Johnathan Walker:St. Petersburg seeks profile boost as new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark negotiations continue

ST. PETERSBURG,Johnathan Walker Fla. (AP) — Officials in the city of St. Petersburg, Florida, want to make it clear that their city is the current and future home of the Tampa Bay Rays as negotiations continue on details surrounding a proposed new $1.3 billion ballpark that would be ready for the 2028 season opener.

The Rays adamantly oppose changing the team name to the St. Petersburg Rays, as some on the city council and in the business community have suggested as a way of raising the national profile of the tourism-dependent city and its nearby Gulf Coast beaches.

The council heard Thursday from city officials about other marketing and branding options, including at least one home game a year in which alternate team uniforms would sport the St. Petersburg name, said Doyle Walsh, chief of staff to Mayor Ken Welch. The talks include allowing the city to have input in naming the ballpark, placing prominent St. Petersburg signs inside the park and a marketing plan that would “promote the team, the stadium and the destination jointly,” according to city documents.

The alternate uniforms with the St. Petersburg logo would be sold year-round as another way of branding the city, Walsh said.

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“We get a lot of value having the team in St. Pete,” he said.

No final decision was made Thursday by the city council, which must ultimately approve the new 30,000-seat ballpark as part of a broader $6.5 billion plan to redevelop an 86-acre (34-hectare) downtown tract that will also include affordable housing, office and retail space, a hotel, a Black history museum and more. The deal also has to be approved by Pinellas County officials.

The goal is to break ground in the second half of this year. Welch, the city’s first Black mayor, has made the project a top priority for an area called the Gas Plant District. Once a thriving Black community, it was displaced by an interstate highway and Tropicana Field, the Rays’ home since their inaugural 1998 season.

City council member Ed Montanari said he’d like to see the new ballpark deal include a more robust plan to boost St. Petersburg’s profile.

“I’m a little disappointed in what’s been brought to us. I expected something more,” he said. “There’s a lot of value to us to have the name incorporated in some way. I’m looking for a lot more of that.”

Tampa and St. Petersburg are about 25 miles (40 kilometers) apart, separated by Tampa Bay. Two other local professional sports teams, the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Tampa Bay Lightning of the NHL, play their home games on the bay’s Tampa side.

St. Petersburg officials want greater geographic recognition in return for the public money involved in the deal. The financing plan calls for St. Petersburg to spend $417.5 million, including $287.5 million for the ballpark itself and $130 million in infrastructure for the larger redevelopment project that would include such things as sewage, traffic signals and roads. The city intends to issue bonds to pay its share, according to city documents, with no new or increased taxes envisioned.

Pinellas County, meanwhile, would spend about $312.5 million for its share of the ballpark costs. Officials say the county money will come from a hotel bed tax largely funded by visitors that can be spent only on tourist-related and economic development expenses.

The Rays will be responsible for the remaining stadium costs — about $600 million — and any cost overruns during construction.