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St. Petersburg City Council Shoots Down Deal For Tampa Bay Rays Stadium

By Phil Watson

Sep 17, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; A general view of the lack of fans at Tropicana Field while Tampa Bay Rays first baseman James Loney (21) bats during the first inning against the Texas Rangers. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 17, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; A general view of the lack of fans at Tropicana Field while Tampa Bay Rays first baseman James Loney (21) bats during the first inning against the Texas Rangers. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Tampa Bay Rays and St. Petersburg (Fla.) Mayor Rick Kriseman had a deal that would have allowed the team to explore new sites. Not anymore.

The St. Petersburg City Council shot down a proposed deal between the city and the Tampa Bay Rays that would have allowed the team to explore new stadium sites.

By a 5-3 vote, the council rejected the proposed deal from Mayor Rick Kriseman and placed the future of Major League Baseball in the Tampa Bay area very much in doubt.

According to The Tampa Tribune, some council members said the proposed compensation for allowing the team to explore other sites outside the city would not make up for the lost revenue from having the team at Tropicana Field.

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The Rays have been among the lowest in attendance in MLB almost from the time the then-Devil Rays began play at The Trop in 1998.

Even in 2008, the year the team dropped the “Devil” from its name and made a stunning run to the American League pennant, Tampa Bay was 26th in baseball in attendance, drawing just less than 1.8 million to the concrete blob.

The Rays set a record for attendance in their first year with roughly 2.5 million fans, good for 14th among MLB’s 30 teams.

Tampa Bay tumbled to 24th the following season at 1.56 million fans and hasn’t been higher than 22nd since, in 2010.

The Rays were 29th in attendance last season, finishing ahead of only the Cleveland Indians, and have finished last in baseball three times—2005, 2012 and 2013, per baseball-reference.com.

The council instead voted to schedule a workshop on building a new stadium.

Under the deal, the Rays would have paid the city $4 million for every season it didn’t play at Tropicana Field through 2018, dropping to $3 million from 2019-23 and then $2 million per year until the end of the original lease in 2027.

"“We are obviously disappointed with the City Council’s decision today,” Rays president Brian Auld said in a statement. “Our goal was to begin a collaborative, exploratory process in our region to determine the best location for a next generation ballpark."

“The council has instead decided that the status quo is what is in the best interest of the citizens of St. Petersburg.”

According to The Street, the five largest markets in America that currently do not have an MLB franchise are Orlando, Sacramento, Portland, Charlotte and Indianapolis.

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