Rays to forfeit Clearwater meeting

Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne was at lost Wednesday to explain why the Tampa Bay Rays won't make Thursday's city council meeting when the topic is whether to extend the county's hotel bed tax past 2015 to help pay for a new waterfront stadium.

Why? The Rays final game with the Chicago Cubs. The team's executives are planning to attend.

Horne is flummoxed, "As far as I know none of the executives play baseball."

Rays attorney Ed Armstrong said the invitation to Thursday's meeting, extended Tuesday, came after the team leaders already had commitments. But he hopes the team will eventually meet with Clearwater officials.

- Mike Donila, Times Staff Writer

Comments

[Ralph Lawson]

This is pretty typical of the Rays attitude. They want millions of our money but cannot take time away from entertaining themselves to fill in important government groups.

[Ralph Lawson]

This is pretty typical of the Rays attitude. They want millions of our money but cannot take time away from entertaining themselves to fill in important government groups.

[Ralph Lawson]

This is pretty typical of the Rays attitude. They want millions of our money but cannot take time away from entertaining themselves to fill in important government groups.

[Satchel]

To the Rays I say, "Don't let the door hit ya' where the good Lord split ya'!"

[Rays Mike]

"Typical of the Rays attitude?" Please provide other examples..And no need post it in triplicate.. And how exactly is the Clearwater city council an "important" governmental group in this process? They don't control the tourism board. The board will vote on whether the Rays proposal is the best way to spend the tourism tax, not if the city manager feels slighted.. If you guys are going to blast Rick K for living outside of St. Pete, then this is a meaningless discussion...

But for the sake of argument, I'm thinking that if the city council meeting was scheduled months in advance, the invitation should have been given prior to 2 DAYS before the meeting...

[Bodog]

Mr Lawson, The Rays are playing the Cubs, who happen to have the best won / lose record in MLB. Now it would seem real crappy if Rays management didn't show up to support their team during this series. What would us FANS / SUPPORTERS think. I'll tell ya what - why don't you let the door hit you where the good Lord should kick ya!

[None of the Above]

Not One Dime of Public Money...Period

Pound Sand.

Horne is an idiot! Why didn't you work on Father's day or when you children have a graduation? Why did you plan a meeting to discuss this without looking at the schedule? THE CUBS, THE CUBS MAN!! Oh forgot Scientologists don't watch baseball, they watch star treck!

Maybe the Rays will give the Council tickets to a game being played during a scheduled council meeting...

Gee, I wonder if the council would abandon their duties to go to a baseball game.

You can't just spring up and expect people to change their schedules around you. There has to be comprimise and planning.

[The KOOK antidote]

Why on earth would anyone in the devoted "no" movement care what the Clearwater City Council thinks?

Would all those who are currently feigning anger over this "snub" by the Rays concede that whatever the Clearwater City Council says about this should be the final word? If the Rays did meet with the Clearwater folks and the Council came out in favor of this, wouldn't the "no" troops be labeling THAT an irrelevent matter?

[Rick K]

It is funny that the ANTI's pretend to be angry about this. They don't want these deals approved. They will ignore anything positive about the Rays and jump on any story that paints the team in a negative light.