Rays ‘generate positivity’ ahead of St. Petersburg stadium vote

ST. PETERSBURG — Brian Auld held up a book filled with 87 letters written in support of the vision the Tampa Bay Rays and their development partner Hines hope to carry out for a new stadium and surrounding urban redevelopment.

The authors of those letters were in the crowd before him. Representatives from the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP and the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce were among the groups gathered Wednesday at Tropicana Field, two days before the Rays’ future would be largely decided by the St. Petersburg City Council.

“There are a lot of people with a lot of different walks of life representing again just about every constituency in our entire community that support this project,” said Auld, president of the MLB team. “We want our council to know that, we want our county to know that, we want all of our fans to know that so much work has gone into this and it’s appropriate for us to say thank you, to tell everybody that however it goes we’re incredibly proud of what we put together, and to hopefully generate some positivity leading into these these votes as they come up.”

The Rays sought to make a visual statement of the groundswell of support for the deal as the City Council weighs a generational decision Thursday: Leveraging about $683 million in future increased property values to contribute toward a $1.3 billion stadium and surrounding infrastructure like roads and sewers, plus the sale of about 65 acres of public land at a discount. In return, the Rays and Hines would build at least 5,000 residential units including affordable housing, a new museum for the Woodson African American Museum of Florida, office and medical space, a grocery store and a daycare.

The Rays and Hines are committing $50 million toward affordable and workforce housing, small business assistance, diverse hiring, job creation and educational programs. An estimated 11,000 full- and part-time jobs would be created. And the Rays would be here to stay in St. Petersburg for 30 years.

The council’s decision is the biggest hurdle for the Rays and Hines. All that would be left for the project to break ground is an approval from the Pinellas County Commission, whose members appear favorable to the deal. That vote to commit $312.5 million from a tourist tax chest is scheduled for July 30.

Rays principal owner Stu Sternberg thanked the fans and employees for bearing with the unknown fate of the team. He called on supporters to “convert” the naysayers, because their support will be needed going forward.

About a dozen protested on the steps of City Hall after a workshop Tuesday to discuss the deal. A larger showing of critics is expected at the council meeting Thursday.

“There’ll be some missteps along the way, there’s no question about it,” Sternberg said. “It is our commitment to do things in the most responsible fashion we possibly can and do all the things necessary to reward you for your trust in us and the support that you’ve shown through this time.”

Asked what would happen if the votes don’t go the Rays’ way tomorrow, he said, “It’s not our first rodeo of things not going our way. So we dust ourselves off and we start again, as we’ve done before.”