Week 13: Heatcheck Wednesday

Week 13 of Heatcheck Wednesday, a permanent feature here at Ballpark Frankness (that everyone likes to criticize). 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.

Just one home game since last Wednesday.

So after 56 homes games, 69 percent of the home schedule, here are our up-to-date standings:

How you feeling? Hot. Hot. Hot. ---- 3

Hot, but nothing a cold beverage couldn't cure. ---- 9

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

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

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

Rays' newfound success brings parking mess

(MARTHA RIAL / Times)

ST. PETERSBURG — The Tampa Bay Rays' newfound success and popularity have created a parking nightmare around Tropicana Field, city officials say.

Fans park anywhere they can, and often illegally: on private property, in front of fire hydrants, in handicap spaces. Property owners are getting in on the action and charging fans to park on their land, sometimes illegally.

"It's a free-for-all," said City Council member Leslie Curran, who owns an art gallery near the stadium.

Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer

No easy wins for stadium panel

ST. PETERSBURG — So far, Jeff Lyash's only decision as head of a coalition seeking a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays is that the group should have nine members.

That launched an immediate round of criticism from those who thought the coalition should be bigger, more inclusive. Imagine the reaction later this year when the group actually talks about the stadium.

The coalition may well yield a more direct and simpler path to a new ballpark than the route taken by the Rays, who desperately wanted a waterfront stadium at Al Lang Field by 2012.

But political observers, civic activists and local elected leaders also caution that the group, either by its organization or actions, could further taint or derail a stadium search already replete with problems. Personal interests could take precedence over the common good. Talks could turn secretive and deals could be cut behind closed doors.

Which path the group takes is very much in the hands of Lyash, the plain-spoken Progress Energy executive selected by Mayor Rick Baker to lead the stadium discussion in place of the baseball club.

Lyash said he understands the armchair quarterbacking he already faces.

"I'm getting input at the checkout line at the grocery store, I'm getting input at the gas pump when I'm filling up my vehicle. I need input," Lyash said. "I'm using that in consideration of how to proceed."

Delayed Rays' stadium vote pleases potential Trop developers

ST. PETERSBURG — Though it might sound strange, count the potential developers of Tropicana Field among those satisfied by the Tampa Bay Rays' decision to put off a potential November stadium referendum.

The developers, Archstone and Madison Marquette, say that like local elected leaders and swaths of the city electorate, they worried about the rushed timetable ahead of a possible 2008 vote.

And though the stadium project and the possible Tropicana redevelopment are delayed indefinitely, that's a good thing, says Archstone senior vice president Ken Miller.

"We embrace this postponement," Miller said. "We now see us having more time to work with the (baseball coalition) and the city and the Rays to put this multifaceted potential redevelopment together, and more time to demonstrate the economic benefits it can bring."

Except Lyash, Progress Energy execs not on coalition board

I have heard from several people now who are questioning the still unformed baseball coalition based on its incorporating documents on file with the Florida Department of State. Those documents list Jeff Lyash as president of the group, formally called A Baseball Community Inc., and two other Progress Energy executives (who don't live in St. Petersburg) as the group's only other officers.

Some have wondered if that means this group will be a pawn for the local energy company.

Interim coalition spokeswoman Melissa Seixas (also a Progress Energy employee) says no: "With the exception of Jeff as the coalition chairman, the other officers are temporary and will be replaced with permanent members of the coalition once they are selected," Seixas responded to Ballpark Frankness via e-mail. Even Seixas expects to have her duties transferred to someone else at some point.

Bill Foster concerned about baseball coalition

Former City Council Member Bill Foster, who is considering running for mayor in 2009, expressed some concerns about Jeff Lyash's baseball coalition this week.

Here is Foster's letter, unedited:

Let me begin by thanking the Rays for pulling their bid for a new waterfront stadium, and allowing the community to take part in their quest for a new facility before the expiration of their existing lease agreement.  I believe that many citizens recognize that the Rays and MLB are significant economic partners with St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, and many more realize that the Trop has a shelf life.  It wasn’t designed to last forever, and our partners require a new house to remain economically competitive.  The beef with the original proposal was not in the concept of a new stadium per se, but the major objections involved location, design, funding share, timing of new construction, and the secretive nature of the process.  With the advent of this new coalition headed by Jeff Lyash, we now have adequate time to address all of these issues, and hopefully a plan will be formed to the delight and support of the entire community.  One thing is certain - If we don’t do something before 2027, the Rays will leave St. Petersburg, and our City’s one hundred year history with major league baseball will be just that - history.

That being said, I have some concern with the direction of this new coalition process, and I pray that these issues will be addressed in the near future.  The coalition needs to consist of the best and brightest from all stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the Rays, City, County, CVB, city and regional Chambers and Partnerships, those with experience in hotel / convention development and event promotions, neighborhoods, etc., and the coalition needs to have a single mission: to design, locate and fund a baseball facility with a multi-use component benefitting the Rays and Pinellas community with economic benefits to all partners, and with minimal tax implications on the citizenry.  If this can be accomplished with nine people,  great, but I did hope that selection approval would ultimately come from Council and the Board of County Commissioners.  Who is going to select membership?

Next, assuming that public lands and public funding is involved, the process must be open to the public.  The coalition may be well intended, but if the public isn’t allowed to view the process, then it will be an exercise in futility.  The biggest faux pas of the last proposal was the scheduling of a “community visioning process” after the vision had already been formed and presented by the Rays.  Community support can only come from a community vision, and if the community is barred from viewing the process, then there is no vision - no support.  If we have learned anything from our history it is: 1) you don’t commit hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars without a referendum, and 2) you don’t accomplish the people’s work behind closed doors.  This isn’t Washington or Tallahassee.  This is where decisions made by local officials have profound affects on a daily basis, and is why government is the sunshine is most important.  No more secrecy please.  If this process is not performed in the sunshine, then public lands and public funding should be off the table.

