Tag: Pinellas County

Arena Ballpark Stadium

Will news sites ever properly label people who are clearly biased or have an interest in the venue?

Yesterday, I saw an opinion piece in the Sports Business Journal. The point of the piece was just how great the World Cup will make our stadiums look for future events. The article claims that the current stadiums that are hosting World Cup matches shortly are all in top-notch form and can handle any future “World Cup (matches), Super Bowl(s) & specialty events, concerts, and more.” About here is where I started to wonder whether this was an actual opinion piece or essentially an advertisement by a financially biased individual/group. It is the latter. Before we go into that,…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

The Tampa Bay Rays owner and executives should be embarrassed at their recent comments

The Tampa Bay Rays are responsible for all cost overruns and have one of the cheapest and worst owners in all sports. So, it would make sense that Sternberg could be getting nervous and is trying to find any way possible to get out of this deal. One of the Rays team presidents, Silverman, not that long ago stated how the current deal may not be good for the Rays “in the context of Major League Baseball and fielding a competitive team for the next 30 years”. I do not understand the last part of this comment. Is he…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

Why are the Tampa Bay Rays publicly crying about rising ballpark costs yet refusing to give the mayor any evidence of this financial increase?

In June 2024, the Tampa Bay Rays agreed to a $1.3 billion deal with both the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. The initial numbers given to the public about costs showed that $600 million would be split between the city and county while the Rays pick up the rest, totaling $700 million. These numbers are insanely misleading for several reasons. One, they don't include the many hundred of millions that the city/county will need to spend on infrastructure improvements. Two, the lack of property taxes is not included in these numbers. Three, there are still so many…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

Tampa Bay Times: Just approve the new ballpark. If we don’t, people will say mean things to us

Transparent? Everyone, outside the team, knew little to nothing about this deal until the very end. A few months after the deal was announced in 2023, the Tampa Bay Times wrote an article that had this line in it: “After months of secret negotiations, the release Thursday of finance projections…”. In March of this year, the team was actively trying to get both the city and county to approve the ballpark deal. However, both Pinellas County commissioners and St. Pete City Council members seemed to say the same thing…they needed actual answers. Pinellas County Commissioner Dave Eggers issued a…

William Neilson Jr.
Ballpark

The Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays are fighting each other for tourist dollars

When the Tampa Bay Rays do construct a new ballpark, it will be with a significant amount of taxpayer money. For years, it has been reported that the Rays are “willing to finance half of the cost of a new (ballpark)”. How nice of them. But the Rays couldn't build it on their own if they wanted to because their owner isn't wealthy enough to fund such a project. This means the Rays will need as much taxpayer funds as possible.

William Neilson Jr.