April Fools' Day Stadium Proposal

I got an email today from a Tampa real estate executive who said he was pitching a new stadium idea.  It prompted me to tweet this:

The idea would be for the City of St. Pete to purchase land in Tampa for a new stadium, then receive concessions, sales tax, TIF, and other revenues to help pay for the loss of its team.

Not-so-coincidentally, the real estate executive was proposing the stadium be built on a downtrodden piece of land he was trying to sell near Ybor City.

Nevermind the fact that the Rays aren't exactly likely to give concessions away.  And nevermind the fact that other developers are offering free land for a stadium; he wanted $8.2 million for his listing.

The biggest problem with the proposition was that the executive admitted in a follow-up email he had no idea how to pay for a new stadium.  Remember, land isn't the problem in this whole stalemate; financing is.

I have to give a lot of credit to a local businessman who is not only thinking "outside the box," but has put a lot of thought into a detailed master plan that involves hotel development, transit, and revenue considerations.

However, it's all a moot point until someone addresses how to pay for a new stadium, and - for now - we'll have to chalk this idea up to an agent just hoping to draw some attention to his commercial listing.

That, or an April Fool's joke.