The St. Pete Grand Prix got the green flag to race in downtown until 2020. The original deal would have expired in 2017.
Chris Ballestra, the city’s managing director of development coordination, told City Council the administration had negotiated with the company Green Savoree to secure an updated contract that allows the Indy Car race to continue in St. Pete while still protecting residents and the city’s interests.
The new deal includes about an extra $350,000 in benefits to the city. Direct and indirect economic impact to the city totals about $500 million.
Amended language in the agreement includes protection that the Grand Prix will be raced. It also adds a guaranteed date for the second weekend in March for the next three years.
An earlier version of the agreement allowed the city to choose preferred dates, but did not guarantee a time frame. That left the city with less time to prepare residents and get the area ready.
In the past downtown residents have complained there are too many road closures for too long in the area. Because the track takes time to assemble and disassemble, some roadways were sometimes closed for several weeks. The new agreement reduces setup time by four days, minimizing the impact to residents.
“Any time that we can carve out of that is a benefit to the community as a whole,” Ballestra said.
There is also a new provision that pays the city $1.00 for every ticket sold above 140,000. That’s a threshold Ballestra estimated has been reached in at least three of the past five years and one of those years was a rain-out. Last year’s attendance broke records.
But not everyone was entirely sold on the deal. City Council member Wengay Newton, an oft-vocal force on council, challenged Ballestra about how much the city really gained from the Grand Prix.
And Jim Kennedy suggested an alternative. He said he researched creating a city “sports corporation” that would allow the city to run the Grand Prix and not a third-party organization, thus maximizing the city’s profits.
“We’re talking about the city of St. Petersburg from 2018 through 2020,” Kennedy said. “I acknowledge it’s not the job of this council to negotiate, but I don’t feel as if we have had the opportunity to fully evaluate the concept of a sports corp., what it can do for the city and how we can then control our own destiny and make more money.”
Council members were not opposed to looking into such an arrangement, but most expressed concern over whether not the timing was appropriate and whether the city was equipped to handle such an undertaking.
“We may not have the competence or the expertise to do this yet,” said City Councilwoman Darden Rice.
Even Mayor Rick Kriseman popped down from his upstairs office to squash the idea.
“[Indy Car has] no interest in dealing with a different entity,” Kriseman said.
He noted that they want to continue as is and worked hard negotiating with the city to do so because the race has been so successful. And under the third-party management model, the city shifts its potential financial burden for hosting the race to Green Savoree.
“If we were running this race and we had a rain out like they had in New Orleans, than our taxpayers are on the hook,” Kriseman explained.
Amy Foster suggested an alternative compromise that would have extended the contract to 2018 instead of 2020. That effort was ultimately voted down with only council members Newton, Karl Nurse and Kennedy voting in favor of it.
Kennedy was the only council member to vote against the original motion to approve a contract extension through 2020.
