The bubble-topped home of the St. Louis Rams was opened just 17 years ago, so by any normal construction standards you’d expect it to still be in good shape. And it’s not awful, but it’s not great, either. The Rams clearly have some lofty expectations for their home base: their lease states the stadium must rank among the top eight highest-quality NFL stadiums by 2015 or they’ll start looking for a new city to call home. The sands of time for renovation are quickly evaporating, along with support for the $124 million renovation plan – that’s nearly half the cost of the entire stadium’s $280 million price tag the first go-around. The AstroTurf playing field was in such disrepair and so uncomfortable to players that in 2004, the team offered to foot the bill to replace it. And the other requested renovations call attention to the many areas in which the Ed Jones Dome is lacking: the proposal demands upgrades to club seats, concession stands, new windows, and a scoreboard to rival the Cowboys’, for starters.
In 2008, Sports Illustrated polled readers on the worst stadium in the nation, and St. Louis fans shouted back loudly: the Edward Jones Dome. Voters railed against everything from the stadium’s food to the quality of the team. For Missouri’s football fans who dealt with the pain of losing the Cardinals to Arizona in 1987, they don’t seem too keen on wanting the Rams to stick around.