The failure of St. Louis to invest some $500 million gained in a settlement with the NFL last year has led to the loss of $5 million in returns, according to media reports.
“That’s just to me ridiculous that any entity would have that much money and it would just sit there in 2022 and not make money,” said Randy Karraker, 101 ESPN Radio morning host. “Even if you win the lottery, you should invest it where it can bear some interest but our community is so dysfunctional that we can't even come up with an idea like that.”
Last year, St. Louis city officials accepted $790 million to settle litigation against the NFL and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, which had been lodged in 2017 by the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, the City of St. Louis, and the County of St. Louis.
It was widely reported that St. Louis could have won at trial based on the alleged evidence against the NFL.
“There were good attorneys who believe that St. Louis could have gotten $4 billion if it would've been tried and if they would've just gone through the process,” Karraker said. “It is just such a typical St. Louis thing. Our town messes up a lot.”
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, the law firms representing the city plaintiffs, Dowd Bennett, and Blitz Bardgett & Deutsch, received $276.5 million in attorney fees.
"There are so many ideas just in terms of making money," Karraker told the St. Louis Record. "The money could just go into a typical interest-bearing account where there would be no risk involved. It would be the same type of fund a financial planner would use to prepare for somebody's retirement."
But, the remaining millions have yet to be divided between the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, the City of St. Louis, and the County of St. Louis, which contributed to the problem of how to manage the lump sum.
"It's remarkable that they've had the money for a year and can't figure out how to split it up and that once you get to that point, they have no idea how the money is going to be utilized," Karraker added. "Regardless of how much it is, the City of St. Louis needs a lot of work and I can't imagine that they can't come up with a good way to utilize those funds."