It was reported yesterday that the Rays would be announcing a plan for a proposed new stadium in St. Petersburg today, and Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times relayed the details of the festivities.
The stadium itself will cost $1.3 billion but is part of a larger redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District site, where Tropicana Field is already located, which will cost $6.5 billion overall. Despite the announcement, the financing hasn’t quite been finalized just yet. The Rays are covering more than half of the $1.3 billion price tag for the stadium, approximately $700MM. That leaves $600MM to be covered by the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.
That structure has been agreed to by the Rays, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Pinellas County administrator Barry Burton, but it still needs to be approved by the city council and the county commission. Assuming that comes to pass and everything gets rubber stamped, the Rays will sign a 30-year lease that starts with the 2028 season. The stadium will seat around 30,000 under a fixed roof, with artificial turf on the field and “operable walls to bring the outside in.”
As for the wider development, Topkin relays that it includes “14,000 parking spaces; 4,800 market rate residential units, plus 600 at affordable/work force prices and 600 for seniors; 1.4 million square feet of office and medical space; 750 hotel rooms; 750,000 square feet of retail space; a concert venue with a capacity of 3,000-4,000; and a new home for the Woodson African American Museum of Florida.” Michael Harrison of Hines, the real estate firm the Rays have partnered with, says that about 20% of the total project will be complete when the stadium opens in 2028.
Despite the stadium upgrades, there are still concerns around the location. Many have previously cited the fact that the Trop is far away from downtown Tampa and not easily accessible as one of the reasons for the club’s persistently low attendance. This new proposal would see the club stay on essentially the same site, but team president Brian Auld doesn’t seem to share those concerns. “One of the things I’ve said multiple times is we’re in the same location as we were five years ago, but I really do feel like we’re in a different city,” Auld said. “There are so many (new condos and apartment buildings) all across the city, and all across this region, that I do believe it has fundamentally changed this region’s, and this city’s, ability to support our team.” Auld added that Major League Baseball is already on board with the proposal.
As for the next steps towards making everything official, Topkin relays that the expectation is that the Pinellas County commission will vote soon, perhaps before the end of the year. The city would then follow early in 2024.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has long stated that the league wants to expand from 30 to 32 teams, but that the Athletics and Rays need to resolve their respective stadium situations before that can really be considered. The A’s have a plan in place to relocate to Las Vegas, with an ownership vote on that likely to come in November. With the Rays potentially finalizing their financing plan not too long after that, the ingredients could be place for future expansion just a few months from now.
Let the know it alls begin posting…
Fake grass should be outlawed by MLB and a beautiful, lush place like Florida, should be embarrassed by using fake grass.
Do you know of a way to grow real grass in a building?
Ever been to a greenhouse? All of FL is a humidor already.
That would make the stadium hot and humid, which probably won’t be appealing to fans for a three hour game…sorry, 2 hour and 38 minute game.
You can still use the concept, letting more light in. Point is: you can grow grass indoors — or at least something that doesn’t continue to turning athletes into Eric Davis (shortening a career by prolonged play on turf). Acuña now has had to miss 2 different series in MIA this year because of being weary of his repaired knee on that surface (in which he tore is ACL in 2021).
This last series was the first time Acuna has missed time this year and that was because of calf tightness which isn’t exactly a turf injury.
Sorry, I meant last year he missed the same series in MIA. Not a turf injury but they’ve said they’re sensitive to him playing on that surface. Look how many games he’s played there in the last 2 years.
Acuna tore his ACL in Atlanta, not Miami.
No, he tore it in MIA on that field, youtube.com/watch?v=ioKYszrA8pQ
Yes. Build in areas for sunlight to come in or use a retractable roof, like most modern teams. Fake grass should have went out with the 1980’s.
It’s 2023. Humans are capable of things such as measuring the speed at which a broken bat tomahawks into the infield, the Coriolis effect on intercontinental flights, and, of course, how to grow grass indoors….
Seriously. Someone’s guy on the corner has been growing plants inside for decades.
Can’t think of a single patch of grass grown indoors. The AZ Cardinals grow it outdoors and then move it indoors for the games. The Raiders grow it outdoors and then move it indoors for games.
Can you think of any examples of a place that grows grass indoors?
Pads Fans
phcppros.com/articles/15037-cannabis-grow-facility… 🙂
Love it.
The problem would be keeping it alive. Can’t use fescue down south it gets fried by the sun and just dies even in NC.
They did attempt growing real grass in the Astrodome year 1. Notice “attempt”. Abysmal failure. Clear panels in roof, couldn’t get it to grow worth a flip, hence phony grass used afterwards.
Plenty of domes have real grass
Can you give us an example? I can’t find a single one.
I found one!!! In New Zealand. Forsyth Barr Stadium. The only one in the world.
They augment the natural grass with synthetic to make it more durable and have no AC in the stadium. Which makes sense since the high temperatures in their hottest month are in the upper 60s Fahrenheit. Doesn’t seem like that would work in Tampa.
It has an ETFE film as the roofing and one end is almost entirely that film to maximize sunlight. The seating is set up to increase air flow through the stadium. I guess grass needs air as well as sunshine.
That would not work in the areas of the US that most need domes because of heat and/or rain like Houston, Tampa, Miami, Phoenix, etc…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsyth_Barr_Stadium
agcchem.com/blog/etfe-film/etfe-film-makes-it-poss…
Really interesting stuff. Its too bad its not feasible in most of the US.
Old Trop now NEW Trop!! Um, lipstick on a pig
You should be embarrassed with such a stupid take
“… the financing hasn’t quite been finalized just yet.” This sounds familiar. Hope the Rays get this done, sounds like a great plan overall.
The city and county commissioners need to vote on it, they will vote, yes.
Well the Ray’s franchise definitely deserves far better than Tropicana field even before they started consistently putting out quality baseball teams on the field year in and out. You just hope that politics and the like don’t muck everything up.
With DeSantis, what could go wrong lol.
what does he have to do with it? it’s a city matter not a state matter. Just trying to hit the low hanging fruit I’m guessing.
Oh? And how is Walt Disney World a state matter and not a city or county matter?
Spot on.
Last I knew, the rays didn’t have some sweetheart backroom deal from 70 years ago granting a company the rights to dictate taxation and development standards.
You know, something that exists for NOBODY else except a multibillion entity and should’ve been axed years ago?
Disney world had special self governing agreement or something with the state. Don’t believe the Rays have this.
Ron “DeSanctimonious” mucked up his relationship with Mickey Mouse. He can certainly do it with Raymond Ray as well. lol
“Mucked up” what? Diznee is a blazing dumpster fire who’s stock is falling everyday, while FL’s economy is thriving. Next…
I’m sure your boy 10% Joe would do a better job. Idiot,
This might be difficult for you to grasp, but some people are capable of disliking both of them. Try stepping out of your bubble.
Agreed
DeSantis will do whatever is good for business, like ALL politicians do, Democrat or Republican. Plus “Big Swingin’ Ronny D” will be gone in 2 years (or sooner). Total non-factor.
“DeSantis will do whatever is good for business” — sure, that Disney battle is all about biz. If they leave, Orlando becomes Fort Lauderdale.
If Disney leaves, which they wont, then there’s plenty of empty rooms and space all over for the plentitude of illegal immigrants in need of housing, jobs, and services. Its a made to order city, jobs in retail, cleaning, public works, resturaunts, landscaping, lots of hotel rooms, it’s pretty much perfect for the rest of the country.
stupid comment. You just don’t like him because he’s a Republican. If he was a Democrat you’d be singing praises till your blue in the phase. People that interject politics into sports are lame. Leave that baggage in your head we don’t want it here.
Will that area of St Pete still be inhabitable in 2028?
I’m guessing yes. I have doubts it will be by the time my adult kids reach their parents age as seniors. It will probably be underwater by the time my grandkids are seniors,
The better question will be aquifer contamination from brackish water intrusion.
Sure it will, because Climate Change will continue to be a hoax.
Truist Park (ATL) cost a reported $765M, which heavily influenced this development. Crazy this stadium cost is $1.3B unless that’s talking about the overall site development (retail, etc.).
Inflation!
1.3 Billion seems cheap compared to what they spent on the area that now includes Rams stadium. That’s literally just a big stadium, smaller music venue (Youtube theater) a bunch of parking spots and a large pond.
The roof plays a part in it. Even though it is not retractable it’s still an expense that wasn’t included in Atlanta
Truist Park is not a dome.
The total development in St Pete is $6.5 billion but it won’t be done for 20 years. Just the stadium will be built at first at a cost of $1.3 billion.
