Amazon’s search for a second headquarters, also known as HQ2, has stirred suitors across North America, with cities eyeing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape their local fortunes. As a result, competition is both fierce and wild, with perspective sites pulling out all the stops, from Stonecrest, Ga. renaming a portion of its town “Amazon,” to Charlotte, N.C. having Michael Jordan personally pen a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. But St. Louis thinks it knows how to win the new Amazon headquarters: Just have local boy turned NFL and MLB sportscaster Joe Buck make the winning call.
“You could go to any one of the usual suspects to pick for a headquarters for Amazon, but this could be your town—and my god we would love to have you.” Buck said in a video posted to Twitter Tuesday.
Make my hometown your hometown @Amazon and @JeffBezos. Here's why #Amazon2STL #STLHustle pic.twitter.com/WwvTzyVTc3
— Joe Buck (@Buck) October 10, 2017
Citing a strong business community of 20 Fortune 1000 companies, Buck points out St. Louis has light rail mass transit, and a major international airport, which are some of the requirements Amazon outlined in the RFP posted to Amazon.com.
But Buck is right in noting “the usual suspects,” because many other potential Amazon HQ2 cities also have a lot of the same features. In what the Brookings Institution has called “the most significant corporate location decision in modern U.S. history,” Amazon will not only be looking to get the best bang for its bucks (no pun intended), but also position itself to lead multiple American industries for decades to come.
Tapping Buck to endorse St. Louis is also a controversial choice in itself. Over his career, the Fox announcer has become known as “the most hated broadcaster in sports” for various reasons, one of which being that he’s been criticized as a being biased towards his hometown.
And that comes across in his Twitter video as well, which wasn’t necessarily all that deep or convincing. “What I love about it is that it’s just easy,” says Buck. “Life is easy in St. Louis.” An easy life was not listed among the requirements in Amazon’s RFP.