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Finger-pointing continues in battle to manage Al Lang Stadium

 
Bill Edwards owns the Tampa Bay  Rowdies, who play at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg.
Bill Edwards owns the Tampa Bay Rowdies, who play at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg.
Published Sept. 19, 2014

ST. PETERSBURG — No one wants to talk about what caused the three-way deal to fall apart that involved the city, the St. Petersburg Baseball Commission and Bill Edwards over the management of Al Lang Stadium.

Edwards, who owns the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team and had sought exclusive management of the team's waterfront turf, released a statement that disputed the baseball commission's claim that he was to blame for the breakdown.

Edwards said he was trying to get a deal through Wednesday until a letter from the commission's attorney, Leonard Englander, halted negotiations.

"My objective has been to provide the city with a great opportunity for soccer to grow and thrive here. I am disappointed with this turn of events. We thought we were close to a deal," his statement read.

The Englander Fischer law firm declined comment Thursday, a day after blaming Edwards.

And at a St. Petersburg City Council meeting, city staff — despite working to facilitate the now defunct deal — stressed to concerned council members that the matter was between the commission and Edwards, and that they couldn't go into detail.

Joe Zeoli, a city official in charge of downtown enterprise facilities, said a letter that the baseball commission's attorney sent the mayor and council on Wednesday pretty much ended the city's involvement. The letter basically reiterated that no deal had been struck between the two parties.

The proposed deal would have given Edwards control over Al Lang Stadium for four years in exchange for him investing $1.5 million to upgrade the aging stadium. He would drop his lawsuit against the baseball commission over deteriorating conditions there, and the commission would get an extension on its management of the Walter Fuller Baseball Complex in west St. Petersburg. The city's $200,000 subsidy would have been redirected to Walter Fuller.

Now that the deal is dead, city officials said they would revert to a June agreement that gives the baseball commission the operating rights at Al Lang until 2016 and Walter Fuller until 2015.

Mayor Rick Kriseman, at a conference in Charleston, S.C., does not plan to wade back into the impasse to try to repair a deal that had been presented as all but certain a week ago, his staff said.

City Council member Karl Nurse asked if the deal could be revived.

"Quite honestly, I don't think we, the city administration, have had any indication as to which direction this will end," Zeoli said.

Council member Darden Rice said she was disappointed, but remained optimistic.

Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8459.