Is this the beginning of the end for the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg after 27 years? Based on recent remarks from St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, the city is ready to move on without the MLB team.
On Tuesday, During Welch’s State of the City address, he mentioned that St. Petersburg has other options should the Rays choose to walk away from a deal to build a $1.3 billion stadium and an adjacent mixed-use development in the city’s Historic Gas Plant District.
“If we still have a willing partner in the Rays, then we will move forward — which is my clear preference,” Welch said. “But as your mayor, please know that we are prepared, and have always been prepared, to adapt, adjust and move forward if the Rays walk away from this partnership. If that scenario unfolds, then with the land reverting back to the city, we will have three or four years — depending on when the Tropicana Field repairs are complete — to implement another path forward.”
Both the city and Pinellas County recently approved bonding to fund $600 million of the projected stadium cost, but delays in these legislative processes have introduced additional expenses that the Rays say they cannot bear alone.
Last year, Welch assured the St. Petersburg City Council that he would not present a new deal requiring a higher contribution from the city. “We will not pursue the deal at any cost,” Welch emphasized. “The greatness and future of St. Pete does not depend solely on this deal.”
When asked about his recent discussions with Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg, Welch declined to provide specifics. He also indicated that he would be unlikely to consider a new deal with the Rays. “Your word means a lot,” he said after his speech. “It was a painstaking process to reach these agreements. We spent a lot of time negotiating and discussing what the right deal would be. To now say, ‘That doesn’t make sense’ would undermine any future efforts.”
Welch reiterated that the fate of the current deal rests with the Rays. In a Tiger Bay Club forum moderated by the Tampa Bay Business Journal on January 27, he expressed no regret about discarding the redevelopment bids for the Tropicana Field site from former Mayor Rick Kriseman, which included the option for a project that didn’t focus on a new stadium.
“We will keep working until the final out,” Welch affirmed. Despite the recently approved public bonding, there is still no finalized agreement to build the stadium. The Rays have until March 31 to meet specific logistical benchmarks that will unlock the public funding. So far, team owner Stu Sternberg has only said, “We’ll decide how we want to proceed at that point, well before that point.”
Welch concluded by stating that the city “has other options if the Rays decide to walk away from a sweeping plan” to build a $1.3 billion ballpark and redevelop the Historic Gas Plant District, as the city “would retain valuable downtown land.”
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