Thursday, February 7, 2013

Foster, St. Pete Council Read Shadow of the Stadium

I can't say it's a fact, but it appears St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster and at least two of the city's councilmembers pay attention to what's posted on this blog.

During Thursday's council meeting where a proposed amendment to the city's stadium contract with the Rays was shot down by a 4-4 vote, several references were made to Shadow of the Stadium posts (albiet, not by name).
  • Councilman Steve Kornell questioned whether the Rays' revenues were Tampa Bay's problems or Major League Baseball's problems, mentioning the lack of a salary cap, as I wrote back in August 2011.
  • Kornell also said the Rays' statistic of only 300 season ticket accounts in St. Petersburg was misleading, given the lack of the big picture, as I wrote two weeks ago.  Councilman Bill Dudley also echoed the sentiment.
  • Council chair Karl Nurse said, "these conversations hurt attendance; it feels a bit like a 'jilted lover' kind of thing." It's similar to my July 2010 post where I said the Rays' complaining about Tropicana Field would only serve to hurt attendance more. 
  • City attorney John Wolfe warned council about getting outflanked in the stadium discussions by a team and league, which - as I wrote in September 2012 - are both better at this "game" than any municipality.
  • Foster also pointed out that if the Rays really are concerned about struggling financially, as I questioned in June 2011, the team should open its books to prove it.

3 comments:

  1. "Negative Noah" tooting your own horn huh!, good for you, keep'em on there toes!

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  2. Yep - i write the mayor's office infrequently and usually reference your site or Neil's. There's loads of good material here to contradict and counteract all the hogwash the Rays and the newspaper morons keep spewing out.

    They're ready to bankrupt us all to solve a problem that does not exist.

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  3. "They're ready to bankrupt us all to solve a problem that does not exist."
    LOL, the Rays aren't bankrupting anyone, and do you really think all this is because they DON'T have stadium problem, com'on man, keep it real...

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