Rays pitched a plan to renovate Trop to stay in St. Pete through 2038

ST. PETERSBURG — While much of Tampa Bay seems to be vacillating between anger, disappointment and frustration over Stuart Sternberg’s decision Thursday to pull out of a new stadium deal, the Rays have been oddly upbeat about the situation.

Perhaps because they have another plan in mind?

The Rays have floated the concept of a major renovation of Tropicana Field beyond just repairing the shredded roof. In the past month, the team has pitched the idea of St. Pete, Pinellas County and the team contributing equal amounts of funds — thought to be $200 million apiece — to fix up the 35-year-old stadium and, in return, the Rays would agree to a 10-year extension that would keep the franchise at the ballpark through the 2038 season.

“It is one of many possibilities that has been discussed with the city and the county since the hurricanes,” Rays president Matt Silverman said Friday. “We are open to any and all avenues that results in the Rays thriving here in Tampa Bay for years and for decades.”

The plan was not well-received by either the city or the county, although that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s completely dead.

“We’re looking at a number of options but I don’t want to talk about, at this point, this notion of a 10- or 15-year extension at the Trop,” St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said Thursday. “We need to get the termination (letter), if they’re going in that direction, to make sure that all the boxes are checked there. And we’ll talk with the council and with the community about the paths forward.”

Welch’s main concern seems to be that the baseball stadium was part of a larger redevelopment meant to follow through on the promises made to residents of the Historic Gas Plant District going back to the 1980s when the City Council first approved the building of the stadium.

“This community has waited for 40 years to get the promises, the jobs, the economic development coming out of that development,” Welch said. “I don’t want to extend it under that same Trop-and-60-acres-of-asphalt model going forward. I want those benefits — the housing, the jobs, the economic opportunity — to start benefitting those people.”

There is a scenario where the city could begin building on the acres of parking spaces east of the stadium while the Trop is remodeled, but that might also require working out a deal on who profits from the development. Under the original use agreement, the Rays had been entitled to 50% of the revenues from redevelopment.

Under the future agreement that the Rays are backing out of, the team and Hines were obligated to build certain amenities to benefit the community. Those amenities might not necessarily be as economically beneficial to developers, but that was part of the tradeoff for turning over the land to the team and Hines. Those details would also likely need to be renegotiated under any plan to renovate the stadium.

Under the plan for a new stadium, the county and city were combining to commit $600 million (plus another $140 million in infrastructure costs) while the Rays were on the hook for $700 million and all cost overruns.

So what would a Trop makeover look like?

The Rays could potentially take some of the ideas for their pavilion-style ballpark and incorporate them into a new-age Tropicana. That could include patio-style seating areas, more bars with field views and additional standing-room-only perches.

Team officials have been running the idea past local business leaders, and there does seem to be some interest in exploring the idea further.

“I do believe those conversations will happen as everybody calms down. Emotions are so raw right now, I think we could all use a timeout,” said St. Pete Chamber of Commerce CEO Chris Steinocher on Friday. “At some point, we can open the door to when and how a plan like this might work. I know some people might see it as letting (the Rays) off the hook, but the bigger issue is keeping baseball here and keeping the team as a community asset.”

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