The gov should just give the Rays free land, within a mile of Mar a lago.
Was that supposed to be funny?
Oh Westo… scrolling the entire comments section to find right wing honor to defend hahahahah
If that’s what you think, me, I like to point out and laugh at stupidity. Thanks for proving my point
It’s definitely inflation.. Truist Park if built today would almost be doubled.
Only if it was a dome or retractable roof. Its much cheaper to build if you don’t have to put a roof on it.
So do the Rays also own the remaining ~$5B worth of redevelopment land as well, or a share of it, or what? That part was a little muddy in the article but is perhaps detailed more elsewhere. This ‘free land’ is typically what the ownership groups are usually after.
I think the land that the Rays are getting covers the stadium and enough space for parking. The rest of the land is getting divided up amongst other businesses and housing.
I don’t understand the need for artificial turf or synthetic turf when Florida is more than capable of growing grass. But then i also don’t understand why in todays game you would want a “fixed” roof over a retractable one while wanting walls that can open…
Yes….
Especially considering that a retractable roof would only cost them $500 more for the parts and to build, and maybe a bit over $100 a year to maintain.
Cheap, aren’t they?
Yesterday, somebody mentioned Miami’s roof has been open 14% of the time. I think Houston is closed 4-5 months a year, same with Arizona.
The weather means the roof just won’t retract enough to justify the hundreds of millions to add it. Same reason Minnesota went fully open air, just wasn’t worth the expense.
I have never been to Minute Maid when the roof was open after mid-May. Don’t know about Miami because only go to a few games there and almost always in July.
Hines Corporation will be developing that.
Astros got it right with the retractable roof stadium, closed when it’s 99+, open when it’s nicer, plus allows for grass fields. Those players are going to hate turf…Just ask any player from the 80’s and 90’s
Not the same turf.
“The Rays are covering more than half of the $1.3 billion price tag for the stadium, approximately $700MM. That leaves $600MM to be covered by the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.”
MLBTR New Stadium Opinion Generator:
Team Move: Bad
Team Stay: Good
Stadiums are almost never a financial benefit to the public.
The billionaire owners get the public welfare. The public gets pennies on the dollar.
Exactly. This is what Republican Marxism looks like.
Nope. They ALL do it. Democrats and Republicans. If you believe otherwise you are obtuse.
The biggest surprise in this story is that Florida named a county after Lou Pinella. Nice job, Lou!
Don’t knock “Sweet Lou”…
Sweet home Pinella’s County
Where the pinstripes are so blue
Something wrong with the artists’ rendering. Seems to be a lot of fans attending. Maybe scale down the number of fans and it would seem more realistic.
I know they dont bring in a ton of people and hopefully that changes but isnt 30k seats small for a new stadium?
It is small, but as someone who used to live in Tampa and has been to countless Rays games over the years, 30,000 seems about right. I mean, a new park will see an attendance bump, but that will pass. They tarp off the whole upper seating deck at the Trop now, so 30K-ish computes.
Pale – You are correct. Other than their inaugural season, they have never averaged more than 23K in a season.
Not galaxy brained at all IMO. Even though being consistently successful and gone to the WS etc, the attendance pump for that success has been minimal, and temporary.
I would have loved to see the new park in Tampa proper, but I’ll take this over a third option.
Will that area of downtown and the neighborhoods displaced from the original stadium be revitalized, just like they promised when they built the original Trop? I’d like to be optimistic, but history says no on these kind of things.
It’s the same amount of seats as the proposed A’s stadium in Vegas. Maybe it’s time to be realistic and realize while 30k sounds like a little, these teams have never drawn 40 or 50k and probably never will
The Rays drew 45k for a night game and 43k for a day game in their inaugural season.
Can’t get the link to post but its on Baseball-almanac.com
There’s the problem right there, you have to go all the way back to 1998 to counter my argument
Not trying to counter it. That is a problem for them.
“..,,isnt 30k seats small for a new stadium?”
Same size as the one being built in Las Vegas.
This may be too galaxy brained but here’s my theory… I think a couple years after the new stadiums’ inception & the “newness” wears off it might just go back to what it is now. I think the underlying problem is there just isn’t that many baseball fans in Tampa, let alone St. Pete. We’ve only been around since 1998 there hasn’t been enough time to establish a rich history to demand the nightly sold out crowds. If it was located directly in Downtown Tampa or something it’s an easier yes to drive 10-15 minutes for even the most casual fan, but to commit to a 45 min drive to another city for a night & then have to drive back it’s just not for everyone.
