MLB's "uncertain future in Tampa Bay has grown more complicated" after the St. Petersburg City Council on Thursday "rejected an agreement negotiated by Mayor Rick Kriseman that would have given" the Rays three years to explore ballpark sites in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, according to a front-page piece by Nohlgren, Stanley & Frago of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. Council members "got their backs up when Rays president Brian Auld refused to yield an iota on development rights on Tropicana Field and other issues." Council member Darden Rice, who voted for the agreement, said that the Rays "blew the deal with their presentation." Rice: "It was either tone deafness or arrogance." The vote was a "stunning setback for Kriseman, who had lobbied council members heavily, trying to convince them that the deal would keep the team in the Tampa Bay area for decades to come, if not St. Petersburg." What happens next is "anything but clear." Auld "refused to answer questions after the meeting, instead issuing a terse statement." Several council members said that it was councilmember Karl Nurse's "questioning about development rights that turned the tide on what was otherwise a close vote." Nurse wants to "start leasing and developing property on the eastern part of the Trop's 85 acres." Under the current agreement, both the city and Rays "would have to agree to any development and would split profits from land sales or leases." Council member Amy Foster said, "The deal breaker for me was the idea that they want us to abide by the use agreement for redevelopment purposes, where they can benefit, but they didn't want to abide by the use agreement'' by staying at the Trop (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 12/19).
DIFFERENT ATTITUDE NEEDED? MLB.com's Adam Berry wrote the Rays remain "bound to the terms of their use agreement at Tropicana Field" until '27, but it is "unclear what comes next in this long-running saga" (MLB.com, 12/19). Council member Jim Kennedy said of Auld, "He didn't just say no, he said hell no. It was a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, and that's not the best way to do business.'' St. Petersburg City Attorney John Wolfe said, "I was watching the faces of council members, and Auld lost a lot of their votes at that moment.'' In Tampa, John Romano writes the Rays "recognize the redevelopment profits are extremely valuable, and that's probably why Auld was so curt when Nurse asked him about it" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 12/19).
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS: A TAMPA BAY TIMES editorial is written under the header, "St. Petersburg's Minor League City Council." The City Council "succumbed to fear, parochialism and short-sighted thinking Thursday by rejecting a fair agreement." The five council members who killed the deal "did not act in the best interests of their constituents, demonstrated a lack of faith in the city's renaissance and jeopardized the future" of MLB in Tampa Bay. The council members "turned their back on the region, and they sent a strong signal" to MLB that they would "rather the Rays move to Montreal than Tampa." They "failed to grasp the realities that have long framed this stadium issue." If the Rays "leave Tampa Bay one day, remember which five council members are to blame" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 12/19). MLB.com's Phil Rogers said this decision “makes this team more likely to look outside the Tampa Bay area than they were before the council took that vote." Rogers: "There is no question one of the big frustrations [MLB Commissioner] Bud Selig has had as he leaves office is not being able to get the stadium situations resolved for the A’s and the Rays. They are both in untenable situations. [Commissioner-elect] Rob Manfred will have to deal with that” (“Hot Stove,” MLBN, 11/19).