I respect Jeff Lyash immensely for taking on this challenge, and I know that he is the right person for the job.  Please heed my warnings.  We have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate to the world  that we are all in this with a common goal, and this process in the sunshine will enhance the buy-in required for all citizens.  This is St. Petersburg, and we are a little more thoughtful when it comes to the preservation of our unique assets and quality of life, and inviting the people to the table has served this community well.  I wish you the best of luck.

Bill Foster

Heatcheck: Week 12

Week 12 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. And it was hot. We rated Sunday and Monday's games "Hot. Hot. Hot." The rest of the week came in "Nothing a cold beverage couldn't cure."

So after 55 homes games, 68 percent of the home schedule, here are our up-to-date standings:

How you feeling? Hot. Hot. Hot. ---- 3

Hot, but nothing a cold beverage couldn't cure. ---- 8

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

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

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

The Team of Nine: What it might look like

So I'm back from three weeks of vacation (me pictured behind a stein of beer in Tallinn, Estonia). And what did I miss on the stadium front? It seems like not all that much. We still don't know who's going to be on this baseball coalition, other than Progress Energy CEO Jeff Lyash.

We do know the size of the committee, however, nine. And we know the group also has a name, A Baseball Community, Inc. If I had to guess, here's what I think the committee will look like when it's seated in September.

1. Lyash, chairman
2. St. Petersburg resident leader (CONA?)
3. Pinellas County civic/community leader
4. Rays season ticket holder.
5. St. Petersburg business leader (chamber, partnership, Steve Raymund of Tech Data?)
6. Pinellas beach business leader (Clearwater perhaps)
7. Somebody from Hillsborough/Tampa
8. Ex-politician
9. ????????????? (Could this be the POWW seat? Will Lyash give them one?)

Am I missing something?

Lyash dishes out coalition details

[Times photos | Willie J. Allen Jr.]

The coalition tasked to find a viable location for a new Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium will include nine members from the Tampa Bay area and will likely conclude its work within 18 months, coalition chairman and Progress Energy CEO Jeff Lyash said at a morning press conference announcing details of the groups' plans.

The coalition, which will be formally called A Baseball Community, will also attempt to build fan and business support for the Rays, Lyash said. But it's primary focus, at least publicly, will be to vet possible stadium locations.

Nominations to join the nine-member group are now being accepted at the coalition's web site, www.abc-baseball.com (photo above). Nominations must be submitted by midnight Aug. 4. Lyash said he hopes to have the coalition seated sometime around Labor Day.

"One primary qualification," said Lyash (photo at right), who was flanked during the announcement by Mayor Rick Baker, members of the Pinellas County Commission and Rays president Matt Silverman. "You must be a baseball fan. You must be committed to helping the Rays succeed in the longterm."

Lyash said later that means you must be open to the idea of the Rays needing a new stadium. No location in the Tampa Bay area will initially be off the table, Lyash said, but local elected leaders seem set on a site somewhere within the city limits of St. Petersburg.

"It's important that the members of the coalition recognize the importance of Major League Baseball here and what it can bring to the community," the Rays' Silverman said afterwards.

Announcement on Jeff Lyash's coalition

Jeff Lyash, chairman of a new community baseball coalition, will host a press conference Monday morning to discuss the group's mission and nomination process.

Lyash was named chairman of the coalition last month after the Tampa Bay Rays announced the team would delay its waterfront stadium proposal. Since that announcement, Lyash, CEO of Progress Energy Florida, has declined to discuss the group publicly, but his staff has said the public will be able to nominate individuals to serve on the coalition.

The press conference will be at EpiCenter at St. Petersburg College, 13805 58th St. N., Largo, Room 1-451 on 9 a.m. Monday.

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.

Heatcheck: Week 10

Week 10 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.

Two home games since last Wednesday. Temperature was never really a problem, but there were a few scattered showers Monday and Tuesday night. So after 45 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. ---- 39

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

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

Week 10 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.

Two home games since last Wednesday. Temperature was never really a problem, but there were a few scattered showers Monday and Tuesday night. So after 45 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. ---- 39

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

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

Group gets okay for Toytown development

The Pinellas County Commission today signed an agreement with a development consortium looking to build big mixed use project at the old Toytown Landfill. The agreement gives the group a year to do geological testing and another three years to get the needed regulatory approvals.

The Toytown site, at the corner of I-275 and Roosevelt Blvd., has been mentioned as an alternative site for a new Tampa Bay Rays ball park.

Matt Daniels, president of Bear Creek Capital, part of the development group, told the commission that he's had no discussions with the Rays about Toytown as a ball park site. But, he said, if the state, city or county voiced an interest, Daniels is more than willing to consider the idea.

"We would be very open and excited about doing that," he said.

Flight of fancy?

St. Petersburg-Clearwater airport managers have commissioned a study of height restrictions around the airport to see if they would allow a baseball stadium to be built on the 99-acre Airco Golf Course on the southeast corner of airport land, Pinellas County Commissioner Bob Stewart said this week.

Stewart, who is pushing for a Gateway location for any new Rays stadium, is not advocating for the Airco site. His favorite is still the old Toytown landfill. Airco could have all sorts of complications (ever tried driving Ulmerton at rush hour?)

But if the 60 feet of coffee grounds and Pampers cooking away under the Toytown should make it impossible to build there, any publicly-owned land in the area becomes more attractive.

A story Wednesday in the Pinellas editions of the St. Petersburg Times will examine other Gateway sites, however improbable.

--Stephen Nohlgren