Missouri’s recently elected governor, Republican Eric Greitens, is a former Navy SEAL, a devoted humanitarian, and a man who ran a campaign ad that was just 20 seconds of him firing a Gatling gun. All of that means he doesn’t take any shit, not when justice is at stake. The vampires trying to suck over $100 million out of the citizens of St. Louis to build a stadium for a new MLS team have come to realize this.
About a month ago, an investor group called SC STL that wants to buy their way into MLS had appeared on the cusp of getting legislative approval for their proposed request of a whole heap of taxpayer money to help pay for a new soccer stadium. MLS’ commissioner was lobbying for the group, St. Louis’ mayor was down for the cause, and all that remained was for the state’s financing board to sign off on the proposal for it to be put to voters.
Then, Greitens stepped up and riddled SC STL’s nefarious cause with bullets of Truth and Righteousness. Soon after SC STL formalized their proposal, Greitens called this kind of stadium financing “welfare for millionaires.” In response to Greitens’s comments, the investors decided to delay officially putting the proposal before the board in hopes of coming up with a new plan that would get Greitens’s approval.
If the governor-elect’s latest comments are anything to go on, it does not appear that the rich guys with SC STL have done much to change Greitens’s mind. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
“To be very clear, I have completely ruled out state funding for stadiums,” Greitens said Monday said taking questions from journalists in Dellwood.
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Greitens reiterated his description of state aid for stadiums as ”welfare for millionaires” but said he “looks forward to meeting with the leaders of the MLS project to see if there’s a way for them to bring private-sector funding to bring a soccer team to the state of Missouri.”
“We are not going to use money from the people of the state of Missouri for what I believe is corporate welfare,” Greitens said. “We’ve got far too many core priorities of government that have to be invested in.”
The Post-Disptach quotes more government officials involved in SC STL’s proposal who express the belief that the stadium deal very well might be dead now that the investors do not appear likely to get any money from the state. So that machine gun-featuring campaign ad of Greitens’s really was an apt metaphor after all. Just imagine that he’s aiming at a printout of SC STL’s financing proposal: