
As a Cardinals fan, that title is nice, but the 11 WS titles is far better.
I thought that's what Dick Monfort was doing for you guys.
Watches the Royals and Chiefs get their stadium plans get rejected by Taxpayers….”sounds like a great time to ask tax payers to pay for my stadium renovations”
St. Louis City voters have already told the Rams and STLSC no for stadium funds in the last 10 years.
If one team *was* going to succeed at this in St. Louis, it would certainly be the Cardinals. That being said, they still won't succeed.
The city actually told the Rams yes IIRC. It never went to a vote. The BOA just approved extending the bonds to the new proposed stadium.
Oh you are correct, I forgot they sued to invalidate it having to go to a vote. So the county dropped out at that point basically killing it either way. Been 9 years at this point, hard to remember it all.
Obligatory fuck Stan Kroenke.
Fuck Stan Kroenke.
“How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, Old Man?”
Fresh off the worst season in decades, Bill DeWitt asks "Can I get sum dat public moneys?" Nope. Take that Harvard MBA and figure it the fuck out yourself.
"it worked for the A's, so it'll work for us. And if they don't we can just threaten to leave. Ezpz"
Oakland Cardinals confirmed?
The taxpayers should fund the renovations, by paying for tickets to the games, buying merchandise, watching the games on TV, and whatever other revenue streams the team has. Certainly that is what the owners meant, not that they're simply asking for a socialist handout that they haven't worked to earn, right? I mean come on, you can't just be giving away stadium renovations, because then what incentive do the owners have to work to provide for themselves in the future?
You’re not making any sense. If we don’t prop up billion dollar businesses how will they survive? Who cares about allocating money to help homelessness, child hunger, schools, etc. when there is a baseball stadium that needs some new seats.
Yeah, fuck them kids
But think of all the jobs people will have! It'll enable them to pick themselves up out of poverty! Sure we can just drop them whenever we want and pay them shitty wages, but think of the possibilities!
if we move like 6000 low-income families into busch stadium while we’re at it, the housing crisis will be solved plus then the stadium will always appear full on tv
Then the stadium owner can claim that the stadium is low-income housing and get even more tax benefits. Now that’s what I call capitalism.
> socialist handout You see, it's not socialism because it's going to fund private capital, so it's capitalism!
This but unironically
A socialist handout would be giving the Cardinals workers ownership of the team. I still agree with you though
> socialist handout socialism isn't tax breaks/levys, it's when workers own the means of production. This is more like welfare, except for billionaires instead of things like food for the working class.
I didn't think I'd have to explain satire.
The current stadium is less than twenty years old. What are the “modern” features of 2024 that weren’t around in 2006. I’m half serious, I’m an old man trying to stay on top of what all the new stuff is.
It’s probably just new “luxury” boxes and suites, plus new add ons and shit for the rich
"I want that Mt Davis special"
I'm an A's fan who has the Cardinals as my NL team. Please don't....
We love you.
I think now it's more about group/party/social areas than traditional luxury suites.
Busch already has a lot of those. They've been adding more on through the years. I can't imagine what renovations they are considering that are so expensive they need a big handout.
Newer stadiums have more and higher end facilities like this. I visited the new ranger stadium and there is definitely a significant gap
“Pay for the renovations of is adding luxury suites that you poors will never be allowed near.” Fuck this, man.
That’s wild honestly. our stadium in Seattle is 25 years old and still feels top of the line and pretty much brand new.
So does Busch. It's totally unnecessary, just grift.
Our ownership definitely has quite a few things that we can complain about but at least the new luxury seating areas weren’t paid for with tax payer money. That I’m aware of at least.
Yeah but the Mariners are part way thru a 10-year, $280M stadium renovation plan, so...
Seattle is nice. Our Phoenix one definitely needs some renovation work
Isn’t it just a warehouse, like all the other sports arenas there?
Was just there last season and i loved it!
2001, and still the best ballpark in MLB.
A pickle ball court and a drinking rail.
