Council votes 7-1 to move Rays' plans forward

[BullsWinBucsWin]

http://blogs.tampabay.com/ballpark/

June 05, 2008

Council votes 7-1 to move Rays' plans forward

The City Council just voted 7-1 to move the Rays stadium plan forward. Herb Polson is the lone no. A second vote is scheduled July 17.

The council is in session. They have a few other unrelated legal items to tackle before taking up the stadium issue. We'll be back here once the talk turns to the stadium.

UPDATE: While we wait, here's a lay of the land real quick. Norm Brown, president of the local NAACP branch is here, as is chamber CEO John Long. For the Rays, Matt Silverman and Michael lead a six-to-seven person contingent. Barbara Heck is here representing CONA. Will Michaels (St. Pete Preservation) is here. As are Hal Freedman and Hamilton Hanson from POWW.

UPDATES: Here we go. Leslie Curran starts by asking Matt Silverman to postpone the stadium question. Silverman says, politely, no. City administrator Rick Mussett is now taking the podium to go through details of the process.

City internal services administrator Mike Connors just gave a report at the environmental conditions at Tropicana Field. He estimated the maximum clean-up costs would not exceed $94,000 (excluding soft costs). "If it’s that modest, it might be something we do and get done with," council member Karl Nurse, whether or not the Rays' plan moves forward.

The talk is now turning to financing. City economic development official Joe Zeoli is now going through the Hines and Archstone-Madison redevelopment proposals. Neither proposal, right now, includes a sales price that would cover all of the existing debt at Tropicana Field. The Archstone proposal is $2.3-million -to-$3.135-million short. The Hines proposal is short between $4-million-to-$5.8-million. The city is still negotiating with the devevelopers on a purchase price.

"I believe we're in striking distance of accomplishing that objective," Zeoli said about paying off the Tropicana Field debt.

* The council is now doing it's 'we're mad and frustrated by the process speech.' They're taking some of the frustration out on the Rays and some of their frustration out on city staff. Mayor Rick Baker said Herb Polson was barking. Polson responded, "If I choose to bark, you will hear it." Leslie Curran just called the Rays bull-headed.

* Danner moved approval of moving forward; Newton seconds... It's Jamie Bennett's turn to talk. I think we're going to have a 7-1 vote.

7-1 it is. Polson alone voting no.

[Triple B]

It's will still have to get past the voters of Pinellas, won't it? .................. and it won't.

[Bullshiznitz]

It's will still have to get past the voters of Pinellas, won't it? .................. and it won't.

Well, more specifically, the voters of St. Pete.  And unfortunately, because of the vocal blue hairs that live in the city, who have zero foresight, it probably will be defeated.  Its extraordinarly sad in my opinion.  This decision will set the city of St. Pete back into the 1980's.  For a city thats trying to progress to the point of becoming THE city on the bay (as opposed to Tampa), this will kill any hopes of that.  The Rays won't survive but maybe another 6-8 years in the Trop, and without the hopes of a new stadium they'll bolt to the first viable city.  The city will be left with no major sports teams, no spring training teams, no major college games, and most likely will lose the newly formed bowl game as well.  Yeaa, but instead they'll have another waterfront park that no one will go to.  >

[BullsWinBucsWin]

I wouldn't be so sure about it not getting past the voters.  Right now it certainly doesn't look good, but a lot can happen in the next couple months.  I remember being pretty sure that RJS wasn't going to be built and that the Bucs were going to be moving to Baltimore or wherever it was. 

I would like to see the stadium deal get done.  I don't like the idea of new owners holding the Rays over our heads like that, but hey, they bought the team and they hold all the cards.  Unfortunately, loyalty to an area is not something that is prevalent in today's world of pro sports (business).

[flsportsfan83]

It still has to get past the same group once more, and it seems as if they may be some funding issues. The Rays originally said no tax payer dollars, and have started to back pedel. I think it should go to the voters. Personally I think that any team that gets tax payer dollars to build a stadium is a sham. I hope it fails. There is no reason taxpayers should pay to build a building for a private business.

[Joe]

Screw that. The stadium is a ripoff.

I'd like to see more than 60 games worth of good baseball before they can go barking for 300 Million after the city just spent millins 10 years ago redoing the trop.

[Triple B]

It's will still have to get past the voters of Pinellas, won't it? .................. and it won't.

Well, more specifically, the voters of St. Pete.  And unfortunately, because of the vocal blue hairs that live in the city, who have zero foresight, it probably will be defeated.  Its extraordinarly sad in my opinion.  This decision will set the city of St. Pete back into the 1980's.   For a city thats trying to progress to the point of becoming THE city on the bay (as opposed to Tampa), this will kill any hopes of that.  The Rays won't survive but maybe another 6-8 years in the Trop, and without the hopes of a new stadium they'll bolt to the first viable city.  The city will be left with no major sports teams, no spring training teams, no major college games, and most likely will lose the newly formed bowl game as well.  Yeaa, but instead they'll have another waterfront park that no one will go to.   >

Wow, I didn't realize it was just the city of St Pete ..... There is NO way in hell it passes, then.... and if that's the case, hopefully somewhere else in the Bay area becomes a viable option.