St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman confirmed Tuesday morning that he would like to allow the Tampa Bay Rays to explore potential sites for a new stadium.
A memorandum of understanding signed by Kriseman and team execs would let the team look at other sites, Kriseman said at a press conference at the Trop, but only in Hillsborough and Pinellas.
And it wouldn't be cheap for the team to leave city limits. In order to play home games outside of St. Pete before the Trop contract expires in 2027, the Rays would have to pay millions per year.
The mayor said the city will be ready in the event of the team's departure, but also if it decides to stay.
“As the Rays evaluate Pinellas and Hillsborough County, my team at City Hall will be diligent in not just thinking about the future of this site without baseball, but preparing for the Rays to remain here in St. Pete,” Kriseman said. “We reached a point that we felt was a good deal and a fair deal for the city of St. Petersburg, one that the Rays obviously were able to accept also.”
Kriseman said he wanted to make it clear that he is not giving the Rays up to Tampa, and that he thinks the Rays could come to the conclusion that they want to stay put.
“We are not ceding the Rays to Hillsborough. St. Petersburg is a city on the rise," he said. "Thousands of residential units are being added to our downtown. Businesses are thriving. Through our arts scene, the Firestone Grand Prix, the Blue Ocean Film Festival and acclaim from the New York Times and others, we are raising our international profile.”
Although there was nothing in terms of specifics on where or when the team's search may begin, the MOU is a relatively big move forward on an issue that has since at least 2009 been stagnant.
“Today marks a significant step forward," said Rays president Brian Auld. "But this is just the beginning of a long process. Together as a region and as a community we can now begin seeking a solution to the future of this great organization.”
While the agreement is probably the most substantive news in years regarding the Rays stadium saga, the deal is by no means done.
On Thursday, Kriseman will ask St. Petersburg City Council to endorse the agreement during its regular meeting. Council chair Karl Nurse, who was at Tuesday's conference, said he wasn't completely on board.
“I'm looking forward to really getting the conversation started," Nurse said. "We've been in neutral for, really, four years…I think St. Pete could make a pretty good argument that St. Pete is still a pretty good place for a stadium, particularly as you look at the alternatives and see how difficult they are.”
He said he'd like to see one small change to the agreement.
"I'm not going to vote for it in the way it's written today, because currently it says essentially City Council votes yes for tomorrow, and then you have no part in the future discussions," he said. "But I think they'll agree to that change.”
During a Q&A with the press, Kriseman had to address whether he was concerned about the stadium issue pitting Tampa and St. Pete against each other. He gave an interesting answer.
“I don't think this is going to be a Hillsborough versus Pinellas issue," he said. "The Rays are going to…evaluate the various areas that they're interested in and determine feasibility. My personal belief is that when they get done with their evaluations, what they're going to find is that the best place for them to play is right here in St. Pete, and potentially here at this site.”
At a press conference held in Tampa Tuesday afternoon, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn also said it's not a Tampa versus St. Pete issue.
“Mayor Kriseman and I knew this day would come," he said. “We are big believers in regionalism, big believers in not engaging in sort of the, bickering that took place historically, the parochialism. We're not going to do that.”
While he stressed a regional approach, he said his personal preference would be a site in downtown Tampa.
“My preference from day one, when no one cared what I thought, has always been for a stadium in the urban core," he said. “There will be a number of sites that will be forthcoming, some that I know about, some that I don't.”
One of those sites, he said, is a development between downtown and Ybor City that is currently home to Section 8 housing, the Tampa Park Plaza apartments.
St. Petersburg City Council is slated to discuss the MOU Thursday. Earlier Tuesday, reports The Tampa Tribune's Roger Mooney, Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said if the council doesn't approve the agreement, it would not bode well for the team – which he would sell if there were no stadium plan – staying in Tampa Bay.
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2014.