"The Tampa Bay Rays declined St. Petersburg's offer to help look for a new stadium site within Pinellas County earlier this week, but Mayor Bill Foster was nonetheless upbeat Thursday about the team's future in the city.

Foster also downplayed the stadium standoff's urgency as he gave a briefing to the St. Petersburg City Council.

"There is no dire urgency for us to develop plans this year or next," he told the council.

Foster and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg got together for a much-anticipated summit Tuesday to talk about the Rays future in St. Petersburg.

Foster had revealed some of what happened to reporters earlier this week, but he opened up about the discussion to the council on Thursday.

Foster said the Rays still want to look throughout the Bay area for potential stadium sites.

"They were very clear they were not going to join a unilateral effort by the city to look at sites in Pinellas County," he said.

Yet the Rays expressed some doubts about Tampa, as well, Foster said. The team has questions about the region's ability to support three professional sports teams –the Rays, the Lightning and the Buccaneers."