I have been an avid fan of the St. Louis Cardinals for many years It’s been great to see the Cardinals win a national league championship and make it to the World Series.

I love the team, but I think it is unwise to build a new stadium and a ballpark village for the Cardinals team and the fans.

Not only is the city tearing down history from the past 39 years, but also is spending $646 million to build something that is unnecessary.

This, to me, is a waste of money.

The new Busch Stadium will cost $346 million to be built and the rest of it will be used to build the ballpark village, which will include office space, street level shops and restaurants, residential units, a new Cardinals museum and a world-class aquarium.

I think what the city of St. Louis is doing is taking the citizens’ money to build a stadium worthy of bringing the All-Star game to St. Louis.

Not including that, the city is forgetting the old Busch Stadium is a piece of history, and in tearing it down and building the new stadium on top of that, the memories are gone.

I believe we don’t need the new Cardinals museum because the old one is fine the way it is. We certainly don’t need an aquarium;

That’s why there is a zoo not far from downtown; it has plenty of animals to look at.

I know the city wants to bring in more fans, but I believe all the city cares about is taking people’s money and using it for something useless.

According to information on the Cardinals official Web site, St. Louis is investing a portion of the new taxes to build the stadium and ballpark village.

Starting this year, the city will be making annual appropriations of $4.2 million.

This money is used for debt service payments on the stadium and “will capitalize a $60 million city contribution toward the ballpark development costs,” according to the site.

St. Louis County is contributing revenue annually for the next 30 years.

It began at $2 million in 2003 and will increase by three percent each year, capitalizing at $40 million.

State funding is also being used to build the stadium, which is no more than $7 million annually for 30 years, adding up to $100 million.

The state should not have funded this project since there is no need for a new stadium. These people only want it to become a reality, which meant spending as much money as they could to make it possible.

Here is something else that is ridiculous. The Cardinals only signed a 35-year lease with three additional five-year options.

Does this mean as of 2040 the city will decide to tear this stadium down and build another?

The money should have been used to restore the old stadium instead of building something bigger and better.

In my lifetime, I have seen the Arena go down and an office building be built over it.

Now, I have seen Busch Stadium face the wrecking ball, and memories have gone along with it. The money has also gone down the tube.

Some fans may support this, but I am not one of them.