At some point, key St. Petersburg officials will surely see that when it comes to finding a permanent home for the Tampa Bay Rays, Hillsborough County interests aren’t so much meddling – as they are engaging on an issue of overwhelming regional importance. Surely.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and the City Council should, along with the Rays and the ABC Coalition, be part of the creative, pragmatic brain-storming aimed at keeping the home team in the Tampa Bay market. Instead the irrational, head-in-the-sand St. Pete officials have behaved as if that 2027 Trop lease is sacrosanct and Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Ken Hagan is a saboteur because he invited the ABC Coalition to make a regional stadium-site presentation. And ABC, it should be noted, consists largely of Pinellas-county based executives – and was formed by former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker.
This need not — indeed, must not — be a zero-sum game: downtown St. Petersburg – take it or leave it. An out-of-state market would take it. The “San Antonio Rays” would be the most likely legacy of such an exercise in provincial ego, obstinacy and stupidity.
That the regional Rays are ill-served by a (downtown St. Petersburg) facility on the western fringe of a demographically skewed marketplace is manifestly evident. That the Rays will not remain where they are through 2027 is a foregone reality to everyone but St. Pete operatives who still won’t even meet with ABC.
Two recent quotes are illustrative of the Rays’ situation.
- “And I stated since the very first day I came in to anybody who would ask, and I was asked quite often, we’re not going to be there (Trop) through 2027. It just can’t happen. Baseball won’t allow it. Our partners in baseball won’t allow it. The other teams won’t allow it. And it’s just not the right thing for our organization, and quite frankly it’s not the right thing for our population.” – Rays’ owner Stuart Sternberg.
- “It boggles my mind that there is room for debate. They need a new stadium.” – Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.
Obviously there will be no Trop-based Rays in 2027. Obviously there will be no Trop-based Rays well in advance of that. And common sense, let alone the findings of the ABC Coalition, are graphic reminders that downtown St. Pete, Trop scenarios notwithstanding, is not an acceptable stadium site in this challenging, hybrid market.
What also is unacceptable is an ongoing, cavalier approach by St. Petersburg officials that pits their perverse, parochial pride against the vested interest of the entire region. Everyone benefits if the Rays remain; the most conservative estimate of the franchise’s economic impact on the area is in excess of $160 million annually. Nobody wins if all that remains from a relocated franchise is the blame game.
Sure, the financial scenarios inherent in any viable plan to keep the Rays in Tampa Bay are more than problematic. Whether the sites are Channelside, the Florida Fairgrounds or St. Pete’s more politically palatable Gateway area. But all the more reason that narrow, counterproductive thinking cannot be countenanced.