St. Louis Takes Conventional Approach to New Dome : Pro football: The Rams and Carolina begin playing today in a facility that is more concerned about the marketing dollar.

The Rams begin playing today in a $260-million convention hall, a sure money maker for the city of St. Louis and a newfangled approach to explore for football-poor cities such as Los Angeles.

The Trans World Dome, which is attached to St. Louis’ America’s Center and labeled as Hall 6 in its convention complex, will look very much like the Georgia Dome or Superdome on TV. However, this facility has been primarily designed to lure trade shows, while using the St. Louis Rams as a marketing tool to attract such attention.

The ceiling is solid, the lights can be lowered and the seats can be pushed back and used as convention hall walls. The floor is concrete, with water and electrical outlets every 30 feet. There are 10 million pounds of reinforced steel in the roof, allowing exhibitors to hang six times the weight available in other domes from the roof. There are also 13 adjacent meeting rooms and a first-class reception lobby.

A pre-painted carpet, with blowers providing a cushion of air, is pulled from one end of the hall to the other to provide the football field.

“Nobody has built a convention center to be converted to football,” said Bruce Sommer, vice president of facilities management for the America’s Center, which includes the TWA Dome. “This is totally different. It’s the next generation of major structures. Cities will have to go this way because that’s where the money is.

“The economic benefits from a convention center are far greater than the economic benefits from just a stadium. Most sporting events draw from the local community, so you are really not importing dollars and yet that’s the primary focus of the hospitality industry. A football team has 10 dates. We think we will end up with 180 to 200 event days a year in concerts, trade shows and conventions.

“Our average convention attendees are spending about $700 while they are here. If you get a group like True Value, that’s here now, that’s 6,000 people and that’s between $4 and $5 million that those attendees will drop. Then you have the 500 companies exhibiting out there that will drop huge amounts of money, not only bringing exhibits in here, but with all the entertainment they will do all week. That’s millions of dollars brand new to your economy.

“A football game may generate a million to a million half for any one game, but they are all local bucks. That’s worth something because it keeps people working. But clearly, it’s worth a lot more to add new dollars to your economy.”

St. Louis began construction of the 66,000-seat stadium without any assurance it would have a professional football team because the facility’s primary purpose was to serve as a convention hall. The availability of the football facility, however, was the determining factor noted by John Shaw, Ram president, when the team decided to move to St. Louis.

“Midwesterners are too practical,” Sommer said. “They wouldn’t have built a stadium waiting for football. This is a very practical business decision which then made it so easy to go after a team.

“The building in effect was already paid for. All the money came from bonds backed by the city of St. Louis, the county of St. Louis and the state of Missouri. The theory is, it will cost the taxpayers nothing because of all the taxes generated from outside money coming in. The personal seat licenses were just gravy, bribe money to entice a team to come.

“What’s in it for us with football? We make a little money, but not much. It’s the marketing. The Trans World Dome will become known a whole lot quicker than had we simply built a new Hall 6. The difference is overwhelming. From now on, whatever revenues generated by football are going to go to the football team. Municipalities and buildings can forget making money from football teams, but the marketing edge is a powerful, powerful tool.”

So what about Los Angeles, a city with no new stadium on the horizon and no immediate prospect for the return of professional football?

“I think L.A. has to have the NFL,” Sommer said. “It is missing one of the pieces of being a big-league city. The people in L.A. aren’t going to buy that. I suspect they believe they would be big-league if every professional team in town walked out. But in the eyes of the rest of the world that’s not the case.

“They need to understand what we had to learn: Perception is everything. If the perception of the nation is that L.A. is lesser because of a lack of a team, then it is lesser unless L.A. wants to cut itself off from everybody else. They are smarter than that. They know they have to relate to the rest of this country and the rest of the world. And as trite as it sounds, the NFL is a little piece of that.

“I would say L.A. would want to approach it the same way we did and get more out of it than just a team. But does it have to be something so far out to make it work in L.A.? Does Steven Speilberg have to be the guy to come up with the idea on how to get a team there? People have to decide on what they want L.A. to be. That’s what we had to go through.”

ON TV

* LAST FREEBIE

Oakland (7-2) at N.Y. Giants (3-6) Channel 4, 10 a.m.: In the next three weeks the Raiders will play the Cowboys, the Chargers on the road on Monday night TV and the first-place Chiefs. Quarterback Jeff Hostetler gets the chance to bury his former team and Coach Dan Reeves, who deemed Phil Simms and Dave Brown better prospects for success in 1992.

Turning point: The Raiders lead the league with 17 fumble recoveries.

