Oddities with billionaire greed, stadiums, and residents needing help

We turn our attention to the Tampa Bay Rays and their ongoing stadium saga. 

In short, the owner wants a brand new stadium, and wants the city or county to basically give it to him. 

The city of Saint Petersburg had previously agreed to do something like that, had already decided which underserved community to demolish, and was planning to vote on the bonds. 

And then came a hurricane that ravaged the city and the surrounding area. It also damaged the current home of the rays. Which meant that there would have to be repairs made to it in the short term, to be paid for by someone (probably the city), IN ADDITION to paying for the new one. 

The city commissioners took theirs stances on the topic… and wouldn't you know there was an election recently, and two of the commissioners were ousted and replaced with people who think stadium spending is a generally bad idea. And in light of the storm damage, and how peoples lives have been affected, definitely think it is a bad look and worse use of money. 

So there was a commission meeting and on the agenda was stadium funding.  The city councils action were … well, amusing. 

First, they voted  4-3 to approve spending $23 million toward repair of the Tropicana Field roof

Then, they voted 5-2 to put off selling $450 million in bonds for a new stadium and surrounding infrastructure. 

And that's when the owner of the Rays decided to get indignant. He needs that stadium! And if they're not going to vote on it, then he'll move the team. 

A team executive said "our agreement effectively died.  I don't believe we can make the economics around this arrangement work any more."

And that caused the council to vote again, this time 7-0 to undo the vote to spend on fixing the roof, basically giving the ownership the middle finger. 

It's a small (and possibly pyrrhic) victory. 

But it's nice to see a billionaire get a little comeuppance.