Billionaire Stan Kroenke is providing a business lesson to states and cities that for decades have poured taxpayer funds into professional sports stadiums: You may be better off letting the teams pay.
Kroenke’s decision to move his National Football League Rams from St. Louis to a privately financed $1.8 billion stadium in Inglewood, California, will wind up benefiting both cities, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The Los Angeles suburb, which is letting the team foot the bill, should pick up additional revenue. St. Louis will lose little, the rating company said, and be freed from building another stadium while still paying for the old one.
