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>> Hey, the University of Missouri is thinking about renaming Memorial Stadium in order to get some corporate cash.

Other places in the SEC have done that.

We go to the sports columnist for the St.

Louis American, Alvin Reid.

What do you think?

memorial stadium or uh I don't know.

>> Well, you could you could sell the naming rights, but you have to keep memorial in it because these stadiums were built as memorials.

And I know that some of them go back World War I. Some of them go even, you know, back farther than that.

You you you have to keep that.

Um one man basically financed Kansas stadium rebuilding.

His name is David Booth, but it's David Booth Memorial Stadium.

You have to keep the memorial.

And you know, I just it'd be it befuddles me that the conversation would even come up like if the people that are paying for it say like we don't want Memorial on there.

Okay, just send us the check for 80 million.

I think that's shortsighted.

That's that's I know money's driving everything in college athletics right now, but come on, Missouri.

You can do better than that.

>> Isn't it dis does it is it distasteful to anybody else that it is all about money?

I guess it's always been >> it always kind of has now we're just sort of we just do it out in the right I think that you know and so me I do I like taking Memorial off but go ahead call them all Dairy Queen Stadium it is not college athletics anymore they're minor leagues for the pros at least was honest years ago where they just grabbed the kid out of high school sent him off to Elmyra to teach him how to field grounders that's what football is what basketball is you're training ing for the NBA and the NFL.

So, name the stadiums after whatever corporation wants to give you the most money.

Let people transfer schools whenever they want.

Let's just get over the notion that there's the gipper or we've got the varsity sweater on.

That's dead.

>> Okay.

But Joe, 98% of women and men who play college athletics never play a down or a pitch of professional athletics.

>> And none of these rules are being made for >> That's what I'm saying.

Right.

But I'm just don't there are people are out there that just still aren't.

>> But it's football, basketball, and baseball that are driving this.

Mainly football and basketball.

So now you're going to have it.

So you're going to have the stadium's named after a company.

Then the hardwood's going to be named after the company, and the field's going to be named after a company.

Go ahead.

Players are making money.

So it's it it's it's minor league sports treated as >> it's all sad, though.

It's like it, you know, all these buildings that used to be named by the guy who built them, you know, Kamiski Park, Wrigley Field, and >> Bush Bush.

Yeah.

And and the stores were uh the May store and and now everything somebody can come in and buy the naming rights and and I can understand the athletic department in Missou million was it in deficit.

So of course they want money and I'm with you, Joe.

I think if they want to take memorial off the name, why not do that?

>> But there's no but there's no uh permanence or uh I mean think about the Keel Center became the Savage Center became the Scott Trade Center became what is it now?

Enterprise and then the dome was TWWA.

What else were they ed now?

And the thing is is that you you buy the right you pay the money and it like you know and apparently it's like for 20 years.

All of those have an out.

Nobody's signing up for anything for 20 years because something could happen to the >> PWA dome.

>> I mean the Astro Stadium was in Ron Stadium for a while.

They they dropped that like a hot rod.

The Paige Lori Arena.

Woo.

>> Yeah.

>> That Wow.

>> So I mean and the thing is I get we're sad to see it go, but it's gone.

Yeah.

So >> Yeah.

No.

No.

It's uh I It's one of those sad things.

Bill, I want to ask you about Bob Clark, local billionaire and owner of Clayco.

Uh, guy who took the company from nothing to a billion-dollar corporation.

Uh, it's technically headquartered in Chicago, but he has a big operation here.

>> You say local guy.

I was going to say he hasn't even, >> but he lives here now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's But in fact, I saw him in a pancake restaurant uh just a couple of weeks ago enjoying his breakfast.

He decrieded two things about St.

Lewis to KOV's David Amali.

One, we we have no cohesive vision that everyone can agree with.

The other is he he looked around.

He said, you know, the highways are, you know, dirtier than the highways I see in other countries.

He goes, it doesn't make you feel safe.

