This is a warning to all smaller metro areas regarding the financing of stadiums or other large boondoggles for private interests with public financing.
Per Forbes magazine, “Publicly Financed Sports Stadiums Are A Game That Taxpayers Lose.”
Forbes is a Cheerleader for big business, but even they smell a rat.
Stop the Trop Land Grab
Let’s stop the Fire Sale of our 86 acre Crown-Jewel to outside real estate & moneyed interests by OUR current & future St Petersburg Mayor & City Council !!!
3 Major Flaws with ALL Trop proposals
Flaw #1: Nothing truly beneficial for the long-term interests of
St Petersburg & Pinellas County residents and businesses are contained in any of the proposals.
Flaw #2: Why are we having a fire sale of our downtown 86 acre Crown Jewel to Private Interests?
The City of St Petersburg is looking to sell off our publicly owned 86-acre site
w/ stadium to a handful of private investors & entities.
Do we want to look like downtown Tampa in a few years with concrete canyons?
If we each wanted that, wouldn’t we now be living in Tampa?
Flaw #3: All the developers want the city to finance our future development, one way or another. The build-out value of our 86 acre Trop site could be $2.5 Billion according to the outside developers. This would increase St Pete’s Assets by 5 fold to over $3 Bil, not including pension assets.
If we’re financing our own development, shouldn’t we continue to own it?
In summary, we need to insist our current & future St Petersburg Mayor and City Council
Stop the Trop Land Grab of our 86 acre crown jewel.
We need to call out each candidate at every campaign event
or we all can say Goodbye to our 86 acre parcel & to affordable housing in St Pete!
PS I asked St Petersburg’s Mayor Kriseman at a community meeting in early May... How much the City of St Petersburg earned or lost on the city’s investment in the Tampa Bay Rays stadium? He could not, or would not, answer because it might not be in the Rays interest if that info became public. Really??
The Rays interest is a major concern for the Mayor, but not so much the residents & businesses of St Pete.