St. Louis Blues: St. Louis Continues To Bungle Blues Related Issues

The St. Louis Blues just cannot catch a break with regards to their facilities. Whether it is their game-to-game arena or proposed practice facility, things are just not going smoothly.

For the most part, the St. Louis Blues have managed to avoid the political divisions that plague the area. There has been the occasional run-in, as with any city resident, but it has not been so much a problem until recently.

Now, the Blues are facing legal problems on several different fronts of the spectrum around the St. Louis area. So, it seems the entire area seems to have a vested interest in being as dumb as possible.

First, we already covered the issues the Blues are having getting the promised funding for their renovations of the Scottrade Center. The city owns the facility, but there are those within the city government that are trying to strongarm the already agreed upon financing.

The opponents are using a two-pronged approach. They are using the fact that the Scottrade Center is the only name listed under the Community Improvement District instead of city-backed land developers insinuates the Blues are actually in control. The other claim, according to a recent Post-Dispatch article, is that the debt the city would pick up is unconstitutional without voter approval.

All of that is bad enough. You could almost understand the meaning behind the arguments if it did not come off as political grandstanding as opposed to any true value of voter welfare.

However, as stated in our previous article, it seems like cutting off the nose to spite your face. The city benefits from events at the Scottrade, so not having renovations made means fewer events in the building.

The blame may shift, but is no less egregious regarding the team’s practice facility. Apparently, some genius decided it would be a wonderful idea to select a federally owned piece of land and try to force the issue by beginning construction before anything was approved.

Again, the Post-Dispatch did the leg work on this one and I encourage you to check out the full article. The crux of the issue is the area the proposed ice rink was/is to be built.

St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger pushed this thing through and it all sounded like a peach of an idea. A beautiful new facility to be shared by the Blues, a potential junior team, as well as local high schools and pee-wee teams.

The one issue with everything? The National Park Service requires any construction on federally protected land to prove that it will improve outdoor recreation.

If you’re wondering how an indoor sports facility will improve outdoor recreation, you are not the only one. “I struggle to understand how this will be a net benefit to public outdoor recreation,” wrote Emily Ferguson in an April 5 email to Roger Knowlton and Carol Edmondson, reported by the Post-Dispatch. The emails were obtained in an open records request to the DNR. “Overall, this facility sounds like a National Hockey League training facility with availability for college, high school, and finally, public use.”