St. Petersburg rejects the Rays' latest pitch for Tropicana Field property
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 26, 2021

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman says he has rejected an offer from the Tampa Bay Rays to build a new stadium on the Tropicana Field site because the Rays were asking for too much control over the property.

Kriseman on Tuesday morning held a press conference to announce that the city plans to unveil the proposals it received for the redevelopment of the 86-acre Trop site at 4 p.m. In its request for proposals, the city asked developers to consider plans both with and without a professional baseball stadium.

Nine proposals were received; two have been disqualified, Kriseman said.

The Rays' ask, Kriseman said, was that the city would transfer 50 acres east of Booker Creek to the team at no cost. Of that property, 14 acres would be set aside for a park, and the remainder would be home to a new stadium. The team also asked for 50 percent of the development proceeds for the remaining acreage of the Trop site west of Booker Creek. The team's current lease on the city-owned Trop, which runs through 2027, entitles the team to half the development revenue from the site but does not guarantee it outright ownership of any of the land.

"If we were to accept this, we would have to reject all of the responses to the RFPs," Kriseman said. "Of even greater concern is the moment the city turns control over to the Rays, the city loses all ability and authority to ensure the community’s voice is heard."

Kriseman said there is no time frame for a stadium proposal for the Rays, but that his door remains open to negotiation. Rays executives and owner Stuart Sternberg attended the news conference but did not field questions.

"The Rays are unsure they can move forward without ownership and control of the land," Kriseman said.

Hours after the mayor's press conference, the team issued a statement.

“We remain curious to see the outcome of Mayor Kriseman’s RFP process," Rays President Brian Auld said in a statement. "Our focus is on the Sister City concept and finding a site that will keep the Rays in Tampa Bay for generations to come. As always, community input, enthusiasm and participation are essential parts of this process.”

The Trop property is viewed as a once-in-a-generation redevelopment opportunity; it is considered one of the top infill sites in the Southeastern U.S. by urban planning and commercial real estate experts.

"I don't want to be put in a position where I have to choose between the team and community," Kriseman said. "But if I have to choose, I'll always choose the community. I think there's a way of resolving it where I'm not facing that choice."

The Rays' half of development revenue could be a significant income stream for the team and is viewed as a potential dangling carrot to keep them in St. Petersburg. Sternberg has long posited that professional baseball isn't financially viable in the Tampa Bay region; his most recent pitch to make the numbers work was a team that split its season between Montreal and Tampa Bay.

The negotiations for a future Rays stadium have been fraught with drama and tension. The team and the city entered a memorandum of understanding in 2016 that allowed the team to scout sites in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties for a new stadium. A site near downtown Tampa was identified and stadium renderings were unveiled in a splashy but glitchy news conference in summer 2018, though negotiations with Hillsborough County were officially dead by the end of that same year.

Then came the split-season proposal, the news of which was leaked to ESPN. Kriseman derided the idea as "silly," pointing out that the team wasn't allowed to search for new real estate under the terms of its lease.

"If the team wants to explore the split and is able to make it work, I'm not opposed to that, as long as taxpayer dollars don't pay for the construction of the stadium," Kriseman said Tuesday. "I've tried to be very clear on that."