It would be nice to think that there's been a change of attitude in pro sports and politics. But no such luck.
The news this week that the Tampa Bay Rays won't ask the Florida Legislature for $60 million is probably just an admission of political and fiscal reality. The big league ball club still plans a $450 million waterfront stadium, largely financed by revenue from redeveloping the site of Tropicana Field, where the Rays now play ball.
But team management is a pragmatic, practical bunch. State revenues are slumping badly because of the economic slowdown and the 2008 Legislature will start its session next March in something like a $2 billion hole.
And it's an election year. The idea of giving millions to millionaires, while cutting back state services, is -- well, you do the math. It's not exactly the fast track to re-election.
The St. Petersburg Times surveyed the Pinellas County delegation last week and found no support for giving the Rays a sales-tax rebate on all the pennants, T-shirts, caps and popcorn -- among other goodies -- that they sell. If your hometown delegation doesn't support it, you have a hard time getting even a million or two for something in your district -- so a high-visibility, big-ticket item in an incredibly tight-money year would have no chance at all.
One thing that's very much alive, however, is the idea the pro sports is good for the local economy. Team owners all over the nation shake down city, county and state governments for tax breaks and outright gifts of money -- threatening to move their franchises to a more receptive city, unless they get what they want.
It's kind of amusing that, before Major League Baseball put the Rays franchise at Tampa Bay, the field they're now planning to tear down was the hole card for teams threatening to leave other cities. The White Sox were saying they'd move to Tropicana Field back when Bob Martinez was governor, but the Illinois Legislature and city of Chicago met their demands.
At least the Rays aren't threatening to take their ball and go play somewhere else. Maybe those pragmatic and practical managers in the front office suspect that the state and city wouldn't try too hard to stop them.