The St. Petersburg city council is set to start its meeting at 1:30 pm today, and the best guess is that councilmembers are planning to approve the city’s $287.5 million in Tampa Bay Rays stadium bonds, figuring 1) this way they can get the approval done before new anti-stadium-deal councilmembers take office in January, and 2) if Rays execs don’t hash out a better deal that includes either more team money or promises to play temporarily in Pinellas County or both, the county will likely reject it anyway. So, kick the can into the county’s court, mixed-metaphorically.
But that’s only a guess! Tune in on BlueSky for running updates, or refresh this page for only slightly delayed updates. And/or watch below yourself!
In case you missed the beginning, it was just the announcement of the starting lineups.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T18:32:09.980Z
Hanewicz (a steady no vote) leads things off by saying it's not fair to hold such a major vote with hardly any notice for the public to be able to testify. Council goes 4-3 in favor of holding the Rays stadium bond re-vote anyway — got a feeling we're going to see a whole lot of 4-3 votes today.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T18:40:42.019Z
And the first public speaker says adding the Rays stadium bonds last-minute violates the rule that the council agenda has to be published a week in advance! Clearly somebody is trying to set up any council decision today to be called back by VAR.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T18:44:42.588Z
More public comments (assorted): "Now we're a major league city!" "Get this project underway!" "That's 86 acres that could be used as reparations to the Black community!" "It's like paying for a wedding when the Rays won't even say they want to get married!"
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T18:52:54.578Z
"We don't want to run businesses out of the community until they say they want to go!" "If the Rays and Hines truly believed this development was a winner, they would pay for it themselves!" "Thousands of new jobs!" "Albert Whitted Airport was damaged!" (Yes, there are other agenda items today.)
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T19:00:19.694Z
(For anyone new to public hearings: The public testimony almost never matters, since typically everyone on the council knows how they're voting going in. But it lets the little people feel like they're being listened to, that's nice, isn't it, because they have a hell of a time.)
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T19:03:16.065Z
First five (non-Rays) agenda items are up, good time to go to the bathroom or make yourself a quick sandwich.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T19:05:00.202Z
Haven't forgotten about you, the St. Pete council is still talking about seawalls. Couple more agenda items to go before we get to the Rays.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T20:22:38.022Z
And finally the Rays stadium bond item is up! Mayor Welch has even showed up for this, clearly something is afoot.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:33:27.033Z
Welch says "there is consensus" on the deal and the best thing to do is to move forward with the Rays bond sale. And now it's on to more public comment!
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:34:41.660Z
Public comments, round 2: "When your partner is out, don't borrow the money!" "I said I was a proud member of the concessions team for the Rays, but we all just got our termination letters today!" (She still spoke in favor of a stadium: "It takes wealthy people to contribute to our communities!")
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:40:17.356Z
Lightning round: "Visionary, world-class city!" "Bad partners!" Okay, that's all the members of the public who were able to show up on short notice on a Thursday afternoon and wait around for three hours, time for the councilmembers to debate!
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:46:00.209Z
Gina Driscoll, who reportedly added the stadium bonds to today's meeting agenda, says the deal is the deal; now it's just about deciding on whether to sell the bonds. Two weeks ago was a "moment of uncertainty," she says, but now "I feel pretty satisfied" that the Rays "are still in, and so am I."
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:48:15.188Z
Hanewicz: "Well, the Rays aren't here. We are about to approve — because I can count the votes — hundreds of millions of dollars, and they don't show up."
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:50:20.247Z
Hanewicz asks city administrator Rob Gerdes how much of a funding gap the Rays owners now face. He says he doesn't know.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:52:31.315Z
It's very clear at this point that the St. Pete council intends to vote 4-3 to approve city bonds for a Rays stadium. The big question: Then what? Will Stu Sternberg demand more money to fill the budget gap he's claiming? Will the county demand more money to flip one of its four opposed members?
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:55:04.676Z
John Muhammad: "The fear we would be somewhere like this is the reason I did not support that contract in the first place." He asks Gerdes again what the Rays mean that they "can't do this alone." Gerdes: "They're looking for ways to fill that gap" and, uh, private partners maybe? That always works!
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T21:58:39.982Z
Gabbard says she's voting yes, she wanted to vote yes last time: "Quite frankly, I think we're calling their bluff by doing so. … It'll be up to the Rays to go find other funding."
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T22:05:14.736Z
The "yes" votes are clearly trying to position this as "We need to just give them the $1B we promised them and not one penny more and dare them to come up with the rest," which is … a choice.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T22:06:08.717Z
Richie Floyd is a no, as expected: "This is not how I believe economic development should take place."
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T22:07:49.895Z
Deborah Figgs-Sanders says now that Rays execs no longer say the stadium is dead, she's ready to vote for it. It definitely feels like she and Driscoll were reacting to Silverman and Auld's letter by delaying the last vote, and now are placated there's still room to keep the original deal in play.
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T22:13:18.160Z
And the vote is 4-3 in favor of selling the city Rays bonds, as expected. The below still stands: Now wth happens? bsky.app/profile/fiel…
— Field of Schemes (@fieldofschemes.bsky.social) 2024-12-05T22:14:38.921Z
Neil the dark mode is not working.
Ouch!
I had to shut off the dark mode plugin, as it had a security issue. On desktop, I would suggest the Dark Reader browser extension instead, as that will work for all websites:
https://darkreader.org/
For mobile, I’ll keep working on a solution. In the meantime, turn your phone brightness down, I guess?