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Editorial: Edwards plays hardball with the city

 
Published Sept. 16, 2014

The best thing that can be said about the deal St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has struck with Bill Edwards to take control of Al Lang Stadium may be that it's just a four-year contract. That means all options remain open to the city over the long term regarding the future of the historic baseball site, and Edwards simultaneously has time to demonstrate whether his ambitions for professional soccer in St. Petersburg are realistic. But the way this deal was crafted, following a lawsuit by one of the city's most influential residents and behind closed doors, is disconcerting. The future of such a public asset, particularly one as storied as Al Lang, should not hinge on dropping a lawsuit and writing a big private check to fix the place up.

Under the pending deal, Edwards has pledged to spend $1.5 million in upgrades in return for taking over maintenance and operation of the city-owned Al Lang from the current contract holder, the St. Petersburg Baseball Commission. No baseball would be played in the stadium, but Edwards would offer outdoor concerts there in addition to the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer season. In exchange, any of the city's baseball programming, such as the springtime St. Petersburg International Baseball season, would shift to Naimoli Complex in the city's westside Walter Fuller Park, which the baseball commission would continue to operate under city contract. Edwards has also agreed to drop a pending lawsuit against the baseball commission, which had claimed the commission failed to maintain Al Lang appropriately.

Technically, the deal isn't officially done until the City Council votes Thursday on the plan. But the same leverage Edwards exercised to force Kriseman and the baseball commission to the table — the lawsuit and cash — still hangs in the balance. And like so often happens in hardball business, the mere threat of litigation can make compromise less costly.

The City Council also ought to have a broader discussion about the wisdom of effectively turning control of so much of the waterfront over to one individual. Edwards already operates the city-owned Mahaffey Theater next door to Al Lang and has invested millions of his own money in refurbishing it. His public philanthropy and private investment in ventures ranging from the Sundial shopping complex to buying and flipping a prime downtown block to a developer have benefited St. Petersburg. But Edwards also has his own financial interests, which include improving Al Lang so his soccer team can be more successful. At some point, his personal goals and the city's long-range goals may not mesh as well as they have so far.

Edwards has played this hand well, but the agreement the City Council is expected to approve Thursday should not be viewed as a commitment by the city to Edwards' vision of a new waterfront soccer stadium when Al Lang is torn down. If anything, it makes the city's current waterfront master planning process all the more important, and all options should be on the table. St. Petersburg residents should decide what is best for the city at the Al Lang site, and that could well be different from what Edwards envisions.