New Year, new proposed Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal with the City of St. Petersburg.
Following speculation that a Rays deal was coming down the pike this week, Mayor Rick Kriseman and St. Petersburg City Council Chair Amy Foster announced a proposal that would allow the baseball team to explore potential stadium sites in Hillsborough County before 2027, the year the team's agreement to play in Tropicana Field ends.
It's the third proposal of its kind since December of 2014, when a skeptical City Council torpedoed a similar deal because it appeared to benefit the team, which is flush with cash, more than the city, which is not flush with cash.
This deal is different, Kriseman says, because it could potentially fill the city's coffers a little more while creating an incentive for the team to stay.
"I think what we are trying to achieve…one, is to try to keep baseball in St. Petersburg, and two, protecting our taxpayers in making sure that there's a real value," Kriseman said. "I think we've accomplished that."
The biggest difference is probably that the team would not be able to share in the money made off the redevelopment of the stadium site unless it stays put.
And, similar to the initial deal, if the team does take off, it has to give the city millions, depending on how far ahead of 2027 it leaves: $4 million yearly if it leaves in 2018, $3 million each year between 2019 and 2022, $2 million annually between 2023 and 2026.
Foster said she didn't want to speculate on whether a majority of her colleagues on council are on board with the deal. A shift on the council in terms of the number who would view such a deal favorably came about with the election of Councilwoman Lisa Wheeler-Brown in November.
Foster herself was skeptical about the previous agreements, but she said the city's relationship with the team has taken a turn for the positive.
"I also feel like the entire process this time with the Rays has been different," Foster said. "They really are focused on being a community partner and making sure that council is comfortable and has the time to deliberate and is available to answer questions."
Here are some other key details on the deal:
The team will have to pay up to $100,000 to go halves with the city on a "master plan" for the Trop site (which, just speaking personally here, we hope will include a Whole Foods).
The team must conduct its search for a minimum of six months so that St. Pete can pay a bunch of consultants to find out how much money the team would make if it does stay at the Trop and partake in the proceeds reaped from the megadevelopment on the site.
The Trop, although basically in the real estate equivalent of the friend zone, still must be included in the team's evaluation of all potential stadium sites.
In exchange, the team gets a few things:
The Rays don't have to tell St. Pete the intricate details of their search, but rather they'll have to "provide (the city) with a general description of the process to be used by the club in evaluating potential stadium sites." That means, if the team wants to rank potential Tampa stadium sites in part by, say, proximity to strip clubs, it is free to do so. In theory.
The team also won't have to give St. Pete quarterly progress reports, which is surely a bummer for local news outlets.
If they decide to stay on the site beyond 2027 (and build a modern, non-domey stadium on 15 acres there), the Rays get to share about half of the proceeds earned on the development of the site. But if the team terminates its agreement and leaves before 2027, it gets nothin'.
That last point likely eases some of the concerns of council members who were put off by the initial deal, which gave the team half the development money no matter what it did.
"By allowing us to work on the redevelopment of the site immediately and by taking away the piece where we…have to split the money with the team if they leave, that's a big positive by providing an incentive for the Rays to stay," Kriseman said.
This article appears in Jan 7-13, 2016.