County Mayor Weston Wamp said Monday it is becoming apparent that the city and county are going to have to face years of backstopping funding shortfalls at the new Southside Stadium.
He told members of the County Commission, "As you go by the site you can see that the stadium is well underway, but other development at the site has not happened."
County Mayor Wamp noted that the stadium debt service was to have come mainly from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district collections, but that is based on private development.
He said $386,000 of stadium debt service is due in 2026, but it will go up to $2,791,000 in 2027 and to $5.5 million in 2028 and thereafter.
The city and county are going to need to start planning for those shortfalls, he said, at a projected amount of $1.5 million each.
The county mayor said the government payments cannot come from the property tax, so he said the county - and likely the city - will need to turn to the hotel/motel tax collections.
He said the county can no longer furnish all the hotel/motel collections to the Tourism Co. for marketing. He said that needs to be stepped down in the coming years.
County Mayor Wamp said the stadium went forward using a projection from the Younger consultants that foresaw 1.9 million square foot of new development around the stadium site at the old U.S. Pipe and Wheland foundries.
Jim Irwin, master planner for the project, has bought several areas beyond centerfield for a development, but it has not yet started.