April 27, 2011

Tampa mayor: I'm not building Rays a stadium, but if I did...

Newly elected Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn told the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce yesterday that he has no plans of stealing the Rays from St. Petersburg with a new stadium. Buckhorn said that he told St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster: "I'm not going to be the boyfriend in your divorce."

Then Buckhorn went on to say that if that divorce happened without him, well, then he might consider picking up the Rays on the rebound:

• "We ought to do everything we can to make sure the Rays stay in the Tampa Bay area," said Buckhorn, adding that he'd prefer a downtown Tampa site: "Urban stadiums can have a huge economic impact. They can revitalize a downtown."
• He suggested that a stadium would require "significant" team money, but allowed for spending public funds on infrastructure, perhaps via a tax increment financing district to kick back property taxes around a stadium.
• Buckhorn insisted that the Chamber of Commerce's current study of baseball stadium is "totally removed from me."

In related news, yesterday's St. Petersburg Times looked at the threats of contracting the Rays or relocating them to another city, and (mostly via quotes from sports economist Mark Rosentraub) concluded that it ain't happening. Isn't this where we came in?