Another Big Step Toward Keeping the Jays In Dunedin!
6 years ago
On Thursday in Dunedin, Florida, representatives of the Toronto Blue Jays spoke before the Dunedin City Council, looking for approval on a portion of the funding that it’s hoped will keep the club in the only Spring Training home they’ve ever known. Unanimously, the motion passed.
That’s great! This is a huge step for this project. Those of you contemplating rushing out to buy property in Dunedin might want to slow your roll just a touch here, though. Because despite the enthusiasm of that tweet, it would seem to me that this isn’t quite technically the end of the process.
Betsy herself, in a great blog post on a project she’s obviously been quite invested in, clarifies in explaining that “tonight was the beginning of the end of [a] long road. We still have a few more steps to go, but the highest hurdle has been jumped and I am relieved.”
Those last steps involve securing funding from the state and the county — processes that are well along in their own right.
In late September, Tracey McManus of the Tampa Bay Times explained that “a deal is required before the city can apply for state dollars to help fund $81 million in upgrades to the Florida Auto Exchange Stadium and the training site at the Englebert Complex on Solon Avenue. Pinellas County, with a potential contribution of $41.7 million in bed taxes to bankroll the bulk of the renovations, won’t be cutting its check until a deal between the city and the team is reached.”
While Pinellas may not exactly be cutting a cheque as we speak, that doesn’t mean they won’t. A little earlier in September than the piece cited above, I noted this in a mailbag at VICE:
According to a piece at TBNWeekly.com last week, Tim Ramsberger, the chief operating officer of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, spoke to the paper about how funds collected from the region’s “bed tax” (a 6 percent tax levied on all hotel guests) were being allocated.“We just completed our first run of applications for contracts, which were approved by the County Commission,” he said. “Five to six contracts have been approved totaling about $40 million over the next two to four years. Another, the Toronto Blue Jays spring training complex in Dunedin, is in the process.”
The way that sorta makes it look is that, now that Dunedin’s portion of the funding has been approved, the county’s end might simply be rubber stamped. I’ll buy that! The folks down there certainly know more about this than I do, and their enthusiasm is telling. But the Jays’ contract hasn’t technically been approved yet.
In McManus’s piece, we’re also told this:
A recent workshop, county commissioners also worried whether the city would be able to secure the proposed $13.7 million from the state given the current political climate. Commissioner Charlie Justice asked for the city’s agreement with the team to include a plan for if the state funds don’t come through, which with “current leadership in Tallahassee, is a reasonable possibility.”
I’ve yet to see word that such a plan was added to the city’s agreement, so the state could prove another hurdle, too — or at least another vote.
UPDATE: Looks like they’re doing it without the state. (H/T @LottOnBaseball).
Orrrrr… maybe they are?
Oh, and then:
This is some fine journalism-ing I’m doing, eh?
Annnnnywho, in other words, surely you understand why I’m hesitating to say “This is it, the Jays are definitely staying in Dunedin.” But it’s real close. So this is good news nonetheless.
The deal would see the Jays and Dunedin extend their marriage for another 25 years. It would see the club’s facilities revert to some form of their original names, as McManus tells us that “the city has insisted on keeping the historic sub-names of Grant Field, Englebert Complex and Vanech Recreation Complex.” And, of course, it would bring the Jays a fancy new spring training stadium (and year-round complex facilities), along the lines of the following video proposal, which was unveiled a little over a year ago.
Failed to load video.
(Crotch grab in the direction of @FutureBlueJays for tweeting on this stuff as it happened.)
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