Hillsborough prepares effort to woo Rays across bayHillsborough County officials will begin laying the groundwork next week for discussions with the Tampa Bay Rays about a possible new stadium site on the east side of the Bay.
County Commissioner Ken Hagan said he will ask his fellow board members Wednesday to designate the Tampa Sports Authority as the agency that will deal with the Rays should St. Petersburg let the team look at stadium sites outside Pinellas County.
Hagan said Friday he believes a breakthrough is imminent in the longstanding impasse that has tied the Major League Baseball team to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
“We have every reason to believe an agreement is near which would allow the Rays to legally speak and meet ... about a new stadium,” Hagan said.
Hagan said a number of factors have led to him to that conclusion. Most important, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, unlike predecessor Bill Foster during most of his term, has been open to allowing the Rays to look elsewhere for a stadium site.
Kriseman conceded as much in a Friday night interview, saying the subject has come up in recent discussions he's had with Rays management. Still, Kriseman called Hagan's proposal “premature” and potentially “problematic” because of the Rays' contract binding the team to Tropicana Field.
“I'm more open to having those discussions and I will see where they lead,” Kriseman said, “but my focus first and foremost is to do what I can and work with the Rays on keeping them in St. Petersburg.”
The Rays' owners, who have long sought a release from their contract with St. Petersburg, have been silent on the issue in recent months, saying they didn't want to distract from the team's performance on the field. But when the season ends Sunday, the Rays will have finished with the lowest per-game attendance in the major leagues, bolstering the team's argument it can't succeed in St. Petersburg.
Hagan said the moment is ripe and Hillsborough County must be ready to take advantage of developments across the Bay.
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I feel very strongly we should be methodical but proactive with this issue so when the time comes we can hit the ground running with a productive discussion with the Rays about possible Hillsborough County sites,” Hagan said.The Rays declined to comment Friday.
Under Hagan's proposal, he would sit on a small Rays working group with Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Eric Hart, chief executive officer of the Tampa Sports Authority. The 11-member sports authority board would not be directly involved.
The sports authority, created by the Florida Legislature, built and manages Tampa's two professional sports venues — Raymond James Stadium and the Amalie Arena. Plus, the sports authority has bonding capability in the likely event the Rays need some public financing for a new stadium.
“We've been set up to do these types of activities for cities and counties,” Hart said. “We have not been called upon to do that just yet, but if it does come down to that, it will be a natural progression to do it.”
Hagan has taken the lead before in courting the Rays. In August 2013, the Hillsborough commissioner spoke with Buckhorn about forming a committee to meet with Rays executives and help them find stadium sites. At that time, Hagan wanted the committee to include members of the sports authority and the Tampa Bay Partnership, the public-private economic development collaborative.
The idea went into hiatus as Mayor Foster — his hard-line stand against cross-bay talks softening — prepared to face Kriseman in the November election. After Kriseman was elected, he initiated new talks with the Rays owners.
Buckhorn said he supports Hagan's idea and thinks it is well-timed because of the ongoing discussions between Kriseman and the Rays.
“If the Rays are able to look outside Pinellas County, I think Hillsborough County has to be in position to put its best minds to the task,” Buckhorn said. “The sports authority is merely a conduit to do that.”
The mayor said he still wants to see a stadium in downtown Tampa despite his recent statements about using downtown property tax money for projects other than a ballpark. Downtown is a Community Redevelopment Area where money generated by increased property valuations is funneled back into the region.
The CRA generates about $13 million a year and Buckhorn had previously said the money might be used to back a $100 million bond issue to help pay for a stadium. A retractable-roof stadium would cost an estimated $600 million, Buckhorn said at the time, and a substantial portion of that would have to come from the Rays.
But several weeks ago, the mayor seemed to shift course, suggesting the CRA money could be used to build a University of South Florida medical school or some other worthy project while the Rays continue their fight to leave Pinellas County.
“I've always been a believer in dealing with a bird in the hand rather than one in the bush,” Buckhorn said. “There will be quite a few demands. At this point I have to deal with what is real as opposed to what may be.”
Hagan's proposal still needs approval from the county commission Wednesday. He said he will once again argue that the Rays are a regional asset that must remain in the Tampa Bay area for economic and quality- of-life reasons. Forcing the Rays to stay in an outdated stadium with low attendance will drive the team out of the state with the backing of the commissioner of baseball, he said.
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The message of all this to the Rays is, we are ready,” Hagan said. “Time if of the essence. We don't want to wait another four or five years.”tbo.com/sports/rays/hillsborough-prepares-effort-to-woo-rays-across-bay-20140927/
