Asked whether the \u201cship has sailed\u201d on his desire to keep the team in St. Pete, Crist said it probably has, but wouldn\u2019t rule out the possibility the team might spend more time on the west side of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a fait accompli yet, but you know, hope always is constant,\u201d the former Governor said. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking to see that they may go to the other side of the Bay, but we\u2019ll see what happens. We\u2019ll see what happens. Hopefully, just at least keep the spirit of baseball here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if the ship has sailed, Crist, who once served as General Counsel to Minor League Baseball, pointed to an aggressive timeline for a Tampa stadium. The Rays are calling for a new ballpark in time for the 2029 season. He said he\u2019d be willing to extend the team\u2019s contract to continue playing ball at Tropicana Field should there be delays to the Tampa project.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, we probably would have to work out an extension, and I think that would be a good process, and it\u2019d be great for St. Pete for that to continue,\u201d Crist said.<\/p>\n With the Rays\u2019 move across the Bay likely, Crist also addressed the redevelopment opportunity at Tropicana Field, an 86-acre site near downtown he said represents an excellent opportunity to deliver for the residents of St. Pete.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have that much land right next to downtown St. Pete available, or any city in the United States, is pretty unusual. It\u2019s a wonderful opportunity to do some really good things for the people,\u201d Crist said.<\/p>\n He wouldn\u2019t rule out scrapping the plan incumbent Mayor Ken Welch has already selected for the redevelopment project, though Crist was generous in his explanation.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some very good plans have been presented,\u201d Crist said, adding that in addition to Welch\u2019s selection of the Burg Bid<\/a>, led by Blake Investment Partners, \u201cthere\u2019s some other groups that have put forward very serious proposals that are worthy of looking at as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Welch has already set precedent for scrapping a predecessor\u2019s selection on Trop site redevelopment. In his first year in office, Welch restarted a selection process, punting a selection<\/a> made by former Mayor Rick Kriseman.<\/p>\n Asked about his priorities in a redevelopment project, Crist agreed that affordable housing should be a part of the plan, but emphasized that it needed to actually be affordable, not just called that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, some other plans that the current administration has done in that arena, some of their affordable housing is $800,000 a unit. I would call that unaffordable housing, regrettably,\u201d Crist said.<\/p>\n Welch has faced criticism<\/a> over the Deuces Rising townhome project on 22nd Street South, which included a city subsidy of about $500,000 for each townhome<\/a>, bringing the total per-unit construction cost to about $800,000. The city\u2019s $500,000 per-unit subsidy is more than the median home sale price in St. Pete, which is $450,000.<\/p>\n Crist, during his interview with Gorman, also addressed taxes, saying that as Mayor he\u2019d cut them, though modestly, and with some caveats.<\/p>\n Crist has proposed cutting nearly $15 million in taxes for residents. He again pointed to his plan to establish a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts to establish the details and ensure cuts are targeting the right areas while still preserving city services. He laid out at least one specific area where cutting costs is likely under his watch.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re going to have less employees under my administration if I win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Asked how he planned to vote on Amendment 3, which would increase the state\u2019s homestead exemption from non-school taxes on Floridians\u2019 primary residences from the current $50,000 to $150,000 next year and $250,000 in 2028, with increases after that automatically adjusted to pace inflation, Crist said he was \u201cprobably\u201d voting \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n He pointed to concerns raised by police and Sheriff\u2019s departments across the state, as well as fire departments, that the loss in revenue would inevitably lead to cuts to service. If Amendment 3 were to pass though, Crist said his tax cut proposal would likely become moot.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to stack ours on top of it and do it even more and make us even more of a shortfall, you know, for the necessities that we have to provide for our people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The interview comes less than one month before Election Day, and as voting has already begun through mail ballots. Crist, despite facing an incumbent, is the front-runner in the race. He finished first in the August Primary<\/a>, with more than 35% of the vote to Welch\u2019s 21%.<\/p>\n And Crist has been the dominant fundraiser<\/a> throughout the campaign. The most recent campaign finance reports show Crist with more than $417,000 available between his campaign and political committee accounts, while Welch\u2019s combined cash-on-hand total is just under $35,000.<\/p>\n Overall, Crist has raised more than $2.3 million, while Welch has banked about $560,000.<\/p>\n And then there are the endorsements. Crist has support from two of the four mayoral challengers defeated in the Primary. None have backed Welch. Crist also has support from three sitting City Council members<\/a>. Welch has support from two. All four of the city\u2019s living past Mayors<\/a> have backed Crist. And last month, Crist secured support<\/a> from both members of the Tampa Bay Times editorial board making recommendations in the race.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Ed. note:\u00a0Michelle Todd Schorsch\u00a0is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to\u00a0Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Charlie Crist hasn\u2019t ruled out keeping the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Pete, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[166823,3347,154096,2346,166824,202,204,3303,3304,203,199,201,200,3815,8125,166825],"class_list":["post-422975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-burg-bid","tag-charlie-crist","tag-deuces-rising","tag-ken-welch","tag-ryan-gorman","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-mayors-race","tag-st-pete-mayoral-race","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tropicana-field","tag-wfla-newsradio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/FloridaPolitics.com_ColodnyFass_728x90.jpg\")
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