St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch has no regrets that the Tampa Bay Rays withdrew their plans last year to build a stadium in his city. Indeed, he’s quite happy about it.
Last March, the team discontinued its plans for a new $1.3 billion, 30,000-seat venue in St. Petersburg. The Tampa Bay Times reports the mayor used a radio show appearance to highlight the “stronger offers” that followed the aborted stadium redevelopment plan.
Welch cited new proposals to develop the Historic Gas Plant District that will provide more opportunities for local small and minority-owned businesses and more affordable and workforce housing.
“We are actually in a better place economically in terms of honoring those promises than we would have been with the Rays,” Welch said, noting the city is scheduling groundbreaking on certain parcels on the site where the stadium was supposed to be built. The city received eight proposals to consider after the Rays pulled out of their redevelopment deal.
“So yes, I was disappointed that the previous Rays ownership did not honor their commitment and the contracts that they had signed,” Welch continued. “We are still, all that said, in a better place, and I’m still determined to honor those promises that I made as a candidate and that this city made to our community 40 years ago.”
In January, the Rays signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Tampa’s Hillsborough College to redevelop the college’s 113-acre Dale Mabry campus to become a new baseball stadium and mixed-use development.
