Council pushes staff to zone Al Lang as parkland

By a 7-1 vote, the City Council asked staff to look into rezoning Al Lang Field as a downtown park.

Council member Jeff Danner initiated the mostly symbolic effort during Thursday's council meeting. The council has been debating the park designation since August.

But even if the council does eventually designate Al Lang a downtown park, the Tampa Bay Rays could still build their stadium there. All it would take is a voter referendum.

Also, city staff made it clear today that the city can build whatever it wants on Al Lang, regardless of how it’s zoned. Only commercial development along the waterfront needs voter approval.

Council Member Wengay Newton cast the only vote against the park designation. The city should leave its options open, he said.

"Designating anything or taking anything off the table I think would be unfair," he said prior to the vote.

Heatcheck: Week 11

Week 11 of Heatcheck Wednesday, a permanent feature here at Ballpark Frankness. The idea behind this post is to track the past week's Rays home games and wonder how tolerable they would have been, had they been played outdoors.

Five home games since last Wednesday. Temperature was never really a problem, but that's because of a constant round of short rainstorms in the area for most of the week. Still, I don't think the rain was bad enough to delay an outdoor game. This is Florida, people. The rain usually passes after 10 minutes. So after 50 homes games, here are our up-to-date standings:

How you feeling? Hot. Hot. Hot. ---- 1

Hot, but nothing a cold beverage couldn't cure. ---- 5

Take me out the ball game. ---- 44

Rain delay (Rain plays a minor factor) ---- 2

Rain out (Rain plays a major factor) ---- 1

Baseball and tourism, the studies begin

Now that the Tampa Bay Rays have suspended efforts to build a new waterfront ballpark in St. Petersburg, the team's stadium quest suggests a ship in search of a port.

With no new home identified, and indications that the process will take some time, stakeholders are turning to close study of how baseball and a new ball park could affect tourism in Pinellas County. It's arguably work that should have been done long ago.

At a meeting today of Pinellas County's Tourism Development Council, Rays vice president Michael Kalt said the team had hired a Tallahassee consultant to perform an economic impact study. And the TDC's research consultant, Walter Klages, is also at work on a study.

It's expected that both will be completed by Sept. 10, the next time the council meets.

Use of the county's tourism bed tax could play a crucial role in financing a new ball park, which explains the interest of the TDC.

In recent weeks, Klages has interviewed fans at Rays home games with the Marlins, Cubs, Astros, Red Sox and Royals. The goal is to figure out where folks are coming from and whether they are staying in local hotels.

Klages did similar work back in 1995, when St. Petersburg was in the hunt for a professional team. That work found that baseball would draw nearly 90,000 new visitors a year, producing an initial economic impact of nearly $43-million.

Klages told the TDC that his projections then were borne out, but said his new study will likely show an even greater impact.

The TDC steered clear of any overall policy discussion of using the bed tax to support a new stadium, and the highlight was perhaps a question posed to the room by St. Petersburg council member Leslie Curran.

"If we do make the playoffs and the World Series," she asked, "would Bud Selig have trouble going to Tropicana Field then?"

-- Will Van Sant, Times Staff Writer

Rick Baker and Jeff Lyash go way back

Even before Mayor Rick Baker named Progress Energy CEO Jeff Lyash chair of a new baseball coalition, the two men had a history together.

Baker named Lyash co-chair of an effort to find permanent shelter for the city's growing homeless population in January 2007.

In 2005, Lyash, then a Progress Energy vice president, contributed $350 to Baker's reelection campaign. Lyash was in good company. At least three other Progress Energy vice presidents contributed to the mayor's campaign that year.

And the Mahaffey Theater arts complex now bears the name of Progress Energy thanks to a deal brokered by Baker's staff.

Nominate yourself to be on Jeff Lyash's committee

New details on Progress Energy CEO Jeff Lyash's new baseball coalition: you can nominate yourself to be on it.

In a few weeks, Lyash's staff will send out nomination forms to various community groups. Anyone can  nominate themselves or someone else, said Melissa Seixas, a Progress Energy community relations manager who has been named the coalition's interim spokeswoman.

"We want this to be a very open and transparent process," she said.

The coalition members will decide the group's scope of work, Seixas said.

One more vote to keep the Rays downtown

First, Mayor Rick Baker gave a new downtown baseball stadium his seal of approval.

Now, City Council Member Leslie Curran is coming out in support of a downtown stadium, that is as long as the Tampa Bay Rays stay exactly where there are now.

Curran, who was in Europe two weeks ago when Baker and team officials announced they were indefinitely delaying a waterfront stadium proposal, said Tropicana Field is her number one choice for a new ball park.

"They completely underestimated this community and their love for the waterfront," said Curran of team executives in a phone interview Tuesday. "We really need to look at the possibility of rebuilding at the site that we already have."

She added, "But I'm open to see what other possibilities are out there."

Curran, who first asked the Rays to delay their stadium proposal in June, said she was thrilled by the team's recent announcement that Progress Energy CEO Jeff Lyash would head up a community-based coalition charged with figuring out where the new stadium should go.

"That’s how we should have done it to begin with," she said.

Tampa Rays? Not in this town.

As the Rays' national reputation soars, it seems the team is having a bit of an identity crisis. National journalists have been calling the team the Tampa Rays. Read more about it in Craig Pittman's story in Tuesday's paper.

What do you think? Would a new stadium send a message that the Rays belong to St. Pete? Or does all this just mean the team needs to change its name to the St. Petersburg Rays, like Mayor Rick Baker has called for?

Does it even matter that these media giants can't get a simple fact like location straight?

Council considers Al Lang's future

With the Tampa Bay Rays' waterfront stadium plan indefinitely delayed, City Council Member Jeff Danner says its time for the city to make good on its promise to zone Al Lang Field as downtown parkland.

Danner has asked the council to discuss the historic ball park's future at Thursday's council meeting.

"I always thought it should be designated with the downtown park designation," he said in an interview last week. "I got the message that that’s what people wanted."

The zoning debate is really a symbolic issue. Rezoning Al Lang, which now is zoned to allow for commercial and residential development, doesn't mean the city has to bulldoze the site and build a park. And no matter what, the Rays will have to seek voter approval through a referendum in order to build a stadium at Al Lang.

But Mayor Rick Baker and other city officials have said it would be better to postpone any action regarding Al Lang until a new baseball coalition decides where the stadium should go.

"We have to leave our options open," said Council Member Wengay Newton. "I can’t see anything happening with Al Lang right now."

Residents first asked the council to convert Al Lang into parkland in August. The council said it would once the Rays' proposal was no longer on the table.

Everyone wants to have their say

Community leaders are debating whether members of two local political action committees -- POWW and Fans for Waterfront Stadium -- should be allowed on a new baseball coalition. What do you think?

Battling for a voice on stadium
Should members of political action committees be allowed on baseball coalition?
No, PAC members won't approach the stadium debate with an open mind
Yes, anyone who is interested should be included on the coalition
No, there are too many other people who should be on the coalition

Everyone wants a voice on Jeff Lyash's coalition

Read more about the political tug of war surrounding Jeff Lyash's new baseball coalition.