Stop me if you’ve heard this before.....
The Pinellas County Commission voted today to approve $312 million in bonds backed by proceeds from the county’s Tourist Development Tax. This at least in theory puts the Gas Plant stadium deal back on track.
The Commission’s vote was 5-2 in favor of approving the bonds. The two no votes were the two newest commissioners, Chris Scherer and Vince Nowicki. Dave Eggers and Chris Latvala both had voted “no” on the project previously, but switched their vote today.
Latvala’s change of heart was perhaps the most surprising. He had been the most outspoken stadium deal opponent prior to the November election, and after November 5 he had two additional no votes that allowed him to stop the deal from moving forward.
Why did he change his mind?
Well according to his statement, Rob Manfred came to town and made him feel better about everything:
MAJOR: Commissioner Latvala tells me he is the swing vote, and will vote to approve Rays stadium bonds.
— Aaron Parseghian WTSP (@AaronParseghian) December 17, 2024
At the same time skewers the Rays and owner Stu Sternberg, essentially calling for new ownership pic.twitter.com/R8GI90bxbB
Let’s put aside for the moment the laughable idea that the Glazer family is some sort of “good corporate citizen” role model (how much are Hillsborough County tax payers ponying up for the Bucs stadium?), or that Middleton and Steinbrenner, who merely have spring training in our area, are reasonable points of comparison. The striking note here is that Manfred somehow convinced Latvala that this deal was in his interest. In his spoken remarks Latvala went farther in blasting Sternberg and spent some time expressing his hopes that the team gets sold to new owners.
Dave Eggers, the other switched vote, also gave a long list of things he disliked about the deal before voting yes, largely after getting the assurances of the county attorney that approving the bonds doesn’t mean the bonds are immediately issued, and that the latter step would come only after the Rays had provided additional assurances of their commitment to the deal, including more fully developed plans and funding commitments.
With both the city and county now approving bond sales, you’d think the Rays leadership would be overjoyed. Right?
Well, tell me if this is what “overjoyed” sounds like:
It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how important the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium development agreement are to this community and its citizens. As we have made clear, the County’s delay has caused the ballpark’s completion to slide into 2029. As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the County and City wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.”
- Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman
It’s still not clear to some of us why a one month delay pushes back the stadium completion an entire season. If they had initially planned to occupy the stadium on Opening Day in 2028 couldn’t they have the place ready by, say, May of that year? But at any rate, the Rays still sound angry and sour and if their goal is to rebuild bridges with local government they have an odd way of doing it. They sound to me like someone who is trying to be so mean and unpleasant that their partner breaks up with them, so they can get out of the relationship without bearing the costs of instigating the breakup.
In other words, we are far from having assurances that we’ll have a stadium or a team moving forward.
