Yesterday afternoon I opened up WordPress and started a post that began like this:
And this just in:
The St. Petersburg City Council has scheduled a vote Thursday on whether to approve bonds to finance the city’s contribution toward a new $1.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays stadium and Historic Gas Plant District even as the team has said the project as proposed is no longer viable.
Council members received notice Wednesday morning that the item has been added to their agenda for the following day.
…and then pretty much stopped there. When the St. Pete council voted two weeks ago to put the Tampa Bay Rays stadium bonds — and any repairs to the roof of the team’s current stadium — on hold, it gave itself until January 7 to re-vote. So by deciding to hold a vote with more than a month to go until that deadline, it sure seemed like either two of the five councilmembers who voted against the bond sale were preparing to switch their vote, or the council as a whole was preparing to put a fork in this deal entirely. But with no indication on the council agenda of who had added the stadium bonds item or why, the tea leaves were especially thin.
The best summary came from DRaysBay, which didn’t know what was up either, but added a bit of helpful context, including that the city’s $287.5 million in stadium bonds would be paid off out of revenues that can be spent on anything the city wants, whereas the county is set to use $312.5 million in tourist tax dollars that are legally required to go toward things that promote tourism. (Sorta kinda, anyway — there are some exceptions.) It’s also worth noting that the council did not set a re-vote on repairing the Tropicana Field roof, which would imply … it’s anybody’s guess, really.
Vince Nowicki, one of the two new Pinellas County commissioners opposed to the stadium deal that was given preliminary approval in July, speculated that the city was “trying to strong-arm the county [by] saying, ‘Hey, you know we’ve done our part. Do your part,’” and suggested that Mayor Ken Welch is rolling the dice on a re-vote before two new anti-stadium councilmembers take office in January. Nowicki also said he met yesterday with “the president of the Rays” — he didn’t indicate which president — and had a “really great conversation” about how to “get to a better deal and a fair deal for the residents,” but added that he’s still a “no” vote until Rays owner Stuart Sternberg agrees to put more of his own money into the deal.
Looks like we’ll find out together what it all means, starting at 1:30 pm ET today. You can follow along on the St. Pete city YouTube channel (also embedded below), or check the Field of Schemes BlueSky account for live commentary.
UPDATE 9:08 am ET: The anti-stadium-subsidy group Home Runs Matter (formerly No Home Run) says it believes councilmember Gina Driscoll added the agenda item. Driscoll was a swing vote who voted yes to the stadium plan in July, then led the charge to delay the bond vote last month, saying, “I think we all need more time. We can save this deal.” Make of this what you will.