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ST. LOUIS • A two-man team appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon to keep football in St. Louis revealed a grand vision on Friday:

An open-air stadium just feet from the Mississippi River downtown, complete with a floating riverfront trail, boat docks, acres of parking — and no new taxes.

It should even accommodate a Major League Soccer team.

Former Anheuser-Busch President David Peacock and current Edward Jones Dome attorney Robert Blitz held a packed news conference Friday to reveal highlights from their briefing with the governor.

The concept, they emphasized, would take vision to embrace: The construction of a 64,000-seat stadium, for as much as $985 million, on land now occupied mostly by overgrown lots, empty warehouses and crumbling brick.

The financing, they acknowledged, is now just a pitch: $200 million from the National Football League. As much as $250 million more from Rams owner Stan Kroenke. Perhaps $130 million from the sale of personal seat licenses to fans. Some tax credits. Plus as much as $350 million from an extension of the $24 million a year in tax dollars that still pay down debt on the Edward Jones Dome, where the Rams now play.

And all of it, Peacock readily acknowledged, is contingent on Kroenke. The famously private owner has to agree to chip in — and keep the Rams in St. Louis.

But this battle, Peacock said, isn’t about Kroenke.

“It’s about the future of our region,� Peacock told the crowd in the soaring atrium of the Union Station Hotel on Market Street. “It’s about how we are perceived. It’s about no longer accepting the notion that our assets can just dissolve in front of us, or leave.

“We need to fight for what is rightfully ours.�

MIXED REACTIONS

The preliminary plan for a stadium brought quick reactions across the region. Some were appreciative:

• Nixon thanked Peacock and Blitz for their work and praised the plan for creating jobs, redeveloping “underutilized areas,� and protecting “St. Louis’s status as an NFL city.�

• Jeff Rainford, chief of staff to St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, called it “phenomenal� for the city and shrugged off concerns that the financing was tentative. “They have the revenue stream,� he said of Blitz and Peacock. “It’s not like they’re going to have bake sales every Saturday.�

Others were cautious:

• “Any deal must make economic sense,� said new St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger. “No matter what course of action we choose to take, the decision has to be in the best interest of St. Louis County residents.�

And some were hostile:

• Such a stadium, said historic preservationist Michael Allen, sacrifices “an entire historic district� for the sake of tailgate parties.

He called it reckless, short-sighted and far too common here.

Some of the warehouses in the stadium footprint — such as the Cotton Belt Freight Depot and the Laclede Power Plant — are beautiful, well-built, structurally sound “and completely feasible for renovation,� Allen said. Another, the Hammond Lofts, at 101 Cass Avenue, was recently converted to 56 low-income apartments in a $9 million renovation — funded in part through state tax credits.

He noted that some buildings may well be protected from demolition by a national historic designation.

Susan Trautman, executive director of the Great Rivers Greenway trail district, didn’t entirely agree with Allen. Great Rivers bought the Laclede Power Plant out of foreclosure about a year ago for $150,000. She said the agency had not formed a plan for the building, which sits at the head of the Riverfront Trail, and wouldn’t necessarily stand in the way of its demolition.

“The most important thing is that we work together with stadium planners to ensure that there are great opportunities to improve the quality of life for people in the region,� she said.

RAMS UNCERTAIN

The future of the Rams in St. Louis has been at risk for years, since the team engaged in a lengthy battle over upgrades required by its lease at the Jones Dome. Two years ago, the region lost the battle. An arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Rams’ request for publicly financed renovations worth perhaps $700 million. Dome authorities declined, giving the Rams the option to go year-to-year on their lease.

Then, a year ago, word leaked out that Kroenke had purchased a football field-sized lot in Inglewood, Calif., about 30 miles from the Rams’ old home in Anaheim.

In November, Nixon appointed Peacock and Blitz to tackle the issue. He asked them to figure out how to keep football in St. Louis.

But Monday, Kroenke and an investment group announced plans to build a privately financed, 80,000-seat stadium on the Inglewood land.

The plan released here Friday is its counter. Peacock said they have delivered it to the Rams and to the NFL.

If built, Blitz and Peacock wrote, the stadium would revitalize downtown and be the “crown jewel of the reinvention of St. Louis’ city center.�

The NFL, Blitz said, has been very receptive. “We haven’t been waiting in their waiting room,� he said after the news conference Friday. “And they’ve been coming here. How’s that!�

And Peacock said he had talked with the MLS commissioner. Soccer is expanding into new cities even now. “St. Louis is almost a necessary market for them,� Peacock said. “The question is when.�

There are, however, many unanswered questions, Peacock readily admitted.

Would an extension of the Edward Jones Dome debt, which is set to expire in 2021, require a public vote in St. Louis and St. Louis County, as required of new taxes for new stadiums?

Would personal seat license holders, who often paid thousands for the rights to buy season tickets in the Edward Jones Dome, have to buy new seat licenses in the new stadium?

Drawings show the new plan repurposes the old Union Power and Light building on the riverfront into a team shop. Will planners try to save other historic buildings in the district?

Most importantly, will Kroenke keep the Rams here?

To that, Peacock had an answer on Friday afternoon.

“Yes,� he said. “It is not easy to move in the NFL. The NFL controls two-thirds of your money. That is one of the levers they have.�

It would be even harder for Kroenke, Peacock continued, if NFL executives like St. Louis’ plan.

And he believes they do.

Steve Giegerich of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.