Alright Rays fans (or concerned taxpayers), today is the day. After postponing it one week, St. Pete City Council members will vote whether or not to approve a deal brokered by Mayor Rick Kriseman with the Tampa Bay Rays to allow the franchise to begin looking at stadium locations outside the city in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
The plan includes a depreciating annual compensation starting at $4 million a year that will be paid to the city IF the Rays play baseball somewhere else in either two counties. By generous estimates, that total amount would be about $24 million, but it would more likely be $17 million considering the amount of time it would take the team to find a new location, negotiate an agreement with that city or county and then build a stadium.
Many residents and business owners see this as a pretty bum deal for the city especially because the agreement doesn’t require the Rays to pay an immediate fee for looking as former Mayor Bill Foster had promised he would require. Expect at least one prominent business owner, Mark Ferguson, who owns Ferg’s Sports Bar and Grill across the street from the Trop, to speak against the deal at today’s meeting. Ferguson spoke on 970 WFLA after the deal was announced saying he was adamantly opposed to it because it was a rip-off for the city.
The possible monkey wrench in the whole deal is the Rays’ insistence that any changes to the deal will drive them away from the table. Translation, it’s this or nothing. The question now remains, will the City Council call their bluff (if there is one) or will they take what they can get and let the Rays start looking?
Mayor Kriseman has continued to emphasize that the priority it protecting taxpayers while also protecting baseball in Tampa Bay, even if that means it’s outside of St. Petersburg.
The City Council meeting starts at 3 p.m. at City Hall in City Council chambers. It’s televised on St. Pete TV on channel 615 on Brighthouse, 15 on WOW! and 20 on Verizon FiOS. It’s also available on the city’s website.
