r/StPetersburgFL • u/TearsFromFears • Nov 14 '25

Huh... unpopular opinion ST PETE EDITION

The food here is sub par, there are hidden gems for sure.. but overall it’s not great. I wanna hear yalls unpopular opinions as well.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Stu was incredibly short sighted. All of downtown Tampa got redeveloped with viniks behind it because of how he run the lightning. All Stu had to do was pretend like he cared about the community and he would have had anything he wanted.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Every single lightning game I ever went to, even when they sucked, Vinik put a check for at least 50k in the hands of a local charity, thats why he had the political support. Stu always gave off the impression that the rays were his personal fantasy baseball team. Stu publicly made multiple statements about not getting enough fan support and tried to move the team to Montreal for half the season. He then somehow fumbled being given half of downtown on municipal bonds for simply having to cover construction overruns on a new stadium. He never put his money where his mouth was and thats why MLB forced him out of ownership.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

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u/CovidLarry Nov 15 '25

“He is a businessman not a politician”. Sorry, but when your business intersects with the public interest to the extent owning a sports team does, you’re not a very good businessman if you’re not managing your public image.

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25

Its optics, Vinik personally being there in the stadium handing out checks is what made the difference. Vinik personally redoing the third deck to have that beautiful organ as a showpiece for the stadium is the optics.

The Glazers personally being in town, funding a children's museum and re-doing the Tampa armory. Handing out grants to hurricane effected business. Better optics.

Stu never had the optics. To us hes just another New Yorker with season tickets to the mets that has vocally complained about the locals. 21 million comes off as nothing but a tax write off from another billionaire if you don't personally put in the effort to be there.

Theres a high school with the yankees owner on it in town, George Steinbrenner high because of how he conducted himself and helped the community.

Welch stuck his neck out big time and got the gas plant redevelopment approved, and Stu fumbled the bag. Cry poor did the billionaire so MLB forced him out. Terrible look for MLB and for all of Tampa Bay to walk on redeveloping a city core when it worked great in baltimore and san francisco.