ST. PETERSBURG – All things considered, Mayor Rick Kriseman and the city council would prefer the Tampa Bay Rays stay in St. Petersburg.
Kriseman has said so repeatedly, even as he has worked out deals with the baseball team and lobbied the council to let the Rays look for new stadium locations outside the city.
The council members, strongly divided and deadlocked over whether to let the team shop around, nonetheless have agreed unanimously and by a resolution that they want to keep the Rays in the city.
Some even say letting the Rays look around is the surest way to show the team that St.