It doesn't look good.

Now that he says it, will anyone listen?

>> I doubt it.

I mean, you know, Mr.

Clark has a lot of influence and has done a lot of wonderful things, but I don't imagine the people at MDOT going, "My gosh, Bob Clark thinks that things are messed up."

I mean, their attitude probably be, "Well, Bob, why don't you throw us some money at us and we'll take care of this part of the highway."

>> So, I don't think it'll change anything.

I mean, I'm, you know, it's good that he spoke up.

Herb Neardorf spoke up about crime.

you know, good that they do it, but nothing happens.

>> I I would I would certainly excuse me.

I would certainly listen to him.

And I think, you know, because he's been here and he knows so much about the history, uh he also knows that back in the day when there was a shared vision, we were a Fortune 500.

I mean, we were a hot bed of activity.

There were now we're a branch office and and that has changed things dramatically.

It's hard to have a cohesive vision for the future of the city when some of the city leaders are only here for, you know, x number of years.

>> Well, that make you you make a good point there.

Also, you know, it was I thought it was all the former mayor's fault according to Bob Clark and I guess, you know, things didn't get fixed instantly, so we still have these problems.

But I'm with you.

Like, hey, you can do it.

You could Bob Clark could help pick the trash up.

And I don't mean physically, I mean financially.

If that's a big deal, write a big check for that.

Then he should also buy the house in Kirkwood and then hire like minority like contractors and people to fix it up and say like, "Okay, I saved the house."

All right, do that throughout.

>> He's been good about I didn't say six schools.

All right, I get that, Bill.

But all right, you cannot come out and say like, "Oh, I'm sick of the trash.

I'm sick of this.

Sick of that like because I've given enough already.

So now listen to me.

It's not Bob Clark's problem.

>> No, I'm just I'm just using that as No, I'm using that as an example.

Not just Bob Clark, but there's many Bob Clarks out there and there are many people that could address these situations.

I'm just being kidding about the House of Kirkwood, but as far as helping protect downtown St.

Louis and picking up the garbage and stuff like that, just put the money to it.

>> Well, a certain columnist in the uh St.

Louis Business Journal pointed out about a week or so ago that in other states they actually used the homeless and the incarcerated to pick up litter.

>> I thought we used I thought incarcerated people did pick up litter highways only in u Buchanan County in Missouri.

>> Where is Buchanan County?

I have no idea.

And do they have garbage in Buchanan?

>> But you know let's say you're on probation.

Why not work off your sentence by picking up >> everybody?

I mean, a lot of people got their noses out of joint about the the the people having to snug snubble.

They were snuggling the snow show.

They were snuggling the snow.

They were shoveling the snow and that made people crazy.

So, you know, >> people do community service at um festivals.

Uh yeah, they, you know, they are got a sign in and they pick up trash and stuff like that.

So, it can be done.

>> It can be done.

Okay.

Uh Joe, I want to ask you about um and since you were a shop steward, you still might be with the guild.

Is that correct?

Yeah.

Okay.

>> Uh there's a proposal in the general assembly in Jefferson City in Missouri to give businesses a little bit of a break on the minimum wage so that they wouldn't have to pay minors, those 16 and 17 years old, the full $15 an hour.

How do you feel about that?

>> I am completely opposed to it.

And I think it's one of those things that management in in the big uppercase M loves to do is to create two-tier wage systems and then it ends up that everybody ends up in that lower tier.

Don't know how it happens, but then maybe it's like, well, let's do 18, let's do teenagers.

If you're doing a job, there is a wage for that job.

And it doesn't matter if you're 16 or you're 25 and you're doing it, you get paid that wage.

two-tier systems are those things that at first blushes, oh, this will get some 16 year olds some pocket money.

It ends up being used to pull down all wages.

>> Well, well, especially since there's a lot of adults now who have find themselves doing fast food jobs, and it's really hard to expect them to compete with kids who are going to cost less.

