The Rays Tank: The Carillon Proposal is losing traction

Bad news for people not enamored with The Trop: The Tampa Bay Times is reporting that the private developer pitching the new Tampa Bay Rays stadium in Carillon says he's ready to move on.

"It has been an intense year,'' St. Petersburg developer Darryl LeClair said recently. "I am going to tell our team, 'Enjoy the holiday season. Relax. And next year we are going to start aggressively pursuing other options for the Carillon holdings.' ''

While the Carillon region was not expected to solve every issue in the stalemate - the Rays still refuse to move forward with any plans if they are not allowed to consider the entire Tampa Bay area, and Bill Foster is still unrelenting - the news is certainly discouraging. Located at the i-275 intersection of St. Pete and Tampa, the proposal was as close to a compromise as St. Petersburg was likely to offer.

In other recent stadium news, USF professor Richard Meyer wrote an Op-Ed for the Times more than a week ago that proposed a new funding solution for the Stadium dilemma: Sell shares to the public.

There are two alternatives. One is to make a new stadium contingent on granting this ownership directly to the community. Another, maybe better, is for the Rays to sell shares in small amounts to many individual investors in the community. A lot of people would probably jump at the chance to own a piece of their ball club.

All of these proceeds would be used to defray the cost of a new ballpark. With the increase in franchise value, the Rays might also be able to borrow an additional $150 million to contribute to the financing package. That still leaves at least $280 million to be borne by local government, but it is a lot less than what is currently on the table.

Meyer also claims that a new stadium should boost the value of the franchise to the league median, or by about $100M. If the Rays ownership is willing to commit $150M to a new stadium, it's safe to assume the value of the franchise certainly would be lifted by at least that much; however, selling shares of ownership would dilute the holdings of the current owners (Sternberg, et. al.) and may have severe consequences on the business side of operations - for the Rays, and for the local business owners that would presumably purchase those shares. Neil deMause explored those consequences for Field of Schemes last week.

Furthermore, Shadow of the Stadium spots at least four holes in Meyer's plan, including the notion that turning stakeholders into shareholders would dramatically boost attendance.

Previously: CityScape group unveils plans for new Rays stadium in Carillon.

LINKS

- As reported yesterday, the Rays are nearing a deal with Roberto Heredia Hernandez - the pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona, not to be confused with this guy. Based on his killer sinker, it safe to presume RHH would take over Badenhop's role as ground ball specialist.

- Did the Rays trade James Shields at just the right time? While Big Game James has never missed playing time due to injury, Royals Review examines three reasons that Shields may be on his way to the Disabled List.

- Could the Royals win the AL Central? Of course, you know, this mean's WAR.

- Beyond the Box Score: Ari Berkowitz identifies five keys to accurately projecting a player's success, decline or breakout.

- Grant Brisbee has found a new way to waste hours of your time: the Neutralized Stats tool on Baseball Reference. He starts by playing what-if's with Old Coors Field.

- In honor of 12/12/12, sports blog Stadium Journey published twelve "Top 12" articles - one of which ranked the top 12 stadiums that have retired the No. 12. Everyone's favorite domed baseball stadium makes an appearance, and higher than I was expecting.