John Romano: A stadium in St. Petersburg may not be ideal, but it's a lifesaver for Rays fans
Published in Baseball
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Thirty years later, bay area baseball fans are getting a do-over.
After seeing more than 4,000 games, mourning the inevitable trading of stars, and enduring endless ridicule from around the nation, Tampa Bay is getting a second chance at being big league.
By a 5-2 vote, the Pinellas Board of County Commissioners approved its share of the funding for a $1.3 billion stadium for the Rays on Tuesday. Coupled with the St. Petersburg City Council’s approval two weeks ago, one of the most maligned communities in Major League Baseball history will get another 30-plus years to continue growing its fan base.
“Any other vote today, other than the outcome we had, would have said that this community made a mistake 30 years ago. And I don’t believe that for a second,” commissioner Brian Scott said. “The Rays are part of the fabric and culture, not only in St. Pete, but also the Tampa Bay region.
“I think we’re going to look back in 20, 25, 30 years from now and say this was an incredible thing.”
It’s OK to cross your fingers on that. Particularly if you’ve had an entire row to yourself for a Rays game at Tropicana Field. Never has a team succeeded so much on the field and tanked so badly at the gate as Tampa Bay’s star-crossed franchise.
There may be an abundance of reasons but a surprising dearth of empathy. From the time a proposed waterfront stadium in downtown St. Pete was dismissed in 2008, the specter of relocation has haunted Rays fans season after season.
There was talk of a stadium in Ybor City, and another near the water at Channelside. They kicked around the idea of a ballpark off the Hillsborough River and the possibility of a privately-built stadium in Carillon. We even endured a year listening to a sister city plan with Montreal before MLB owners killed the idea.
So now, after all the angst and outrage, the Rays will rebuild on the same plot of land that has been their home since 1998.
How do the Rays sell that idea to skeptics who claim St. Pete is the problem?
“The first thing I’d say is that we’ve had phenomenal success building a franchise, winning on the field, developing players and growing our fan base,” said Rays president Brian Auld. “We’ve always acknowledged that we need to do better but I do not want to be dismissive of the fans that have done such a wonderful job supporting us.
“The fact that local leaders, by approving this deal, have told us that they trust us with these resources, with their home team, with the future of this redevelopment is an incredible responsibility that will weigh on us heavily.”
The short version of that argument is this:
Downtown St. Pete has undergone a remarkable renaissance since 1998, the redevelopment around the stadium will turn it into a destination site similar to the Battery in Atlanta, a generation of fans have grown up with the team and the stadium’s pavilion-style design is infinitely better than the warehouse feel of Tropicana Field.
At least, that’s the $1.3 billion bet that St. Pete ($287.5 million), Pinellas County ($312.5 million) and the Rays ($700 million) have combined to make.
The county’s portion was a much easier sell than the city because the money is coming from hotel taxes that, by law, can only be used for marketing and redevelopment. And county projections say property taxes from the redevelopment will eventually turn the deal into a profit for Pinellas taxpayers. Not to mention, the Rays will be on the hook for any cost overruns and future upkeep of the stadium.
“The attorneys on this project, they just tied a lot of nice little bows to make sure that there’s accountability to the Rays throughout the entire process and entire project,” said commission chair Kathleen Peters. “I’m confident in that contract.”
In the end, St. Pete needed this more than Tampa. And the Rays needed the revenues they will gain from the redevelopment of acres of parking lots to fund their portion of the new ballpark. And Major League Baseball was happy to stay in a major media market and avoid another messy episode like the proposed move of the Athletics from Oakland to Las Vegas.
It isn’t a perfect solution, but it is logical.
And for baseball fans in Tampa Bay — and, yes, there are more than you know — it is a relief to know the team they have grown to love is not going anywhere anytime soon.
“There were moments along the way when it felt like this day might never come,” Auld said. “It’s a great feeling knowing that the team will be here in the future for us, for our fans, for the community. Throughout the entire process, we remained steadfast that we wanted to stay in Tampa Bay.”
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