Kriseman Meets with Rays Again, "Hopeful" for Deal by End of Year

Charlie Frago reports today in the Tampa Bay Times:

Kriseman and Rays president Matt Silverman met for about an hour at Tropicana Field on Friday afternoon, the latest in a series of "good" meetings that haven't yielded any concrete steps toward resolving the long-running saga of finding a new stadium site for the major league baseball team that finished a losing campaign Sunday with (depending on how you tally the numbers) MLB's lowest-attendance.

"Now that the season's over, they can have more meetings and more productive meetings," King said.

Another meeting between Kriseman and Silverman is being scheduled and should take place soon, he said.

Kriseman officials say they remain hopeful that a deal can be reached by year's end.

The previous mayor, Bill Foster, was also hopeful he could strike a deal, but ultimately said the Rays were unwilling to compensate the city in exchange for a contract amendment allowing the team to look at stadium sites in Hillsborough County.

The current mayor, Kriseman, said on the campaign trail the Rays must pay if it wants its contract amended.   His campaign website also said he wanted a plan in-place within nine months of taking office.  That didn't happen.   This didn't happen either.

What a tangled web we weave...