Tony Messenger on St. Louis Soccer Stadium

Corporate Welfare |
By Patrick Tuohey | Read Time 1 minute minutes

If you aren’t a regular reader of Tony Messenger’s column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, please take a moment to read his latest piece about the proposed soccer stadium in St. Louis. In it, he writes,

The current St. Louis soccer stadium proposal is hands down better than the last one, in that the ownership group . . . are seeking significantly less from city taxpayers than the previous effort. [New York-based journalist Neil] DeMause agrees with that.

“The latest plan is arguably less onerous for the public than lots of other stadium projects out there — and certainly better than the previous soccer proposal for St. Louis,” deMause says. “But that’s damning with faint praise, because the median in stadium deals is ‘pretty awful.’”

St. Louisans were told last year that the deal before them was the best they could hope for. It wasn’t. There is no reason to believe this latest deal is the best, and every reason to think we can do better.

About the Author

Patrick Tuohey is a senior fellow at the Show-Me Institute and co-founder and policy director of the Better Cities Project. Both organizations aim to deliver the best in public policy research from around the country to local leaders, communities and voters. He works to foster understanding of the consequences — often unintended — of policies regarding economic development, taxation, education, policing, and transportation. In 2021, Patrick served as a fellow of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Yorktown Foundation for Public Policy in Virginia and also a regular opinion columnist for The Kansas City Star. Previously, Patrick served as the director of municipal policy at the Show-Me Institute. Patrick’s essays have been published widely in print and online including in newspapers around the country, The Hill, and Reason Magazine. His essays on economic development, education, and policing have been published in the three most recent editions of the Greater Kansas City Urban League’s “State of Black Kansas City.” Patrick’s work on the intersection of those topics spurred parents and activists to oppose economic development incentive projects where they are not needed and was a contributing factor in the KCPT documentary, “Our Divided City” about crime, urban blight, and public policy in Kansas City. Patrick received a bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1993.

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