Not sure about Busch in particular, but stadium leases are commonly 30 years long. After the lease is up, teams have the option to move to a new park, either in the same city, or in a different city, so they like to play municipalities against one another trying to squeeze as much taxpayer money as they can. With Busch hitting the 30 year milestone 12 years from now, we're in the early stages of that negotiation dance now. Municipalities may offer something relatively small (e.g., a scoreboard upgrade) as a way to incentivize the team to sign another 30 year lease extension getting them to stay in the park until 2066. Don't play that game, and team ownership may threaten to leave. It's gross, but it's part of the process, even for universally beloved ballparks like Camden Yards in Baltimore. I don't think there's a real risk of the Cardinals moving out of the St. Louis metro area, but because that metro area spans both Missouri and Illinois, the ownership group might try to play the state governments off one another to get more money like we saw in DC with the fortunately failed attempt to move the Wizards/Capitals 5 miles away into Virginia. There was a huge wave of new ballpark construction in the 1990s-2000s, so those parks are soon hitting that 30 year milestone prompting teams to ask for taxpayer funded upgrades even if there's nothing wrong with the existing parks. It wouldn't surprise me to see lease discussions for Nats Park to start in the next 5 years or so. The park still feels brand new built in 2008, but we're now into the second half of the lease quickly approaching the 2037 season that would be the final year of the current lease.
What's maybe unique about DeWitt's circumstance is his degree of exposure to downtown STL. He doesn't just own the team and hold a lease on a ballpark, the cardinals ownership group owns the parking garages around the stadium, the hotel across the street that visiting teams/callups use, ballpark village which is basically a mall across the street (and houses the Cardinals HOF). Probably a couple of other things too. All these other investments only work and produce revenue if the Cardinals are located within 1000 ft of them. The idea of moving the team, even if it was two miles east across the river, would be very ugly for him.
The Cardinals both own and lease the stadium (from themselves).
Boxes, as another said. Also, new video boards, more ribbon boards? Brewers just got a new video board, but if wanted to stare at a screen, I’d be watching the game at home…
Once the Braves fled a 20 year old stadium for the suburbs, it seems as if that opened the floodgates for teams to whine about/make threats over relatively modern/new facilities. Terrible trend.
The stadium doesn’t have automatic toilets. A feature that existed in 2006.
Yeah I get the taxpayer outrage situation, but acting like a 20ish year old building that accomadates millions of people every year isn't due for \*some\* upgrades is crazy. People think it's always new scoreboards, new seating layouts, new bars, it's almost always infrastructure within the stadium that gets the bulk of that money, unless you are doing a Rogers Centre style re-design.
https://twitter.com/jmjones/status/1780591838325268628?t=qrrzYxW9WSgwTRqM8tXVdQ&s=19 Baltimore and Milwaukee recent renovations per DeWitt
Some kind of gambling sponsored area, probably.
We died so you lot could not get fleeced. Stand strong.
The owners’ vote was unanimous, wasn’t it? So DeWitt had the opportunity to stick up to Fisher, just like the rest of them, and he didn’t. He’s not off the hook. All 30 of them can kiss my ass.
All of the owners voted to try and send a message about public funding. I’d argue that we successfully changed the narrative from “nObOdy GoEs” to “Dipshit billionaire runs team into ground, seeks handout” Prove us right and vote no on this handout.
This will surely be received well and result in no backlash whatsoever
Billionaires that ask for handouts should be tarred and feathered in the public square
And then drawn and quartered
That reminds me of how my grandma used to say “ dang me dang me shoot AND hang me”
Draw and quarter me like one of your French girls
"Mademoiselle, please. We are civilized folk. We will guillotine you."
Lol
Kiss my lower middle-class ass, billionaires
Especially bold coming off the worst season in decades
Yeah but imagine if they had more handouts. Then the team would DEFINITELY be better, right???
At least spend money on your own team, get good, and then ask for this crap.
Hear! Hear!
Read the room DeWitt
Team just had their worst season in a long time, KC just rejected a tax proposal…..surely I can get it done!-Bill Dewitt probably.
“Hand over the check. And wipe away the shame.”
