Mayor Bill Foster meets Tampa Bay Rays’ owner Stuart Sternberg to talk about team's future – MLB
The Tampa Bay Rays are currently facing some internal issues which are causing a little bit of a stir externally as well. The issue of controlling rights over the club is the focus of attention at the moment.
The city wants his control and the franchise’s owners feel like they are the ones who should be controlling the main affairs of the club.
To resolve these so called egoistic issues, both sides have decided to meet on January 17, 2012. The Rays’ representative, the owner of the franchise, Stuart Sternberg and top city official St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster have scheduled a meeting where
both will try to resolve the rights issues.
“We're just going to have a very candid and conversant and cordial meeting,” Foster said. “Contrary to popular belief, we do talk.”
Foster feels that discussions on the matter can somehow clear many experts’ minds that may still not see any positive step forward.
Another individual whose extra efforts to convince Foster for potential talks is City Council Chairwoman Leslie Curran. She also spoke to the media and commented that this is a unique opportunity for the city and the Tampa Bay’s baseball franchise to resolve
their late issues.
"It's about time," Curran said. "I'm glad he's doing that. We need to have some type of meeting to see what the future holds. This is a long time coming."
Many other people are also involved in order to reduce the tension between the parties like Council member Charlie Gerdes, who has said, “We need to be having a dialogue as frequently as possible, if nothing else comes out of that meeting, we need to agree
to stay in touch.”
Chris Steinocher, who is president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, also commented that this is a very good sign as both sides agree to discuss their unresolved issues which are pending for almost two years.
Meanwhile, the next few days are critical as both sides will be meeting and if all the matters are resolved, the Tampa Bay Rays have a huge chance next season to show a consistent performance without any internal pressure.
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