Wait, did being the St. Louis Cardinals manager just become a side gig?
You could make a decent case it has when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch includes the keywords ‘Mike Matheny’ and ‘proposes monumental sports complex’ in a screaming headline.
Monumental? Even turning around the Cardinals porous defense won’t be “monumental“!
Here’s the scoop:
“They want to create the largest indoor sports facility in North America,” said Chesterfield City Director Mike Geisel.
The plans submitted to the city [Chesterfield] call for the construction of a dome with multiple playing fields capable of hosting simultaneous baseball, basketball, volleyball, softball and football games.
The athletic functions would represent one component of a massive campus with 50,000 square feet of office space and a 40,000-square-foot education center, a 220-room hotel, restaurants, retail outlets, an urgent care facility, fitness center, zip lines and a climbing wall.
Matheny is partnering with former TV personality and current ‘independent consultant’ Dan Buck on the project that could be open to the public as soon as 2018 and will cost between 36M and 42M plus an additional 4M for infrastructure improvements to the proposed site.
It’s an ambitious project. Made a bit more difficult by two factors:
1) St. Louis County is developing a 14M dollar soccer complex along the western edge of Creve Coeur Lake Park that could open next September. Belleville, IL is also currently in the process of building a similar mixed used area with hotel, convention and sports spaces.
2) The city of Chesterfield has said it intends to have no expenses on the project and that any success or failure will solely be on the developers.
Competition and lack of public support aren’t necessarily deal breakers for any new business plan. In fact, most businesses started in the US won’t get a dime of public money and do face stiff competition from multiple angles.
Business isn’t easy.
Mike Matheny is keenly aware of this.
In 2013 Mike Matheny said that almost his entire net worth was wiped out when a judge held him (and his business partners) libel for at least 4.4M dollars in a failed real estate development plan in Chesterfield when the market bottomed out in 2008. He had personally guaranteed the loans.
In 2016, he’s coming back over the top.
Time will tell if this is a good use of Matheny’s time/money/thoughts. Or now that it’s public, if it even moves forward in its current form. I have a feeling that the specific word ‘monumental’ being attached to the project could be a detriment.
Before we go, lemme check out Twitter real quick and see if there are any Cardinals fans mad he’s doing something other than worrying about baseball. (click here to find out…)
Three weeks into the off-season and things are getting interesting.
UPDATE (10/22):
The Post-Dispatch has spoken with some of the people that are involved in the project and gotten more details. A full roll-out of the plan for the media is scheduled for NOV 16.
Photo: STL Restaurant Review
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