We began monitoring this meeting expecting to be in it for the long haul, perhaps till after midnight or so, watching as council members iterate, reiterate and re-reiterate their positions on the Most. Important. Issue. Ever.: the Tampa Bay Rays.
But the meeting lasted just over an hour, and at the end, a decision was made.
The decision was to pitch (baseball puns! Yes!) a stadium deal to the team that would require them to pay more money if they left St. Petersburg before 2027, when they won't be contractually bound to play at the Trop anymore, than an agreement brokered between Mayor Rick Kriseman and the team last year would have required.
Councilman Jim Kennedy brokered this one, and it would require the team to pay $5 million to demolish the Trop and $4 million a year if they leave before 2027. That could amount to twice the amount the team would pay under Kriseman's proposal, which the council rejected last year because to most of them, it wasn't enough.
It's not in the council's purview to directly negotiate with the team, but Kriseman said he would bring it to the team and ask if it's acceptabe.
"If you pass something today I will, in good faith, bring that offer to the Rays and present it to them," he said.
He said while he thinks the Rays, if allowed to play in Hillsborough, would ultimately opt to stay in St. Pete, given how awesome it is, he's not so sure the team is going to have much of a response.
"I will tell you I am concerned," he said. "It has been almost a year since we took our first vote. And typically, as time passes, deals don't get better."
The three council members who gave Kennedy's proposal a thumbs-down were Darden Rice, Amy Foster and Charlie Gerdes, who had a proposal of his own on the table.
Those who supported it echoed the mayor's concerns about time being of the essence, especially since money at the county level — bed tax dollars — could go away before the city has chance to even ask for it.
"If we don't get off the dime and get this conversation started, the county will move their money elsewhere. And if they move the tourist development money elsewhere, we really, to a very large degree, end the conversation about the ability to build a stadium," said Councilman Karl Nurse. "We can't stay stuck in neutral on this because the money is leaving."
It's unclear how the Rays will respond, or if they will at all. Tampa Bay Times reporter Charlie Frago noted that he spotted Rays attorney John Higgins in the audience, but he left right after the meeting was adjourned and didn't speak to anybody.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2015.