>> I I was a 15 year-old.

I I and I I was at the I was at Chesterfield Mall.

That's where I had one of my first jobs.

And uh I had I think I had to sign some kind of something or other.

But no, I don't like this at all.

Pay them what you're paying everybody else.

>> But what if the 16-year-old isn't quite as good and you don't want to, you know, they hopefully they don't have the experience, knowledge, as a 22year-old or someone who's older.

Hey, give them a start.

Give them the training wage.

No, no, >> that seems fair to minimum wage is minimum wage.

But what they used to do when I was working first at Burger King for summer, but then at the Kirkwood cinema, it went there.

But but people who like worked in fast food who were older and had families, they started out making a little bit more money.

But minimum wage was minimum wage.

>> I was going to say start start this 16-year-old at minimum wage.

There's nothing wrong with that.

And then when they do well, >> give them a raise.

>> Give them a raise.

But do not fun.

There's nothing stopping a company from giving you a raise.

>> There's absolutely nothing stopping a company from saying, "We're going to add you $100."

Where do we get to the point where the guy who invests his money into his business or her business can decide how much he or she wants to pay others?

I mean, everyone here has an opinion on how that guy down the street how much he should be paying somebody.

So, Mr.

say that wants us to save every school and building on how we should spend our money.

No, what you're doing is creating a two-tier wage system.

That always sounds good in the beginning.

There's a minimum wage.

They will get a minimum 15 17 year olds will get them.

>> So Mr.

Peabody Cole can still send 15y olds down into the coal mine cuz I should be left alone to do what I want to.

I mean >> can a 15-year-old be a minor?

>> You you had I known that my you sound like the jungle and you sound like you got the manifesto in your pocket.

>> Well, it's what happened to you.

>> All right.

Finally, uh one more topic.

Kevin Neeland from Saturday Night Live and Happy Gilmore and Beyond was in St.

Louis last week and he said he'd like to be Wendy on the St.

Louis Walk of Fame since he lived here for a while.

>> I a while in infancy.

He was here for 6 months.

I think he was being funny because that's what Kevin Nean does.

I I you know he said he said you know there's a lot of question about where I grew up and where I or not where I grew up but where I was born.

He was born here.

His parents were students at least his father was a student.

He was talking about John Hamm and Chuck Barry.

I just think he was being funny.

But no, to be here for six months or to live three months in, >> you know, uh, you know, uh, Tom Cruz lived in Creve Core for a while.

He's Tom May.

And, uh, Linda Blair lived in Kirkwood.

>> Stone Phillips.

>> Stone Phillips.

Colon FTH lived uh, he he went to school in North County.

Shouldn't they be on the St.

Louis Walk of Fame?

>> No.

>> No.

>> No.

Not Tom Cruz.

No.

No, not if you he really doesn't have a connection to St.

Louis.

I mean, the fact that you pass through or live know the importance of asking somebody where they went to high school and how to pronounce Spadyy Road.

If you can't do those two things, no, no, no.

>> Here, here.

>> And any Hall of Famer would back me up on that.

And we I ought to mention too, Charlie, that a couple minutes ago you said somebody wrote a column in the business journal and the viewers probably don't realize >> it's Charlie Bren.

He knows what it's like.

>> Thank you.

You're going to the front of the class.

>> OH BOY.

>> I just want you to call Mr.

Hoffman and get out.

>> Should Wayne Gretzky be on the He played here for eight months.

>> He should be on the >> So basically if you flew >> He lives here part time.

If you flew through St.

Louis, give him a >> went to a duty free store at the airport, then you should >> That Walk of Fame is going to extend down.

>> I think actually uh Wayne Gretzky has a home here.

>> He does.

Actually, he does.

>> He's probably on the Walk of Fame >> near Kirkwood, by the way.

>> Is it any surprise that none of us are on the St.

Louis Walk of Fame?

>> No.

>> Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you next week at this time.