Scottrade Center is once again in the headlines. The question isn’t whether the facility needs to be renovated but how to pay for it.
The Political EYE in The American has rightly said the Scottrade situation is “all kinds of messed up.” Comptroller Darlene Green and Alderwoman Cara Spencer are spot on to raise questions. How to pay the millions in renovation costs for hockey facilities isn’t yet finalized, but the Blues are forging ahead with the work, assuming that city taxpayers will pick up the tab.
This is a regional venue. It is a regional issue, not a city issue. But somehow it’s dumped in the laps of hard-pressed city taxpayers to solve the problem.
Most of the people who attend games and events there live outside the city. City residents are barely 10 percent of the region, and more than 30 percent are below the poverty line. About half of the city’s residents are African Americans, but only a tiny fraction of hockey fans are African Americans. Just look around at a hockey game.
Why should city residents pay about $3.5 million a year – for 30 years – to buy scoreboards, seats and ice chillers at a facility that many of them will never be able to afford to visit?
Meanwhile the other 2.5 million residents of the region, most of whom have much higher incomes, are not asked to pay anything.
It doesn’t make sense. And there’s an obvious better solution staring us in the face: People who attend Scottrade events could easily pay to keep up the facility they use.
More than 750,000 people attend Blues games every year. Several hundred thousand more attend other events. Way over a million spectators a year go through Scottrade’s doors.
The simple solution to pay to fix up Scottrade is $4 a ticket paid by those who attend games and events.
Before we hear “fans can’t afford it,” keep in mind that the per-ticket service charge to process tickets is whole lot more than that already. Service charges on Blues tickets average over $10 a ticket. Even a $30 ticket to Disney on Ice carries a $7.60 service charge; concert service charges are as much as almost $20. Who can afford it better – hockey fans or the taxpayers of a city that’s almost broke?
The people who use and benefit from Scottrade should pay to keep it up. This is a much better solution for everyone.
Frank Hamsher is an independent public policy and communications consultant in St. Louis.