I’m a die hard Rays fan & go to my fair share of my games every year & enjoy the drive to St. Pete & Tropicana, but I could also see how most wouldn’t especially if they have a family. I hope I’m wrong but idk…I’ll still enjoy it. *sips tea*
45 minutes driving time to a sporting event is not that much of a drive. I live in SoCal. I’m an Angels fan that lives in Long Beach. It take about 30 minutes to drive to Anaheim. If I wanted to go see the Angels in LA, a hour or so depending the day of the week. If wanted can go see the Angels in San Diego that would take my 1.5 hours. also depending on which day of the week. Friday being the worst day to drive south on the 5 freeway. The starting times for night games is 6:40 are about a hour earlier than what it used to be. Back in the 70’s night games started at 8PM.
It takes an hour plus from anywhere in Tampa to get to the Trop. Longer if there is an accident on any number of bridges you must cross. Most casual fans won’t make the drive. Most fans period won’t make the drive if it takes longer than 30 minutes.
The latest start times for games were 7:35 pm.
You are seriously underestimating time to get around out there. Let me guess, you’re always 30 minutes late to events…
Before they moved the ballpark it was about 2 hours to go 18 miles for an Atlanta game at Turner field.
When we were in New England we’d do 3.5 hours for a red sox game.
And those were not outlier commutes. Many of the fans attending had similar drives. It’s a regional thing, it depends on levels of enthusiasm for the game, and, sense of entitlement thinking things should just be handed over with no effort.
I don’t normally like to butt it on other peoples inner-city arguments but I have to say, as a native New York baseball fan, all this talk about commutes over 30 minutes being too long and “car crashes” and the ballpark not being in “downtown” stuff is pretty laughable. With the exception of Madison Square Garden, NONE of the sports venues for New York teams are anywhere near “downtown” (or midtown). In fact, to get to Yankee Stadium for a night game is literally the worst possible drive you could be taking at that time, as you are competing with tons of people driving through the Bronx to get home to Westchester County and over the George Washington Bridge back to New Jersey, yet the Yankees draw very well. Citi Field also is just randomly in northern queens near LaGuardia airport and they are well supported as well.
The Jets and Giants always draw well and they play in New Jersey, they don’t even play in New York City at all, yet people make the drive. The Islanders have a solid fanbase and their arenas have also required people to drive in rush-hour traffic out to Long Island to get there, which is a
NIGHTMARE.
Given how successful the Rays have been over the years… if you like baseball, you just need to drive there and drive back and be willing for it to take more time than going to the supermarket. It’s just reality in most cities. And before you go ahead and bring up public transit, it would also take you well over an hour in most cases to get to any of the sports venues in NYC unless you happen to live nearby.
Balls up Tampa! Go support your team!
No one drives to Yankee Stadium and there are 7 million people within a 30 minute subway or train trip.
If you are dumb enough to drive you better be there at 5:30 to get a spot or pre-book it if you even can.
Very few drive to Long Island either. We take the train that drops us off right there at UBS Arena.
The NFL has 10 home games a year including preseason. Not the same animal. People show up at 9am for 1pm NFL games.
Its not the same as a ballpark that has 81 home games a season and that has no public transportation and the majority of the people in the region cannot get their in 30 minutes or even 1 hour for night games on weekdays.
Mr. Pads Fans, my overall point is that it is OK for the fine people of Tampa to inconvenience themselves a little bit to go watch their favorite team. There is an awful lot of griping about driving over 30 minutes, crossing a bridge, and experiencing some traffic, but this is nearly par for the course for most sports regions.
The New York City region in particular is huge and encompasses all five boroughs, two counties of Long Island, several counties in upstate New York, all of northern New Jersey, parts of Connecticut, and even increasingly some of northeast PA with the recent migration of New Yorkers to the Poconos. It’s not uncommon at all to cross one or even two bridges or tunnels just to get to work. And it certainly isn’t uncommon to do so to get to your favorite sporting teams’ venue to watch the game.
You make a very valid point about the NFL having a limited number of games, but your declaration that “nobody drives to Yankee Stadium” surely does not reflect reality, and I know this because most Yankees fans I know do in fact to drive to Yankee Stadium, even the ones that live in Queens where I’m from.
