Who will Kriseman really be negotiating for when he meets with the Rays St. Petersburg or his ego?
St. Petersburg, FL
In a not too surprising turn of events, St. Pete
City Council approved the Kennedy Plan allowing the Rays to look for a new
stadium outside the City.
Charlie Frago Tampa Bay Times has the details in his
article St.
Petersburg approves proposal that allows the Rays to consider stadium sites
outside the city.
You would
think just getting the controlling political body to agree to let the Rays look
would be a victory, but Kriseman started to poo poo the deal from the get-go.
"Typically,
you don't see offers get better with time. So that's a concern. The other
concern is that the amount that the Rays are being asked to pay is more than
they were asked to pay the first time," Kriseman said after the vote.
Actually,
deals do get better with time, especially when the other party, the Rays, have
a bit of a time crunch themselves.
Add to
that Kevin King, Kriseman's Chief of staff comment regarding the Mayor's view:
"He'll attend the meeting, but whatever happens, he won't be reduced to
playing messenger. He doesn't have to do
anything," King said. "He has to be on board, too."
Really?
See the
whole back story in Charlie Frago's Tampa
Bay Times Article Third
time the charm? St. Pete City Council considers another deal with Tampa Bay
Rays.
Council
member Charlie Gerdes plan, which I personally liked, never got a hearing, so
he voted against the Kennedy deal. Don't read too much into the Gerdes vote. This
way, City Council has a fallback position if they need it.
The chances
the Rays can get out of the Trop by 2020 are small so the likelihood they would
pay out the whole $33 million of the Kennedy plan is also small. Even if they
did and if their bright shiny new stadium was full of beaming fans wouldn't it
be worth it?
They
wouldn't blink at $33 million for a player they wanted.
What we
have now is a Mayor with a wounded ego, a chief of staff who can't seem to keep
his mouth shut, a City Council Chair that switched sides and a baseball team
that has a tough decision to make.
The Rays
would be smart to grab this deal and get the process they have longed for
locked in and started.
Trying to
play Gerdes against Kennedy would be a big mistake and trying to play the Mayor
against City Council would be really stupid.
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