Community Voices: Let the Rays relocate to Tampa

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Will Ken Welch be the mayor that loses the Tampa Bay Rays? Will Jane Castor be the mayor that wins the Rays?

Both mayors characterize themselves as being “collaborators.” Below I suggest a plan to enable them to demonstrate that quality.

This plan is offered to suggest a path to resolution that could result in the Rays remaining in our region, if our political leadership, business leadership and the Rays can all bend a lot while recognizing reality.

Here are some facts:

1) The Rays baseball product has been, for the last decade, phenomenal, outperforming what should be reasonably expected.

2) The Rays attendance has been, for the last decade, dismal, consistently in the bottom three of all of MLB.

3) Rays ownership is tired of St. Petersburg, its leaders and a perceived lack of appreciation from the public. They’re over us.

5) Major League Baseball is also tired of us. They told us back before the beginning not to build a stadium but we did it anyway. MLB then buckled and awarded St. Petersburg a franchise. They soon regretted it.

6) MLB has declared Tampa to be the demographic epicenter of the Tampa Bay region. They have decided that a new stadium in St. Petersburg will not fulfill the attendance requirements of a successful franchise. Maybe for a couple of years a new stadium will attract above normal attendance, but when the novelty wears off, attendance will revert to the mean.

7) In spite of an early Rays plan to build an open air stadium to enhance viewing potential on the water, the proposed sail shades and fans will not mitigate the highest humidity in the country nor the high temperature. As one who grew up in Florida, it doesn’t take a Masters degree in meteorology to know that the only thing that works for viewing comfort in the summer is air conditioning. This requires an enclosed dome, which is passé, or a retractable roof.

The only real reason for an open air stadium design is to lower construction costs from $1 billion+ to $700 million+. The Rays won’t allow the mistake to be made again of agreeing to play in a stadium built on the cheap. They will insist on every modern luxury that other cities provide their teams. Expert stadium engineers and architects will claim that a retractable roof stadium can be built for under $1 billion. That claim serves the needs of who pays them to say so. Name a massive municipal construction project that has come in on budget in this century.

8) The Rays say that they will pay 1/2 of the cost of a new stadium. So, if we spend 1/2 of $1 billion ($500 million) on a new stadium in St. Petersburg and attendance increases minimally, the new stadium will be declared a failure and the finger pointing begins. Critically, it will be the St. Pete and Pinellas taxpayers that take the hit for the payments.

9) Ken Welch has more experience than anyone in Tampa Bay in understanding the way money flows into County coffers. I’m confident that he can design a plan to provide cash to fund a stadium. The question, however, is that even though he, with cooperation from City Council and County Commissioners, can get the cash, should he do so? Is this the best use of public money? Just because you have the money, should you spend it in that way? How much benefit in alleviating homelessness, hunger, illness and educational weakness could Pinellas and St. Pete get with $500 million? 

10) If the Rays use agreement expires the Rays ownership loses ALL development rights to the Tropicana Field site. This is no small deal as those partial rights could be worth $1 Billion or more over the next twenty years. If no stadium deal is made and the agreement expires, all the future development money goes to the City of St. Petersburg.