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Nickens: How two bets on the future define a city

 
The Florida Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field) is shown in the early stages of construction in the late 1980s.
The Florida Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field) is shown in the early stages of construction in the late 1980s.
Published Jan. 15, 2016

Thirty years.

Think how long it has been since the St. Petersburg City Council voted on a hot July afternoon in 1986 to take a leap of faith and build a domed stadium in hopes of attracting a Major League Baseball franchise and rejuvenating a dying downtown. It was a risky bet on the future by a stagnant city desperate for a new start, but it was the right decision and it paid off.

Fast forward three decades. The City Council took another difficult vote last week to let the Tampa Bay Rays look for a new home in both Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, opening the door to redeveloping the Tropicana Field site with or without a new stadium. It was the right decision, and it should pay off for the city and the region.

The connection between these two pivotal moments is not lost on those of us who have been around a while. Some opponents of allowing the Rays to look at stadium sites in both counties suggest that dishonors those who worked so hard all those years ago to bring a baseball team to St. Petersburg. They see it as a slap at the council members who voted to build the dome. They are convinced the Rays want to leave the region, and they want to force the team to play in the outdated Trop until the lease expires in 2027.

That outdated, pinched view does not reflect the spirit of the council vote I wrote about as a young reporter in 1986. The best way to keep the Rays here is letting them look throughout their core market for the stadium site that best ensures their success. The surest way to drive the team to Charlotte or Montreal or wherever would have been treating the Rays as adversaries rather than partners, clinging to the long-term Trop lease and running out the clock.

"The people who voted to build that stadium were bold,'' council member Charlie Gerdes said at last week's meeting. "We need to be bold.''

For St. Petersburg, this is not just about baseball. It's about an opportunity to capitalize on downtown's remarkable momentum and redevelop the Trop's 85 acres with or without a stadium. It's about creating jobs and more economic opportunity.

Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch is confident his late father would have supported last week's decision to let the Rays look around. David Welch was one of six City Council members who voted in 1986 to build the dome on the site of an African-American neighborhood that already had been leveled for economic development that never came.

"This is the only way to fulfill that promise,'' Ken Welch said. "It opens the door for doing the right thing with those 85 acres in St. Petersburg, and if we can do that and keep baseball in the region, we're all for it.''

If you weren't here in 1986, it's hard to imagine what it was like. Downtown St. Petersburg was dead. The Vinoy hotel had been closed for years. Bayfront Tower was the only high-rise condo near the downtown waterfront. There were no downtown movie theaters, no Sundial shops, no hip bars or bustling restaurants, no iconic home for the Dalí Museum.

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Tampa and St. Petersburg were locked in a bitter fight over who would build a baseball stadium first. The baseball commissioner warned St. Petersburg it was not among the top candidates for a franchise. George Steinbrenner, the late Tampa resident and New York Yankees owner, reportedly referred to St. Petersburg as "nothing but a bunch of old folks over there and a rickety bridge to get there.'' Against all of that, the St. Petersburg City Council still took the plunge.

The city and the region are in a much better place now. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn appeared together this month at the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club and sang each other's praises. Kriseman lobbied Buckhorn and Hillsborough commissioners to chip in on an experiment with a ferry crossing the bay. Buckhorn supported the unsuccessful Pinellas transit referendum two years ago. Enlightened public officials and business leaders know the region is strongest when everyone works together and that the real competition is between Tampa Bay and other parts of the country and the world. They understand that transportation hubs, universities, museums and professional sports franchises are regional assets.

The St. Petersburg City Council's decision to let the Rays look for stadium sites in both counties recognizes that this is not 1986. The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, which helped lead the stadium effort 30 years ago, supported breaking the stalemate last week. The St. Petersburg Times editorial board campaigned hard in the 1980s to build the dome. The newspaper became the Tampa Bay Times four years ago to reflect our ambitions for the region, and the editorial board has advocated letting the Rays look in both counties.

It's not clear to me whether the best site for a new baseball stadium will be in Tampa or St. Petersburg. It will take time to find out. That's why it is so important for the Rays to start looking now and for the public and private sectors in both counties to help. It's also smart for St. Petersburg to start exploring redevelopment opportunities at the Trop site while downtown is on a roll.

In 1986, the St. Petersburg City Council bet on hope and faith in building a stadium without a team — and eventually won. Last week, the council played a much stronger hand and made a safer bet on the future. This is not an insult to the legacy of those who brought baseball to Tampa Bay and ignited St. Petersburg's rebirth. This is a path to preserve and enhance it for future generations.