Key Takeaways From Today's St. Pete Stadium Workshop

There really was no progress in this morning's St. Pete council workshop on a new Rays stadium, but as council chair Charlie Gerdes identified, this was going to be merely the first workshop in a long string of them to try and build the team a new home in Pinellas County (if they want one there). 

Key tweets:

Stadium workshop in #StPete: Forgone conclusion any new #Rays stadium in Pinellas would require dedication of 5th & 6th cent of tourist tax.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

#StPete councilman Karl Nurse: The cost of a new #Rays stadium is going to be 2-2.5x the cost of the original stadium.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

#StPete councilman Nurse urges council not think private development will magically sprout from ground after you build a new #Rays stadium.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

#StPete councilman Kornell on new stadium: Don't put number out there now and let #Rays negotiate us off it. Bad negotiating.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

Councilman Kornell says "substitution effect" ignored in rosy econ impact studies. He's right: http://t.co/C3nBWsC233 #SportsBiz #Rays
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

#StPete council member @AmyforStPete and Jim Kennedy argue that @RaysBaseball moving to Tampa is similar economically to leaving TB.
— Charlie Frago (@CharlieFrago) February 19, 2015

If #StPete won't increase taxes for a new stadium, brunt of public financing would fall on county/state. Not easy equation to balance.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

#StPete councilman @SteveKornell asks how much is too much to ask taxpayers to pay for a new #Rays stadium. #GoodQuestion #SportsBiz
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

#StPete council passes unanimous resolution to work toward keeping #Rays in #StPete past 2027 (presumably w/new stadium). End of workshop.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

And finally, one last observation I made:

At #StPete #Rays workshop, conflict of interest developing w/city attorney representing both mayor and council.
— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 19, 2015

Ball is now in the Rays' court, as they try to negotiate a new agreement with Mayor Rick Kriseman.