The lead story in Wednesday's USA Today sports section is all about how some of the leading contenders for the American League playoffs all are among the worst teams in Major League Baseball in terms of home attendance.
The story features the situations in St. Petersburg, Cleveland and Oakland, where all three teams are struggling horribly to get over 15,000 to attend important late September games this week.
Towards the end of the piece there is this paragraph:
The A's and Rays — who are last in the majors in attendance — realize they have to move, Wolff says, if they are ever going to attract fans. They no intention of leaving the state, but are convinced it's impossible to win if they remain in the same locale. Rays owner Stu Sternberg finally conceded last month and embraced Commissioner Bud Selig's invitation to intercede in their stadium lease dispute.
At Tuesday night's Mayoral debate at Nova 535, I asked Mayor Bill Foster about his comment to the Tampa Bay Times editorial board in early August that questioned whether Tampa Bay was a major league region.
But before that, I asked him why the change in philosophy in deciding on allowing the Rays to talk to officials in Hillsborough County about a possible stadium over there? Though it appeared that might happen, recently Foster said the Rays' have been putting up objections that he believes are coming from MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.
"As a leader you have to adapt when issues and circumstances when things change," Foster explained Tuesday night. "What the conversation turned into was, 'Okay we're going to be here until 2027. Do you want 2028? Do you want 2038? Do you want 2048? Do you want the Rays in Tampa Bay with your kids for generations to come?' And I said yes. And so the only way you can have those discussions would be generations of baseball in Tampa Bay was to acknowledge that the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County would be at the table."
"Now I've been accused of flip-flopping on that, but the circumstances changed, and they recognizing the investment by the taxpayers of St. Petersburg that will always be paramount, that while there will be no negating or no deviation from the protections of the contract, so making sure that the taxpayers are protected, BUT, making sure that we keep the Rays here for generations to come, so that's how the conversation evolved. I am convinced now that 29 owners and the Commissioner of Baseball have no interest in keeping MLB in Tampa Bay, I'll explain that in my rebuttal."
Kriseman responded that initially by saying he does believe Tampa Bay is a major league region. He then said, "Let me be clear on this: my number one priority is to as mayor of the city of St. Petersburg is to keep the Rays in St. Petersburg and to protect the taxpayers of St. Petersburg. We have invested a lot of money and a lot of heart and soul into that team and some people gave up their homes and their businesses for that stadium to be built. So my first priority is to do everything I can to protect the taxpayers. Now having said that, and I've been very consistent on this. If the Rays are insistent that there is nothing we can do to help them be successful here in that present location then I would be in favor of allowing them to look at sites within the Tampa Bay region so that we keep them here within the region. However if they decide to do that, there will be a price that they will have to pay and if they decide to leave, it will cost them."
Foster replied,"Well the beauty of being mayor is that I've been at the table with Mr. (Stuart) Sternberg, and (Matt) Silverman and (Michael Kalt), and all gentlemen throughout this entire process. But let's be very clear: the only way to protect the interests of the taxpayers fully is to not mess around with the contract. Now I was willing to look at that, with the risks vs. reward were there. But I believe that Tampa Bay is a major-league region. I don't believe that 29 owners, excluding Mr. (Stuart) Sternberg, and the Commissioner of Baseball actually believe that. And if you play with fire, you can get burned."
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2013.