And it will be a sham. All of it.

Here’s the secret, though it’s not really a secret:

None of the cities can afford what they are offering you.

St. Louis most of all.

Here’s what’s happening on our fine city right now. The professional hockey team is embroiled in a lawsuit with the city over incentives the hockey team wants — and the city has promised — to refurbish their downtown arena. The reason the deal isn’t done yet is because the city’s comptroller — Darlene Green — won’t sign off on the deal because it would take money out of general revenue in a city that can’t afford to buy new trash trucks, and that will hurt the city’s credit rating.

In the county — long story, but in St. Louis, the city and county are separate entities — the same hockey team has persuaded the county executive to try to build a fancy new practice ice rink in a county park because, well, they wanted free land.