Perspective

Baker holds the key to new stadium

By TIM NICKENS, Deputy Editor of Editorials
Published December 2, 2007

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker seemed to be everywhere.

He played touch football with Mitt Romney and appeared on stage at the Republicans' presidential debate. He talked to reporters at the new tent city for the homeless. He signed off on the final deal to move the Salvador Dali Museum to a spot near the Mahaffey Theater.

But what Baker did not do last week was most significant. He did not announce his support for the Tampa Bay Rays' proposed stadium on the downtown waterfront. He attended the news conference at Al Lang Field where team officials unveiled their drawings, but he declined an opportunity to speak. Gov. Charlie Crist gushed about the plans for his hometown. The mayor remained off stage and off camera.

Tell me the last time you saw a big-city mayor pass up an opportunity to join professional team owners and a big-time developer in the spotlight to promote a shiny new stadium and mega-retail project. Baker stayed in the background and sent a clear message.

The mayor isn't endorsing a bold vision for the future until the details are clearer. And make no mistake, this isn't moving beyond artist renderings without the mayor.

"There are still a lot of questions and unknown answers," Baker told me Friday.

This is a prudent approach, far different than the risk-taking in the 1980s by City Hall when St. Petersburg had no major league team, no dome, no BayWalk and no construction cranes dotting the skyline. The city has shed its inferiority complex. Downtown is vibrant. Leadership in City Hall is more sophisticated.

The Rays' opening pitch for a $450-million waterfront stadium largely financed by new development on the Tropicana Field site is intriguing. Their declarations about relying on no new tax money, creating partnerships with the community and avoiding threats about leaving are reassuring.

"We're not demanding a stadium," Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg told the Times' editorial board. "We're trying to do this thing in a really civic-minded way."

It sounds like the Rays already have sold the governor. Crist can ask the Legislature for $60-million in sales tax breaks for a new stadium, but he doesn't have much to lose if lawmakers refuse - as I suspect they will. The Rays have not yet sold the mayor, and they need him even more.

That's because Baker and the city largely control how this plays out.

Baker and the city - not the Rays - will issue the request for proposals for redeveloping the Tropicana Field site. They decide what mix of retail space, housing and parks to pursue. The Rays and a prominent developer the team selected, Hines of Houston, have sketched one vision. But it will be interesting to watch whether the city writes a request for proposals that mirrors what Hines suggests or invites more versatility.

There is no harm in finding out what the Trop site is worth and what developers envision building there. Baker and the city - not the Rays - ultimately will decide whether any of the proposals are worth pursuing and whether to go with Hines or someone else. If the money or the proposals aren't enticing, the whole thing can be written off as a worthwhile exercise that didn't pan out.

Baker and the city also have plenty of other leverage, including negotiating a new lease with the Rays on the new stadium. And it will be up to the mayor and the City Council to decide whether the project is viable enough to ask voters to consider in November 2008.

In the end, Baker said, the test will be whether a financially feasible project can be put together and whether it can attract broad-based community support. "Unless the answer to both things is yes," he said, "I don't think you proceed."

This debate will take place at many levels, from the Legislature to the County Commission to the City Council to neighborhood groups. But ultimately, it comes back to the mayor.

With two years left in his second term, Baker can point to a number of successes over six years. A new stadium was not on his agenda. Now this project is so large and complicated it could eat up much of the remainder of his time in office.

A new waterfront baseball stadium and the city's largest downtown development project would define the legacy of any mayor. For now, Baker is smart to remain cautious as he works with the Rays to flush out the details on a project he did not conceive.

The mayor holds most of the cards. He can fold anywhere along the way. But eventually he will have to show his hand and declare where he stands. Without Baker's full public support, we won't be talking about how voters just approved a new stadium and redevelopment project this time next year.

[Last modified December 3, 2007, 09:11:42]