ST. PETERSBURG — Eight City Council members got together on Wednesday to play a game of Whack-a-Deal.
It’s a local favorite around here, dating back to 2008 when the Rays first proposed a stadium deal on the waterfront. Ever since, politicians have gotten together every few years to poke holes in stadium projects in a half-dozen different spots. Even the folks in Tampa have asked to play along.
It’s tradition. It’s timeless. In this heat, it’s better than a backyard barbecue.
All of which makes what I’m about to tell you somewhat bittersweet:
I think this deal is going to survive.
That’s not official. The vote for the Pavilion-style stadium and redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site is still four weeks away, and Pinellas County commissioners will also get a chance to weigh in.
But we’ve seen enough deals fall short to know the telltale signs.
And that’s just not what we saw at the council workshop on Wednesday.
They poked holes in the parking plan, the financing, the building sustainability, the naming rights, the language in the development deal, the lack of tickets for low-income families and even the proliferation of palm trees.
But there was no kill shot. Instead, the seven-hour meeting ended … amicably.
Council member Lisset Hanewicz, who appears to be a clear “no” vote, thanked city administrator Rob Gerdes, who has been the point man on negotiations. Rays president Brian Auld came over to joke with council member Richie Floyd, who is another vocal opponent. Council member John Muhammad is something of a wild card, but the other five members seem generally supportive.
“I think most of us are kind of in the same place,” said council member Ed Montanari. “I’ve generally been for this agreement and I’ve been working on (a stadium search) for 15 years. I think there’s a general consensus for where we are.
“The analogy I’ve used before is this is kind of like buying a house. You have a willing seller and a willing buyer and you’re going to closing to make sure all the documents are right, and that’s kind of what we were doing here today.”
Council members would clearly prefer better financial terms for the city — St. Pete is paying roughly 21% of the stadium cost, Pinellas County is chipping in 23% and the Rays are responsible for 56% and all cost overruns — but most seemed onboard with a point made by Mayor Ken Welch in his opening statements. Welch talked about the promises made to residents in the Historic Gas Plant district 45 years ago when the predominantly Black neighborhood was razed in the name of progress, long before baseball was a factor.
“The promise,” Welch said, “was never to sell the land to the highest bidder.”
That acknowledgement is at the heart of the Rays/Hines deal. They’re undoubtedly getting a great deal on land costs, but the resulting profits will help fund the cost of the stadium, green spaces, an African-American museum and other amenities that might be bypassed if the city tried to auction off the 86 acres parcel by parcel. Essentially, that’s how the Rays/Hines group won the open bidding process a year ago.
One of the city’s outside consultants made the point that the deal was designed to limit the city’s exposure in terms of stadium upkeep and costs, rather than bank on the volatility of sharing revenues with the Rays.
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Explore all your optionsFloyd said he is not necessarily opposed to the city helping with the stadium cost, but said the subsidies in this deal are excessive.
Even so, Floyd used his time during the workshop to advocate for specific changes, almost as if he was resigned to the idea of the deal passing.
“My job is to make sure that, if there is a chance something passes, that it’s as good as it can possibly be for the city,” Floyd said. “One of the things I did when we finished was write a note for what I’m going to say when it comes time to vote.
“The thing people need to know is if this passes, even if I don’t agree with it, I’m planning on being around this city for the next 30 years and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure this is successful.”
There are still hurdles that must be faced. Even today, the City Council needs to approve additional expenditures for outside counsel to work on the deal. And Gerdes said the documents need to be completed two weeks before the proposed July 11 vote, which means they only have two weeks to incorporate changes requested by council members on Wednesday.
The county commission and Major League Baseball will also need to sign off on the deal, and activists were passing out flyers after the council session about a protest this afternoon on the steps of City Hall.
It’s the kind of thing we’ve seen plenty of times before around here but, somehow, it seems too little and too late to stop the momentum of this deal.
It’s not done yet, but it’s getting there.
John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.
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