I never said that people don’t take the train to UBS Arena, what I said was that most people would still require an hour or more of their time to reach their sporting destinations via public transportation from where they live. Surely you know that the region’s sports teams are not solely rooted for by people that live within a 30 minute subway ride of their home venue.
My point was not to poke fun at the lack of attendance at Tampa Bay rays games, it was merely to challenge the Rays fans to stop whining and go to the game if you like them because most people who root for sports teams don’t live in, or even necessarily near the downtown area of that city.
MLB did a study that showed that 80% of attendance came from within 30 minutes of the ballpark. That is why there has been so much talk of it on these threads.
Unlike NY where there are 7+ million that live within 30 minutes of Queens or the Bronx, in Tampa 2/3 or more of the 3.2 million people in the Tampa Bay metro area live an hour from Tropicana Field. By building in St Petersburg they are limiting the 30 minute radius to about 600k people.
If they were building in Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa they would increase that to 2/3 of the population of the area that live within 30 minutes.
The problem is where they are building the stadium.
My last thought on this is people work. That means they get off at 5pm, have to go home and get the family, and then head to the game.
That means that if they are lucky and traffic is light in Tampa, they get to the parking lot exactly at game time, rush in and maybe see the first pitch. That is if everything goes right. No accidents. No construction.
If its a typical day, they rush home, get on the road to the park and get there for the top of the 2nd.
Its why so many people that don’t live in St Petersburg or aren’t retired do not attend games at the Trop.
I understand. Then again, most teams’ attendance comes on the weekends, not necessarily during the week. So fill up that New Stadium on the weekends! Lol. I wish no malice to Rays fans (or Padres fans currently living in NY, apparently?). I’m just saying, for all its pitfalls that stadium looks kind of nice to me. Think I’ll be making a baseball pilgrimage down there once it’s built!
Good luck with that. They could go 162-o and still not average twenty thousand a night. MLB’s never gonna be marketable in Florida. Not ever.
kreckert;
Yes, amazing that they put teams there as MLB felt for decades that Florida would not support baseball outside of Spring Training, much of which revenue came from vacationing tourists from the teams home cities. But Florida congresspeople banded together and used the ole “We’re thinking about looking at MLB anti-trust exemption” and MLB heads reconsidered.
Think they did that out of their sense of right and wrong….or that they got a lot of campaign contributions from those that stood to make money from teams in Florida?
It’s one of the most populous states in the nation. Florida added 2 NBA, 2 NHL, 2 MLB and 1 NFL* team between 1988-98. Because of population growth. But some have been more successful than others.
* 2 NFL if you count the Bucs in the mid-90s lol
The size of the population isn’t really relevant, especially in Florida’s case.
1) The South has a deep, rich history with Football and Basketball, not so with Baseball. It took more than 80 years for MLB to move into the deep south at all, and more than a century to move to into Florida.
2) The basic nature of Florida isn’t conducive to baseball fandom. There’s just so much to do down there, particularly in summer, and being anything other than an extremely casual baseball fan requires a certain amount of commitment. California has some of that problem too, but CA has more of a history with the sport and an even larger population so general lack of enthusiasm isn’t as glaring an issue as it is in FLA.
3) Florida has a notoriously transient population, largely because of the number of seniors the state attracts. Older people are less likely to travel frequently across a state the size of Florida to see a baseball game, especially given the state’s volatile weather during the summer months. In addition to that retirees in Florida who are die hard baseball fans are likely to be fans of teams in other parts of the country. And to make it worse, even those retirees who do become Marlins or Rays fans aren’t raising young families so the seeds of inter-generational fandom aren’t being planted the same way as in other places. I mean, maybe it’s trite, but baseball has always played on a kind of sentimental, traditional “father/son” dynamic and Florida isn’t conducive to that, nor does the state have a history of it.
4) Spring training. This might be the biggest issue affecting baseball’s ability to grow Major League teams in Florida. Spring Training is the one area where MLB has managed to plant a historic seed in Florida. But it has also allowed Floridians for generations the ability to see Major League players, cheaply and in more localized settings, at a time of year when the weather’s more conducive to enjoying the sport. And worse, it’s caused locals in Florida who are die hard baseball fans to latch on to teams all around the country long before the Rays or Marlins ever existed. The Phillies, for instance, have had a presence in Clearwater, which is in the greater Tampa area since the mid 1940s. If all that isn’t enough, because of baseball’s presence in Florida for Spring Training, the state has a huge number of minor league teams there, which means cheap, local baseball for die hards, which probably shouldn’t be relevant, but in a state that large, with an atypical population and in a sport where history matters so much to fandom, the presence of other organization’s minor league team’s is going to dilute the already limited ability to grow a new major league fandom.
