Rays' president strikes cooperative tone on stadium deal with St. PetersburgA day after the City Council slammed the stadium door on the Tampa Bay Rays, two main players made pointed overtures toward reconciliation.
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Despite the tally last night there seems to be good momentum toward reaching an agreement,'' Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman said Friday, referring to the council's 5-3 vote against a plan to let the team explore stadium sites in Hillsborough County.
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I expect conversations with the city will continue as we work toward an agreeable outcome,'' Silverman said.
Council member Karl Nurse — whose question about Tropicana Field development rights sent Thursday's meeting into a tailspin — predicted a deal could be worked out if the Rays "show some flexibility."
Mayor Rick Kriseman was leaving for a week's vacation and did not answer questions Friday.
But others hailed Silverman's optimistic tone, which contrasted sharply with earlier, tougher statements from team officials.
"We were hoping people didn't retreat and not talk for a couple years," said Chris Steinocher, president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce. "Conversations are good. Lets keep having conversations."
Council member Darden Rice said the stakes are too high to let bad feelings linger or lose momentum.
"We all owe it to each other, we owe it to the community and the future of major league baseball to have those thoughtful discussions," Rice said.
Under the proposed agreement — negotiated this month by Kriseman — the Rays would have paid the city $2 million to $4 million a year if they left St. Petersburg before their contract expires in 2027.
Rays owner Stuart Sternberg had warned that he would not renegotiate any of the terms. If the council rejected the deal, he said, baseball in Tampa Bay was "doomed." Neither he nor any other owner would play at the Trop after the contract expires.
During Thursday's meeting, Rays president Brian Auld would not yield an inch on Nurse's development rights issue. Council members got their backs up, called Auld's response arrogant and voted the deal down.
Silverman's olive branch Friday brought relief to council members and others.
"I think it's everything that most of us have hoped for — that the parties involved were not so entrenched as to be unable to look for common ground and that Mr. Silverman seems to think it's doable," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said.
Nurse said it's in everyone's best interest to back away from the blame game.
"My hope is everyone takes a deep breath. Cool off,'' he said.
The Trop development rights that caught Nurse's eye date back to when the city and original team owner Vince Naimoli negotiated the Trop contract. Both parties thought baseball might draw enough fans to justify a hotel on the Trop parking lot.
The city would replace lost parking spaces and subtract that cost from any sale or lease income. Then, the city and team would split any remaining proceeds equally.
Kriseman's deal gave the Rays three years to find a new stadium site and possible financing. If the team decided to move, they would sign a "termination agreement'' to cover Trop operations during the three or four transition years it would take put the new ballpark in place.
Nurse wanted to know how development rights would be divided during that transition window. He asked: If the Rays plan to leave, why should they share in sale or lease of land?
With the western edge of downtown finally catching fire, a hotel on an outlying parcel is not the only option. Theoretically, five or 10 or 20 of the Trop's 85 acres might come into play for apartments, condos or even office buildings while the team is still playing in St. Petersburg.
Before the recession, a developer bid $65 million for the entire Trop acreage, and several council members bandied around that figure as the benchmark for what they might have to share with the Rays.
On Friday, developer Craig Sher said "it is almost impossible to project'' the Trop's acreage value while the team is still playing but before they leave. Any major buyer would want certainty about the stadium's fate, and a Rays deal in, say, Tampa could always fall through.
"ABC corporation is not going to build an officer tower in a parking lot and have all that concrete around them.''
Intense development of the Trop during the transition period could also disrupt attendance and reduce parking revenues and the Rays would have veto power over any project.
City Attorney John Wolfe said the Rays and city never discussed development rights during negotiations. It only came up a few days before the council meeting, when Nurse asked the city legal staff to clarify it.
Nurse, who voted to approve the agreement Thursday, said the rights issue does not need to be settled now. He could accept negotiating those rights when the Rays announce they are leaving and all the wind-down issues are addressed.
Nurse said he's confident that if the Rays promise to negotiate in good faith, the council will approve the deal.
Times staff writers Marc Topkin and Tony Marrero contributed to this report.
Reaction and
the next steps
Council member Bill Dudley said he was "delighted" by Silverman's comments and that, for him, it reinforced his vote against the deal.
"We can make things happen if we sit down and talk openly and honestly and quit all the posturing," he said. "Why should we take the first deal thrown at us? It just wasn't good for us. . . . All I heard was the Rays get this, the Rays get that, but what about the city?"
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Council member Steve Kornell said the city, like the Rays, should examine every option available to it. That's what he plans to do.
"I'm going to be methodical and careful," Kornell said.
He hopes the city keeps the team, but wasn't impressed by Auld's performance at Thursday's meeting. The Rays president didn't seem like he was open to compromise or a "good discussion."
"The ball is in their court," Kornell said.
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Pinellas County commissioners Charlie Justice and Ken Welch both watched the meeting and said council members raised valid concerns, especially about development rights.
The compensation package if the Rays leave "wasn't what anybody wanted but probably the best they could considering the time line," Justice said. He still has hope for a deal, though.
"It's not like tonight is the deadline," Justice said. "We'll just wait and see what the Rays and the mayor come up with next."
The county remains a willing partner "fiscally and otherwise," Welch said. He urged Kriseman and the Rays to stay engaged and keep the conversation going.
"Ultimatums don't help us move forward," he said. "It's taken a long time to get to this point where we're having dialogue, and the fact that there wasn't a hundred percent agreement doesn't mean we can't continue to make progress. I'm optimistic."
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"I think the council showed a lot of moxie to make the stand and not to bend to the pressure," said city activist Dan Harvey Jr., who spoke at Thursday's meeting.
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Mark Ferguson, who owns Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill just across the street from the Trop, said he was happy the council didn't accept the deal, which he said wasn't good enough. "We will support the Rays in ways we never have," he said. "Our city is really evolving. I think we give them the best shot (at a stadium)."
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