* CENTRAL SHOWDOWN

Chicago (6-3) at Green Bay (5-4): The Bears collapsed when given the chance to put away the NFC Central title a week ago against Pittsburgh. They get a huge reprieve, since the Packers may be without defensive end Reggie White and quarterback Brett Favre. Matt La Bounty would start for White and T.J. Rubley or Bob Gagliano for Favre. Who?

Record smasher: Bear quarterback Erik Kramer needs eight touchdown passes to topple Sid Luckman’s team record of 28.

* THE LETDOWN BOWL

San Francisco (5-4) at Dallas (8-1) Channel 11, 1 p.m.: Most fans expected these teams to be undefeated when they met but next week’s battle between the Cowboys and Raiders now is more appealing. Steve Young is not 100%. Elvis Grbac vs. Troy Aikman? Is that fair? Marquez Pope covering Michael Irvin? Is that fair?

Something to watch: San Francisco has the No. 1 defense against the run and the Cowboys have Emmitt Smith.

* WILD CARD RACE

Denver (5-4) at Philadelphia (5-4) ESPN, 5 p.m.: Denver has John Elway, Philadelphia has Rodney Peete. Case closed.

Reunion: A year ago, they worked together as the 49ers’ offensive and defensive coordinators, but now Mike Shanahan coaches the Broncos and Ray Rhodes the Eagles.

LAST CHANCE

Kansas City (8-1) at San Diego (4-5): Ronnie Harmon and Rodney Culver combined are no Natrone Means, who has a sore groin. The Chiefs started the Chargers’ dive with a tying touchdown with 15 seconds remaining in overtime and Tamarick Vanover’s game-winning 79-yard punt return.

History lesson: Nine of the last 12 games between these teams have been decided by seven or fewer points.

Tampa Bay (5-4) at Detroit (3-6): Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes has Scott Mitchell playing over his head and Barry Sanders standing tall as the NFL’s No. 2 rusher, so how come the team has won only three? Tampa has the NFC’s worst-ranked offense and yet can tie for the NFC Central lead with a victory, and a loss by the Bears.

Hard to believe: Tampa has allowed only 12 touchdowns this season.

SLEEPERS?

Atlanta (6-3) at Buffalo (6-3): The Falcons are off to their best start since 1980 and the Bills to their best start since 1993--the last time they went to the Super Bowl. The way this season is going, just maybe this is a Super Bowl preview. Hey, Northwestern might be in the Rose Bowl.

Mr. Big Play: Atlanta wide receiver Eric Metcalf leads the NFL with 10 catches of 30 yards or better.

Carolina (4-5) at St. Louis (5-4) Channel 11, 10 a.m.: A wild-card berth is not out of the reach of either team. The Panthers will be without their No. 1 offensive weapon, running back Derrick Moore, who has a knee injury, but the Rams will get running back Jerome Bettis back.

Yikes: Isaac Bruce needs 25 catches to pass Henry Ellard and become the Rams’ single-season record holder.

CFL FODDER

Minnesota (4-5) at Arizona (3-6): The NFC’s No. 2 rush defense in Minnesota against the NFC’s worst rushing defense in Arizona. Some kind of excitement.

Buddy Ball: What does Arizona Coach Buddy Ryan know about offense? He cut wide receiver Cris Carter, who went on to Minnesota, and who now is on pace to become the second wide receiver in NFL history to record 100 or more catches in consecutive seasons.

Seattle (3-6) at Jacksonville (3-6): Seahawk punter Rick Tuten’s career-long punt of 73 yards is the longest in the NFL this season. Jaguar punter Bryan Barker’s 39.1-yard net average is third in NFC. Some kind of excitement.

Easy pickings: Jacksonville has allowed 20.7 points a game, fewest among modern expansion teams in the first season, and now they get a chance to pad their stats against the Seahawks.

Cincinnati (3-6) at Houston (4-5): The Oilers have won the last 10 games against the Bengals in the Astrodome and will petition league to play them there every year after the move to Nashville.

Scoreboard overload: The last two games between these two teams produced 13 touchdown passes.

Indianapolis (5-4) at New Orleans (3-6): Notice to Colt running back Marshall Faulk: In the last four games the Saint defense has allowed an average of 72 yards rushing. Such tension.

Good Luck: Colt quarterback Jim Harbaugh has a groin injury and the Saints are tied with the Jets for the NFL lead with 30 sacks.

NO SUSPENSE

New England (3-6) at Miami (6-3): This game was supposed to mean something but the Patriots gagged early. Running back Curtis Martin has gained 378 yards for the Patriots in the last three games but the Dolphins have allowed only one rushing touchdown this season and an average of 78 yards a game.

Stop the game: Miami quarterback Dan Marino needs 38 yards and five touchdowns to surpass Fran Tarkenton as the NFL’s all-time passing leader. Does he get both today?

BYE WEEK

The New York Jets (2-8) and Washington (3-7) must wait a week before losing again.