They never should have put 2 teams in Florida, that was a major mistake by MLB baseball. Those two teams should have gone to Nashville and either Raleigh or Charlotte, NC. Mentioning Vegas now is a moot point because of the A’s leaving Oakland.
I never cared much for the notion of keeping the Rays in St .Petersburg rather than moving them to Tampa. The idea of having a closed roof stadium with artificial turf has cinched my disdain for this proposal.
Have you ever been to the area June through Oct, if you have ,you know an open air stadium is not doable. Please keep spitting out the logic, I need the laughs.
Alot of non-locals with all these suggestions. Crazy talk. FL in the middle of June/July is 100 a day, WITH humidity, unlike Phoenix. Plus Tampa Bay being seaside in such a hot location, get violent, severe, tornadic-even thunderstorms daily during the summer. A roof, turf & AC is required for any team in FL. Marlins tried real grass at Marlins Park for years and kept struggling with it dying, because the roof couldn’t be opened enough.
Low 90s with humidity. That is still hot enough.
Permanent closed roof stadiums should be banned in MLB.
MLB should mandate retractable roof stadiums for every proposed new venue being considered where weather is an issue. This would include existing teams and any new expansion ones. The only area in North America where weather usually isn’t a concern during the three season baseball campaign are the coastal cities in southern California.
This will be a disaster and probably doesn’t fix anything. If manfred was good at his job he would have pushed for an Orlando or Tampa location if wanted keep them in Florida.
Hey they’re still working to bring a team to Orlando with the Orlando Dreamers initiative;)
But in a reality based world, I’d be soo hyped if we ever got a minor league team back in the Orlando area (after the unfortunately short-lived Fire Frogs in Kissimmee went bye bye)
Can the a’s play there too?
@Philly A’s
A’s should go play in Coors Field.
The Rangers took the grass out of their stadium and put turf in. They don’t want to pay the extra money for the upkeep of the grass. it’s that simple and why turf is used. it’s cheap owners
“It’s cheap owners”…..I don’t disagree, but the players and their MLBPA union also go along with fake surfaces, when they have the power to stop it. The Players association only cares that the top 5 % of players get HUGE contracts and doesn’t really look after the needs of the average players that make up 90% of MLB.
Cities have input in that too
Look at Rodgers injury – if they had grass Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t have been able to have his three nights of concerts there
Municipalities want concerts, rib cook-offs, and your assorted sundry events to use the facility to it’s maximum usage – grass sometimes prohibits that in season
So the people that actually make the decision have not voted on it yet. This is just a preliminary agreement. Sometime in 2024 they will have an actual agreement if the city council and county commission both vote for it with no changes.
The team also does not have any financing in place to do any of this yet.
I think that the line that only 20% of the development will be done by the time the ballpark opens is telling. Since the ballpark makes up exactly 20% of the $6.5 billion development, that means when the ballpark opens it will be the only part of the development completed with the rest planned over 20 years. Realistically, they might have it all done by the time the lease is up.
So, unlike Battery Park in Atlanta, there will be no new restaurants or hotels or anything in the area until after the ballpark opens. A shiny new and very small ballpark in a bad area that is hard to get to with nothing to do once you get there and worse parking than you already have there.
To justify building in the same location they put out this,“One of the things I’ve said multiple times is we’re in the same location as we were five years ago, but I really do feel like we’re in a different city,” Auld said. “There are so many (new condos and apartment buildings) all across the city, and all across this region, that I do believe it has fundamentally changed this region’s, and this city’s, ability to support our team.”
But the facts are that St Pete has grown by just 3,000 people in the last 4 years. 90+% of the growth in the region has been in Hillsborough County and Pasco County. Not St Pete or even Pinellas County. Pinellas County has actually declined in population over the last 4 years.
FANTASTIC!! Great job!
Great points
Thanks
Rays FO and ownership are idiots, they just want to live in their fantasy island in St. Petersburg and be lazy.
