Feature

St Louis MLS stadium plans on hold as funding bill stalls

Plans to build a new Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium in St. Louis have been thrown into chaos after it was revealed that a legislative bill setting out a funding initiative to support the project has stalled.

Speaking to the local media yesterday (Tuesday), St. Louis Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia, a sponsor of the bill, said it would “not be moving forward”.

The bill set out plans to use $80m (€75.8m/£65.8m) of taxpayers’ money to help fund the $200m stadium, which had been sounded out as a possible home of an MLS expansion franchise. The city had been keen for SC STL, the developers behind the project, to reduce this sum.

However, despite the setback, Ingrassia is hopeful that the stadium project could go ahead, while Mayor Francis Slay has also spoken positively about a possible future for MLS in St. Louis.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slay said: “We remain committed to working with SC STL to develop a sound financial proposal to put before the voters. That said, we don’t yet have an agreement. There are a lot of components that still need to come together, especially support from the state.”

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