ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Inside a tavern area at Tropicana Field, there is laughter and conversation. A Suncoast Tiger Bay meeting with Rays president Brian Auld has just wrapped up early Thursday evening, and members are now mingling with politicians and team executives.
St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch exits a side door and steps onto a furnished balcony. Before him is a panorama of most of the 86 acres planned for redevelopment with a new baseball stadium as its centerpiece.
“I look at it from this viewpoint,” Welch says softly, “and imagine what it can be.”
Since the mayor announced Jan. 30 that he had picked the Rays/Hines group as his choice for the estimated $5 billion redevelopment of the site, team officials have expressed reluctance to rush into any commitment contractually to St. Petersburg. And the commissioner of baseball showed up last week and made a point of saying there are viable sites across the bay in Tampa.
But the reality is, the momentum still resides in this wide expanse of parking spaces Welch is staring at. The Rays met with city officials on Wednesday to start hammering out a timeline for a term agreement and to begin exploring their differences on various issues.
Neither Welch nor Auld wanted to talk in detail about the coming negotiations, but both seemed more upbeat and optimistic than any elected official or ownership representative has in the past decade of proposed stadiums and shattered ambitions.
That doesn’t mean this plan will work. There are countless details and disagreements that will have to be resolved. And figuring out the proper split for the cost of the stadium amongst the city, county and the team remains a tricky proposition.
But the real challenge will be deciding the how/when/what of the redevelopment.
The city has taken the position that the Rays need to commit to St. Pete before delving into the redevelopment particulars. But the Rays are not eager to bind themselves to this plot of land until they are certain what the rest of the property will look like.
Because of the past attendance struggles at this site, the team is emphatic that a new complex needs to be structured perfectly to attract businesses and fans to 7 p.m. weekday games. And the team isn’t going to commit to a stadium until the city commits to a master plan.
And while the Rays/Hines proposal included concepts about a museum, hotels, affordable housing, green areas, restaurants and retail spaces, the exact details are still open to discussion.
So will this be a stumbling block?
It is right now, but neither side seems to think it is insurmountable. They’ve already scheduled more meetings, and the Rays seem eager to get shovels in the ground before the end of the year. If the two sides can figure out a path forward, the sense around the city is that the Pinellas County Commission and St. Petersburg City Council are not likely to get in the way of the funding plan.
The idea that the city already invested $250,000 in an outside law firm to help with the negotiation of the term sheets is a pretty good indicator that the mayor and council are confident this is moving in the right direction.
“The mayor and his administration and the Hines/Rays team have a pretty full understanding of where each other are,” Auld said. “We’re excited to work together to push this forward.”
And where does Hillsborough County fit in all of this? At this point, Tampa remains the first choice but the last resort.
While the Rays — and MLB officials — have made it clear that attendance would likely be better on the Hillsborough side of the bridges, the team has never made much headway in terms of an acceptable financing plan. The Rays would likely generate more money in Tampa but would take on a greater stadium debt. That makes the Trop site an easier solution for everyone, including Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
Castor occasionally talks about finding a home for the Rays in her city, but she’d be much happier if the ballclub stayed in St. Pete and she was able to avoid a huge stadium bill.
During the question-and-answer session from the Tiger Bay crowd, Auld was asked about the balance between trying to maximize profits/revenue while also honoring the legacy of the Historic Gas Plant District and the needs of the city.
“The (revenues) are really about making sure the baseball business is sustainable,” Auld said. “The Rays’ challenges are well-documented. St. Petersburg is a small city with a Major League Baseball team. Now, that allows us to do things like this that are really special. I often tell people we are more important to St. Petersburg than the Yankees are to New York. That’s an awesome feeling, it’s incredibly rewarding. But we also still need to compete with the Yankees.
“So we do need to make sure we can generate as much revenue as possible out of this. And the biggest reason we need to do that is to be able to contribute as much as we can in the construction of the ballpark we need.”