President Brian Auld: “I really feel like this city has changed in the last five years“
Of course you would Brian, the gentrified area in St. Petersburg that you live in I’m SURE is booming. Meanwhile, nothing has changed.
Manfred is taking the team to Nashville once the vote fails. They’re not getting this passed through the vote.
Nope, done deal. Keep dreaming about Nashville, expansion is their only hope.
Yep, this is done. Rays have their stadium. All formalities at this point. Same with the A’s in Vegas.
That’s gonna happen either way. Nashville already has a stadium site, preliminary designs, and a developer ready to go, as well as Nashville’s approval of the project. MLB is gonna jump on that deal as soon as the Ray’s situation is finalized.
So, with this situation being semi-resolved, expansion talks could soon begin. Some discussions might even start at this year’s winter meetings. In Nashville… a city that has been pushing hard to get a team for years,
???
They haven’t even had it come to a vote yet so don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
In Oakland they had the yes vote from the city council and the EIS done plus several lawsuits settled and Fisher still backed out.
BaseballisLife, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Plus, expansion is a very bad idea. Over saturation is not good for anything especially Major League Baseball. In fact, I’m still a firm believer in contraction, starting with the two Florida teams. There’s already too many players on rosters that aren’t major league quality. Expansion will only exacerbate that.
A horrible way to spend/waste $600M of taxpayer money.
I want to try to get this right so correct me if you find a mistake.
They are planning to build in the same hard to get to location.
They don’t have financing to build it yet. But they are trying to say it won’t be hard to come up with $700 million.
They have not had any votes by the two government bodies that make the final decisions.
They have not done the EIS yet.
The team president is saying they will draw more fans because the population of St Petersburg has gone up 3.4k over the past 5 years. Yes, I said 3.4 thousand. St Petersburg is not growing much and Pinellas County has had a population drop over the last 5 years.
The development around the park will start when the park is completed and take 20 years.
It will still take 2/3 of the population in the Tampa Bay area more than an hour to get to the park.
The local taxpayers will be asked to pay for $470 million in bond measures by the city and Pinellas County will pay back their portion in transient occupancy taxes. In other words tourists will pay for it for staying in hotels instead of spending that money with businesses in the area.
When complete the park will be the smallest in baseball.
It will still have artificial turf.
Did I get all that correct?
Certainly not a perfect plan, but it is a good plan to keep the Rays in the area. Otherwise they would be moving by 2028. Would it be better if in Tampa on the other side of the bay? Oh yes, but Tampa had plenty of chances to put something together and failed. Would a grass field be better. You bet. But a retractable roof and a grass field probably adds quite a bit to the final price tag. Could the stadium be bigger? Sure, but the A’s stadium in Vegas is going to be on the smaller side. Does create some scarcity for tickets and thus the price can be higher. Will it be nicer than the Trop? Most certainly, which is part (but not the only) reason why the Rays don’t draw all that well.
Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of the good.
Sternberg said if there was no deal he would sell. That doesn’t mean the team would move. Tampa is a huge market.
Nothing less than a 600 million dollar theft from the good taxpayers of the area.
600 million dollars. If the Rays want to borrow that money the area government could treat it as a 30 year loan to be repaid out of the team’s profits or paid out of the sale price of the team should profits be insufficient, but instead it’s a handout, blatant thievery.
The SF Giants built their own stadium to the anger of 29 other billionaires and ownership groups worth billions, showing it could be done at a profit, but the corruption of our governments is so total that this didn’t serve as precedent.
If you originally wanted the money, your agreement is to repay it and not move the team, ever, removing the blackmail element.
This is public corruption on its face, and it’s part of why corporate welfare absolutely dwarfs personal welfare in the United States.
The site has already deleted this comment once:
This is “Nothing less than a 600 million dollar theft from the good taxpayers of the area.
600 million dollars. If the Rays want to borrow that money the area government could treat it as a 30 year loan to be repaid out of the team’s profits or paid out of the sale price of the team should profits be insufficient, but instead it’s a handout, blatant thievery.
The SF Giants built their own stadium to the anger of 29 other billionaires and ownership groups worth billions, showing it could be done at a profit, but the corruption of our governments is so total that this didn’t serve as precedent.
If you originally wanted the money, your agreement is to repay it and not move the team, ever, removing the blackmail element.
This is public corruption on its face, and it’s part of why corporate welfare absolutely dwarfs personal welfare in the United States.”