ST. PETERSBURG — With expectations that the new City Council will break a year-long impasse regarding the Tampa Bay Rays stadium lease, the next stop will be the Pinellas County Commission.
The commission controls the tourist tax money the city would need for a new ballpark should the Rays, after searching Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, decide to stay in St. Petersburg.
“The next obvious thing is how to assemble some kind of a public-private financing to put a deal together,” council member Karl Nurse said. “And the county commission has to be involved in that conversation.”
For while the city may choose to let the Rays to look around, the council and Mayor Rick Kriseman have said they want to keep the team somewhere in St.