Tampa Bay Rays co-president Matt Silverman is in statement-issuin’ mode again, and this time his statement is that the team’s stadium plans are going quite great, actually:
“We anticipate that the Pinellas County Commission will authorize the bonds at their next meeting,” Matt Silverman said in a statement Tuesday. “As we stated in our letter three weeks ago, we remain ready to work with all key stakeholders to fill the funding gap their delay has created.”
That is, needless to say, an interesting statement to state, given that at last count there was still a 4-3 majority on the commission opposed to authorizing the county’s stadium bonds. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made the rounds of local elected officials on Monday, including phoning “no” voters Dave Eggers and Chris Latvala. It doesn’t sound like Silverman or other Rays execs have met with anyone on the commission, so it’s always possible that his statement was meant as “We anticipate that the Pinellas County Commission will authorize the bonds at their next meeting if they know what’s good for them, capisce?”
As for that bit about “stakeholders” needing to fill the “funding gap” created by the bonds being sold four months before the Rays’ own initial deadline for doing so — something Eggers aptly termed “coy” — Silverman wasn’t at all clear about how much money team execs are looking for or who they expect to pay for it. It’s still possible that Rays owner Stu Sternberg intends to compromise on “You guys agree to send us the $1 billion you promised us, and we’ll agree to pay for the cost overruns we just made up — er, I mean, suddenly discovered.” Though one could also read Silverman’s statement as implying that they’re hoping to win over the newly critical commission members just by the commissioner Manfredding at them and get additional public cash on top of that for their troubles. We’ll know more by the commission’s next scheduled vote a week from today, maybe.
Geez, they could just run ChatGPT through speech synthesis, it would be cheaper and less sadistic. Plus Sternberg seems like just the type of important executive decision maker to get roped in by AI bros
Manfred has the charisma of a thumb. Oh, to be a fly on the wall while he tries to “persuade” commissioners.
I am not even going to dignitize this article with a repose.
However, and having said that, I think it is entirely possible that the end result of the final agreement will be that the agreement has to be modified into a final agreement that takes into account the factual changes that have happened since the original signing of the final agreement between the parties to the agreement(s).
The Tampa Bay Rays did not create a hurricane. They did not benefit from a hurricane. Neither did MLB.
Certainly others did not benefit from the hurricane also, but that is not german to the situation in which we are situated. We cannot allow the scheduled delay within the original final agreement to impact upon the financial situation of the ball club or the ballpark. This is not our doing. And we have not done that.
There must come a time when all parties can breech consensus on the matter at hand, and that is that there cannot be funding gaps or delays in the sale of the bonds. Even if the delay is contractual obligated within the original framework. The team has committed to pay for almost 40% of the cost of the stadium over the next 30-50 years and all that has to be done is for taxpayers to fund the initial 100% or so in exchange for that.
This is a good deal for Tampa and Pinellas county and a good deal for taxpayers and baseball fans everywhere or I would not say it isn’t. There are many other locations that are wanting of Major League Baseball. I don’t want to name them and neither do you. But you know who you are and who they are. It’s not a secret that there are several markets that want to be MLB markets with MLB teams. And there aren’t teams. So keep in mind what the tremendous value the city and county gain from subsidizing the Rays locally rather than somewhere else is. This may not be an opportunity that comes along again if it is not an opportunity that is taken seriously at this and other times.