The St. Petersburg City Council met this morning and approved cash toward repairs to Tropicana Field’s roof. This vote specifically approved $22.5 million which will be for the fabrication of the roof material in Germany, its transport to China for assembly, and then its installation in St. Pete.
The city counceilers were in broad agreement that allocating the money to repair the roof was necessary for the city to fulfil it’s contractural obligation to make Tropicana Field playable — an obligation that they understood would also include further interior repairs that have yet to be fully priced.
The lone dissenting vote came from Counceilmember Richie Floyd, a long-time stadium spending skeptic, who said that he understood the contractual obligation but that he wanted to see a price comparison between repairs and a settlement with the Rays that would buy them out of the use agreement. Without seeing that direct comparison, he wasn’t certain repairing the Trop was the most cost effective path.
Counceilmember Lisset Hanewicz’s response was that the city has tried to investigate the buyout option, but that they need a willing partner to work out terms on a buyout, and the Rays have not been that. So it hasn’t been possible to come to a settlement for direct comparison, and failing to move ahead with the repairs might leave the city open to legal action that could either compell them to approve the repairs or possible asses damages.
Several counceilmembers voiced worry that the recently announced tarrifs would raise the prices on this project beyond what was covered in the allocated $100K contingency, but as of right now it was not clear how those tarrifs would or would not apply.