The St. Petersburg city council meets today at 11 am (streaming online here) to cast its deciding vote on the proposed Tampa Bay Rays stadium project, and the city is on tenterhooks waiting to see if — okay, I can’t even pretend, everyone knows it’s going to pass by the same 5-3 vote that it did the last time the council voted five weeks ago. Councilmembers Richie Floyd, John Muhammad, and Lisset Hanewicz continue to be the three opponents on the eight-member council, calling for such changes as removing language that would give free tickets to councilmembers and adopting protections in case owner Stu Sternberg sells the team before completing the stadium district development, but in America you only get to demand things when you’re the swing vote, and these guys are not.
As a reminder, because the financial numbers have become so muddied as proponents and opponents have debated them, here’s what we know about what Sternberg is likely to receive from taxpayers as part of the deal that will be approved today:
- $342.5 million from the city in infrastructure spending and future property-tax kickbacks
- $312.5 million in cash from the county
- Land worth between $300 million and $700 million in exchange for just $80 million worth of future rent payments, amounting to a discount of between $220 million and $620 million
- About $114 million worth (present value of $222 million over 30 years) of future county property tax kickbacks on the stadium and surrounding development
The total comes to somewhere between $989 million and $1.389 billion, which no matter how you slice it is a sizable chunk of change — all to move the Rays from a domed stadium in a location nobody likes to a different domed stadium right next door.
This was cause for much rejoicing by Sternberg, who announced aspirationally, “This is going to be the best baseball stadium that exists,” as well as the mayors of St. Pete, Tampa, and Clearwater, who declared themselves “committed to creating a talented workforce and fostering job opportunities that contribute to the growth of our cities” blah blah blah. There were a few last-minute changes to the deal: It can now include more affordable housing (if the city pays for it) and the stadium will be built to withstand a Category 4 hurricane. And councilmember Gina Driscoll, who is a swing vote, is demanding a new pedestrian bridge over I-175 to replace the “so ugly” current one, so she might get that, though it’s not clear who would pay for it if so.
This still won’t be the final vote on the stadium deal, as the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners still needs to approve its share of the money on July 30. At last count, it sounded like at least four of the seven commissioners were on board with the deal, so this will probably be another fait accompli. But if you’re holding out hope for a miracle or perhaps an FBI investigation, you have a couple more weeks in which to do it.
UPDATE: Approved by the city council at 3:36 pm ET, by a 5-3 vote.
It’s interesting that the Rays are getting a subsidy that’s about the same as how much they would get if they were sold on the open market. Instead of just giving them all this money the city/county should just offer him $1.7 billion for the team.
Among the points is a reminder that market value for tickets to the rays games in the current stadium are way below $20, and in many cases under $10.
So “free tickets” doesn’t feel like much of an incentive.
A city council with 8 members?
That’s a recipe for many tie votes.
Where’s the mayor on this (besides out creating jobs)? Is his role to sign or veto only?