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April 29, 2010
Tampa paper: Rays threaten to leave St. Pete (two weeks ago)!
What is it with the Tampa Tribune and old news? From today's paper comes word that the Tampa Bay Rays ownership would be perfectly happy to leave St. Petersburg for elsewhere in the Tampa Bay region:
City Council member Leslie Curran put the question to a test at a recent public meeting. Spotting Rays vice president Michael Kalt in the audience, Curran invited him to the podium and asked him point-blank: "Do you want to stay in St. Petersburg?''
"I don't think that's a question we are prepared to answer at the moment,'' Kalt said. "We want stay in the Tampa Bay area. We haven't ruled out any locations.''
Only two problems with this breaking story: First off, the Rays owners have made it eminently clear in the past that they'd rather go north from St. Pete. Second, Kalt's headline-making statement actually happened two weeks ago, as the Trib itself reported at the time.
The quality of Tampa journalism aside, Kalt's statement is an indication that the legal battle over the team's lease at Tropicana Field is only likely to escalate as the Rays increasingly look elsewhere. This could end up as big of a mess as the A's situation.
