Gästebuch » again as a fill-in at centre.DUMBA ON Defence?

ST. LOUIS -- The indoor football stadium that the St. Louis Rams call home is running out of money as the NFLs team long-term future in the city remains murky. The publicly-funded Edward Jones Dome anticipates needing an extra $40 million to cover maintenance over the next 15 years, the St. Louis Post -Dispatch (bit.ly/1pGZkMd) reported Wednesday. The St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, which owns the downtown dome, expects to exhaust its $16 million in savings in six years. The dome receives a total of $24 million annually from the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County and the state of Missouri for maintenance and to pay off construction debt , but those payments are scheduled to cease over the next decade. And the stadiums future remains in limbo as lease negotiations between St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the stadium authority drag on. The Rams can break their 30-year lease after the upcoming season, which would be a decade early. Brian McMurtry, the authoritys executive director, is asking the three governments to not only continue providing at least $4 million for annual upkeep payments but to also consider sending the dome an additional $40 million in cash, or selling $40 million in new bonds. Hes also suggested putting several stadium-related items on the citys bond issue list for a public vote as early as this November. "Im going to tell you, they dont know how theyre going to do it," he said. "But they want to know what its going to take." Dome maintenance is almost entirely dependent on public dollars -- unlike Busch Stadium, a private ballpark funded largely by the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Scottrade Center, which is maintained by the owners of the St. Louis Blues and was built with $135 million from local companies. To help entice the Rams to stay, the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, which manages the dome, in 2012 offered a $124 million improvement plan that included a bigger scoreboard and better club seating, with the Rams paying slightly more half those costs. The team countered with a far more ambitious proposal that called for a new roof with a sliding panel and a bevy of improvements that would keep the city convention centre in the dome closed for three years. The team didnt put a price tag on its request, but city officials estimated the upgrades would cost $700 million. "We cant come up with a long-term solution until we know what the relationship is going to be with the Rams," said Jim Shrewsbury, chairman of the stadium authoritys board. The stadium authority sold bonds in 1991 to build the $300 million dome, which opened in 1995. The sponsors agreed to a 30-year payment plan. The state would send the stadium authority $10 million a year toward debt repayment, plus $2 million for upkeep. The city and county each would pay half of that. University of Chicago economist Allen Sanderson said the conundrum facing St. Louis civic leaders is not uncommon when it comes to paying for aging public sports arenas. "Estimates of revenues tend to be overstated and costs played down, or at least pushed off to the future," he said. "Youve got this combination, on the city side, of public officials worried about the near future, not the long term, and these sports franchises that have an enormous amount of market power. And thats a bad combination for taxpayers." Wholesale College Jerseys .The Dallas Cowboys released Sam from the practice squad Tuesday, dropping the rush end as they prepare for several potential reinforcements to return to the defensive line. Cheap College Basketball Jerseys . And he said Sunday that players believe nobody in Sterlings family should be able to own the Los Angeles Clippers if hes gone. http://www.cheapauthenticncaajerseys.com/ .Shipulin pulled away from Martin Fourcade of France, Simon Eder of Austria and Fredrik Lindstrom of Sweden to finish in 35 minutes 16.8 seconds. Fourcade was 1.2 seconds back in second place to reclaim the overall World Cup lead, with Eder another 0. Cheap NCAA Jerseys . -- Shanshan Feng was alone in her opinion about the pin positions in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Cheap College Jerseys . The Australian is competing in his final season in Formula One and still looking for his first win this year. He will look to end Vettels run of six straight race wins on Sunday. Webber, who is fifth in the championship, earned his second pole from the past three races and 13th of his career.ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Wilds 14-year existence has revolved mostly about mediocrity. The narrative has finally taken a turn for the better.There is more confidence. There are fewer concerns. Advancing deep into the playoffs and, dare that ultimate goal be voiced, challenging for the Stanley Cup have trumped past hopes of simply playing a few bonus games in April.Every year you feel good about your team, but its just a little different. You feel like theres unfinished business, owner Craig Leipold said.Last season was far from smooth. The Wild lost their sixth straight game on New Years Eve. Coach Mike Yeo was on tenuous footing with an expiring contract, though Leipold said in a recent interview he really wasnt on the bubble.But despite foot injuries to Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise that kept them out for a total of 32 games, the Wild were at their best when they were the most vulnerable. The biggest health problem was between the pipes, where four different goalies were called on to start 19 or more games. After Darcy Kuemper picked up the slack for Josh Harding, who had taken over for Niklas Backstrom, Ilya Bryzgalov was there down the stretch to fill in for Kuemper.So here they are with every key player back from the group that upset Central Division champion Colorado in the Western Conference quarterfinals and reached the second round for just the second time in franchise history. Theres also an important addition in left wing Thomas Vanek.Mikael Granlund, who will centre the first line with Parise and Jason Pominville, now has a full year of NHL experience. Two other 22-year-old forwards, Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter, combined for 76 points last season. The speed of third-line centre Erik Haula, who is 23, was a revelation in the post-season with four goals in 13 games. Parise, Pominville, Vanek, Koivu, Matt Cooke and ironman defenceman Ryan Suter form a proven core of veterans.The pieces are in place. Yeo has a new deal. Now its up to them to fulfil that potential.Id have a hard time listing the teams that I know are better than we are, Leipold said. Theres probably a couple of them, bbut if we have a couple of our players step up like we hope we will this year that gap is going to get narrower.ddddddddddddHere are some key nuggets to know about the Wild this season:GOAL SETTING: Harding is out indefinitely with a broken foot, leaving Backstrom and Kuemper to compete for time in the net. This is unquestionably the biggest issue to resolve, likely the hinge between status quo and a step forward in the playoffs. Thats one reason why Bryzgalov was invited to training camp on a tryout contract and the Wild have not ruled out keeping three goalies on the roster. I know its repetitive, but were just going to kind of evaluate every day, Yeo said. So I dont want to go in and say one guys got the edge over another right now.WINGMAN: The emergence of Granlund and Haula allowed the Wild to slide Coyle over to right wing, where hell start the season on a second line with Koivu and Vanek. Yeo declined to declare the move permanent, but the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Coyle has the presence and skills to make that a long-term fit if hes not needed again as a fill-in at centre.DUMBA ON Defence? Theres a top-six opening on defence, and prospects Matt Dumba and Christian Folin have been getting a long look during training camp. Dumba was the teams first-round draft pick in 2012. Nate Prosser was brought back this week via waiver claim for more depth.GRAND CENTRAL: The Wild pushed for realignment as much as any team in the league, desiring more road games in their own time zone to increase television ratings and more regional rivalries in their division to enhance ticket sales. In a classic be-careful-what-you-wish-for case, the Wild have found themselves in a brutally difficult division. They went 14-12-3 against the Central in 2013-14 and despite matching the second-highest point total in franchise history finished in fourth place. Only two of the 14 teams that missed the 2014 playoffs came from the Central, Nashville and Winnipeg.FAMILIAR FOE: The Wilds opener is at home against the Avalanche on Oct. 9 in a reprise of that epic seven-game series, and theres a rematch two days later in Denver. ' ' '