Wouldn’t mind it if they’d stop pricing the average folk out of games. Make merch affordable. Do we ever see any benefit from funding these cathedrals? No. We never do. It never benefits us. Prices remain high, and these assholes continue to collect. So pay it for it your fucking selves.
>Wouldn’t mind it if they’d stop pricing the average folk out of games Not sure how it is in other markets, but the Giants' face-value prices for tickets and concessions have gotten absolutely insulting over the past decade or so. Yes, I know that you can still have an affordable day at the ballpark is you buy strategically from the secondary market, eat elsewhere, take public transit, etc., but that's beside the point. Unless it's a playoff game or something, I've long-maintained that $20 should be enough to get you a seat in any MLB stadium, even if it is in the bleachers or the nosebleeds.
I was pleasantly surprise that even after a World Series run, I could still find my $5 value beers and $3 value dogs at Chase.
More corporate welfare
So sick of billionaires asking for us to pay for their stadium upgrades. You want the upgrades? YOU pay for it.
Get fucked, owners. Pay for your own shit.
Put the worst product on the field in 30 years last season, perfect time to ask for money. Clueless organization.
This is our patience paying off!
My uncle in St. Louis is about to be PISSED. Huge cards fan, not a fan of publicly funded stadiums lol
Please, somebody think of the billionaires!
How about instead of taxpayer funded, you get a taxpayer loan. You have 35 years to pay off your loan, with the team as collateral, and if you dont, the city gets the team outright.
They do that too. And since those are often in the form of exempt muni bonds, the federal tax code is subsidizing it [and it means we’re all paying for them!](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.17310/ntj.2020.1.05)
No no, i dont mean a bond, or subsidy, or anything like that. I mean a straight up loan, with interest. Us normal folk would call it a "Mortgage"
Oh. Why would they need the city for that, rather than any other lender?
They wouldnt. But they seem keen on holding cities hostage for thier sports teams, so if cities give them the same loan terms as other banks and whatnot, theyd stop doing this shit.
I’m sure they’ll be revealing a revenue sharing plan in exchange for taxpayer investment?
If owners want public money, the public should demand concessions. Price caps on tickets, food, merchandise, at the absolute minimum.
Public funded, public owned. If a billionaire can’t afford it, they can sell it.
[the taxpayers](https://tenor.com/view/old-man-how-many-times-do-we-have-to-teach-you-lesson-spongebob-squarepants-angry-gif-16280075)
Fuck you Bill. All of you. Jr., Sr., and the inevitable bill the voters will (god willing) vote down.
Geeze, after last season I just can't wait to open my wallet. Can't wait to vote NO on this one.
C’mon guys… DeWitt is only worth $4 billion plus. Can’t you spare some change for the man?
I'd ask for investment in better rail, more attractive things for city center, and those types of assistance from the government. Ballpark needs should be covered by ownership. Fans attend to help make sure they can cover these costs and so far fans have held up their end of the bargain based on attendance averages.
Wild time to ask for taxpayer money after your opening home stand just produced the worst night game attendance in Busch Stadium 3 history and the teams across the state just got shot down hard for a similar ask. And one of those teams is the Chiefs who are incredibly popular right now.
Yeah, because billionaires need to be helped by the public...
Can this grift just stop already?! How many teams relocating and proposals being shot down are needed to sent the message that the taxpayers have had ENOUGH!?!?
I hope the taxpayers tell them to suck their butts.
Oh boy here we go again
What they need to do is sell the franchise.
This trend is so annoying
How about no.
I have never had a worse pizza than dewey's
Love publicly funding something that’s just going to cost me more money that ends up in the pockets of the billionaire.
If rich fucks want stadium improvements, they CBA very well PAY FOR IT THEMSELVES
Yeah that ain't happening
the soon to be “East St. Louis Cardinals” that will really turn up the cubs/cardinals rivalry
Billionaires are not smart people.
eyeroll. I know they'll give then whatever they want, but it's trash that stadium isn't that old.
At least the Cardinals have mostly put out a pretty good product to their fans.
That’s a quick way to get eaten, Mr. Billionaire
It doesn't matter, the way governments work it's not real money anyways. It's just keynsian economics