Analysis of Mayor Foster's Proposed Amendment to Rays

After giving the documents another read-through, I'm learning more about the mayor's proposal to the Rays that I wrote about earlier this evening:

1) The language of the current use agreement prohibits the two parties to even consider new stadium sites right now, so it needs to be amended for the city and team to (legally) proceed with discussions.

2) While the mayor said he would be open to non-St. Pete stadium sites if they were adjacent to the city and could be annexed in, a map on the last page of the amendment shows how few sites he was actually talking about.

The areas included in the mayor's "expanded" possibilities are Derby Lane, the Airco Golf Course, and the St. Pete-Clearwater Airport. The mayor tells me tonight its not logical to talk about the airport site, so we're left with two very small concessions.

3) Almost all of "Gateway" is already within city limits, so building a stadium near the bay bridges - whether it be at Toytown, Carillon, or somewhere else - remains the most probable scenario. Of course, I've been saying that for 14 months now...