ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Plans to redevelop the Tropicana Field site are on hold now as a St. Petersburg City Council waits for the Tampa Bay Rays to decide once and for all if they’re going to stay in town or move to Montreal. 

Thursday night council members approved the resolution to wait until August for the team to make its intentions known before they move forward in selecting a developer for the site. So far, team management is proposing to be a home team to two different cities in two different countries. 

“Let’s take a chance on something that can be really different, really innovative,” Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said. “We’re really looking forward to being able to flesh out all of those concepts and ideas.” Splitting the season between two cities is neither a concept nor an idea city officials are interested in. In a tweet Thursday, Mary Chriesman reiterated how much time the team has had to make a decision.  

“5 years ago when we successfully reached an agreement to allow @Raysbaseball three years to look around Tampa Bay for a new stadium location.” 

Chuck Whittall heads up one of the four firms in the running for the bid to redevelop the Trop site. He says the Rays have always had control of the process. 

“They’ve got the advantage right now that they get to look at all four proposals by the developers and essentially say, okay we’ll do everything they’re doing, plus we can do this,” Whittall said. “They control the seven-year lease. We can put it (the new stadium) in the back. They’ve got an advantage that none of us developers have. Maybe they would want to team up with one of the developers.”

It’s that kind of advantage that has some councilmembers concerned and that’s not all. Spectrum Bay News 9 has learned that at least two developers in the running are looking to pull out of the whole process if they have to wait any longer for either the city or the team to make a final decision on their rocky relationship.