Six months from now, it's possible that the tedium of the Tampa Bay Rays stadium saga will be just a memory.
Team officials met with leaders in Tampa Tuesday to talk about potential sites within the city, reports the Tampa Bay Times. While they didn't offer many specifics afterward, they did acknowledge that some of the prospective locales that have been previously talked about are on the list of nine sites.
Those confirmed sites include the area between downtown and Ybor City currently occupied by Tampa Park Apartments, a low-income housing complex, as well as the Florida State Fairgrounds and a spot along the Hillsborough River just north of I-275.
Also discussed were potential means by which local and state governments can pay for the new stadium, such as the bed tax and money that's being raised solely for the redevelopment of downtown Tampa.
The team might fork over some of its money as well for its stadium, but it wouldn't be a stretch to assume taxpayers aren't going to come away from the deal cheaply. Sports teams are incredibly adept at convincing cities and counties that spending hundreds of millions on a new stadium will have a magical effect on the local economy.
And, as WTSP's Noah Pransky points out on his blog Shadow of the Stadium, wherever that money comes from, someone else is probably going to get the shaft.
It's unclear whether similar talks are going to happen in Pinellas County and within the city of St. Petersburg anytime soon.
Rays president Brian Auld told the Times the team could have a decision on a site as early as the end of the current season.
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 2, 2016.
