St. Pete City Council voted unanimously to hold another workshop to discuss Mayor Rick Kriseman’s updated Memorandum of Understanding with the Rays.
Council Chair Charlie Gerdes declined to schedule a council vote on the updated agreement aimed at letting the Major League Baseball team start exploring possible stadium sites in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. But council member Karl Nurse moved to hold a workshop discussing the latest negotiation.
The workshop is aimed at giving council members the chance to air their ongoing concerns with the mayor’s agreement. The update included only a patch to concerns over development rights.
In the updated agreement, the city would retain 100 percent of the rights if the Rays decided to leave Tropicana Field before their contract is up in 2027. They would waive their claim to half of the revenue from development on the site as soon as they signed a termination agreement, even if that occurred before they left the Trop.
There is also an added provision to require the Rays to lay out specific criteria for looking for a new stadium site and to include St. Pete in their search.
There is no increase in the amount of compensation the team would have to pay the city for breaking the lease or for searching. Without the MOU the Rays are contractually banned from discussing possible new sites.
Council members are expected to address other concerns during a meeting – the largest of which likely being monetary compensation.
Council member Steve Kornell has said he will not support a new MOU if it did not include greater compensation for the city.
During public comment at Thursday’s City Council meeting, two people spoke in favor of council hitting the brakes on an MOU agreement and instead taking the matter to workshop.
“It’s a stalemate that needs to be broken and I couldn’t agree more,” St. Pete resident Evan Jones said of Karl Nurse’s workshop ask.
Jones noted that the Rays were recently pegged as one of baseball’s most well-off franchises.
Another vocal City Council commenter, Dan Harvey, often wears a shirt saying to keep the Rays in St. Pete. But even he was OK with holding off on a vote for the MOU.
“The best deal you could make is not make a deal right now,” Harvey said.
However, in a graphic sent to council members by Kriseman highlighting changes in the updated MOU he pointed out that if the deal isn’t approved it would likely mean the Rays leave the entire region, not just St. Pete.
And the Tampa Bay Times slammed the five council members who voted no on the original MOU.
Gerdes decided not to move forward with a vote because it was not clear that they’d have the support to approve the MOU.
Council did not set a date for the workshop, but asked that it be “as soon as possible.”
They plan to invite a representative from the Rays, but it’s unclear whether or not someone will show.
