Those crack reporters over at ABC Action News reported yesterday that Hillsborough County Commissioner, Victor Crist, has a reasonable (read: har-har) solution for the Rays stadium conundrum: Move the Rays to Tampa, and build a new port in St. Petersburg/Pinellas County. Wait, what?! Are you out of your damn mind, Crist? You can read the full report below.
If I may ask a question, WHERE IN GODS NAME WOULD YOU BUILD A NEW PORT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
Would you build it in St. Petersburg? Good sir, if the idea is to build a port in a place where these new mega cruise ships could avoid traveling beneath the relatively shallow Skyway channel, cough…wouldn’t building a new port in St. Petersburg DEFEAT THAT PURPOSE?! Wouldn’t these ships STILL have to travel beneath the Skyway to get to one of the two already established ports in the eastern portion of St. Petersburg/Pinellas County?
Fine, let’s assume that it could be built on the western portion of the Pinellas peninsula. Where would you do so? John’s Pass? Ft. De Soto? Must I really remind you that, unless you’re planning on gutting already established smaller ports, that are already in redevelopment, there really is no place to build it? Do I really need to debate the intrinsic stupidity or lack of wisdom in building a mega port at Ft. De Soto?
Are you really that narrow sighted, to think your constituents would be excited by the prospect of losing potential jobs to another county, in lieu of building a new stadium in downtown Tampa? Call me crazy, but I cannot see any wisdom in such a move, predicated on an assumption that the attendance will miraculously be comparable to that of the other successful smaller market teams, or teams in economically strapped markets like Milwaukee or Detroit.
You can find Victor Crist’s Hillsborough County Commission page, including means of contact, below. Get in touch with this chap, and let him know how ridiculous of an idea he has proposed.
Victor Crist, Hillsborough County Commission
TAMPA –
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge seems tall enough, but today’s mega cruise ships are so gigantic, they don’t fit underneath. That means the port of Tampa could lose millions of passengers to someplace else, possibly Pinellas County.But Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist has a solution: Allow a new port in Pinellas in exchange for the Tampa Bay Rays.“If baseball could survive better and grow and be a stronger economic engine in Hillsborough, why not?” Crist asked. “If the cruise industry, expanded over to Pinellas County, could grow, why not?”Crist argues that Pinellas County can better accommodate the cruise industry as it trends towards more massive ships, while the rays would get a new facility and better location. But so far, the conversation is one-sided…“We are separated, separated by 12 miles of water. There is no talking. There is no dialogue. There is no creative thinking. We need to start doing,” Crist said.The idea of moving Tampa Bay’s team across the bay angers St. Pete businesses and divides fans.“it’s much more convenient for us here. We’ll still go to games, but just not as many,” St. Petersburg resident Dean Meyeran said.And some fans believe a move for the rays won’t ultimately solve their biggest problem — attendance.Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc.