Silverman on a stadium (2006 style)

I'm doing research on a story about the Rays' stadium pursuit and came across this quote from team president Matt Silverman. It's from a Q&A with Baseball Prospectus from April 2006. I thought some folks might be interested in seeing it.

Q: Are there any plans to build a new stadium closer to Tampa? What is the team’s viability in its current facility?

A: The stadium is not a hindrance to creating a successful business. The empty seats are opportunities for us. We’re confident that once the marketplace latches on to our team and the players, that Tropicana Field will be full of energy and excitement. It’s a great place to watch a game. Will we be there 22 years from now, when the lease expires? Probably not. Between years five and 22, we will need to discuss an alternative, but for now we’re proud to have Tropicana Field as our home.

We put a lot of capital into the park - about $10-million -making it cleaner, more comfortable, bringing history in with the addition of the Ted Williams Museum. We built a club level on the first-base line, renovated the bathrooms, did a big cleanup job. We’re putting in a tank filled with live rays in right-center field that will be completed in July. The clubhouse has been renovated, we have new TVs throughout the concourse, and there’s also a new sound system.

We want to turn it into a real home-field advantage. We already have great speed, and the turf creates an advantage there. The white roof is something that our opponents may have trouble getting used to. When we get over 20,000 people here, it’s extremely loud. We’re urging people to come out and be the 10th Man. The more people that come, the more that can have an impact on the outcome of the game.

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'The Onion': Yankees building new vacation stadium

Yankees Building New Vacation Stadium In the Hamptons

Only the Onion ... (For folks who might not be sure, this is satire).

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Heatcheck: The final results

It was one of the biggest complaints about the Tampa Bay Rays' original $450-million waterfront ballpark proposal: How could you build an open-air stadium in Florida? Well, we started this April trying to figure out just how bad things might be.

Our findings?

Not nearly as bad as people think. We studied the weather conditions around Tropicana Field and downtown for each of the Rays' 81 home games this year. We considered the temperature at the time of the game, and the conditions present during the game.

Our review, admittedly, was subjective. One person's definition of "hot" might be different than another person's. And weather patterns and game schedules vary from year to year. But based on 2008, heat and rain were hardly an issue for the Rays.

Of the team's 81 games, only 16 presented a particular challenge regarding heat. That did not factor in the Rays' plans for a sail over the new ballpark, which would have provided shade. Or the Rays' proposal to move Sunday day games to later in the afternoon.

Rain, it turns out, was even less of a factor. Of 81 games, there possibly would have been only one rainout. In fact, there would not have been that many rain delays. Now that isn't to say the threat of rain might have kept fans away, but when it came to actual downpours, St. Petersburg was pretty dry in 2008. 

So here are our final standings.

How you feeling? Hot. Hot. Hot. ---- 16

Hot, but nothing a cold beverage couldn't cure. ---- 17

Take me out the ball game. ---- 48

Rain delay (rain as a minor factor) ---- 4

Rainout (rain as a major factor) ---- 1

What do you think? Is 2008 an anomaly? Am I out of my mind?

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D.C.'s ballpark revenue projections fall short

Okay. The Washington Nationals are bad. Shockingly bad. But this isn't good news: The Washington Post is reporting that the new ballpark along the Anacostia River is going to miss its sales tax revenue projection mark by $2.6-million this year. The city was expecting about $16.1-million to pay off construction bonds and will collect somewhere around $13.5-million, according to the city.

The city says it has enough money to pay off its bonds. But if projections are already off the mark in year 1, imagine what they might look like in year 10. I'm happy to say I personally contributed to the Nationals Park this year ... attending two games in the cheap seats. And believe it or not, the Nats won both games I saw. If you also remember, the Post estimated, and we reported, that the Nationals may double their ticket revenues in the new ballpark compared to old RFK.

The Rays, in their original proposal, weren't saying new taxes would be used to pay for the park, but they sure suggested that new taxes from the Tropicana Field redevelopment could more than cover the city's costs. In Washington, that plan's not working so far.

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Indy's new stadium expenses could be twice what was projected

A lesson from Indianapolis, where the city just opened a new football stadium for the Indianapolis Colts. The city's operating expenses, which were expected to be about $10-million a year, will likely be closer to $20-million annually. Read the coverage from the Indianapolis Star here.

This kind of sounds like a story we heard here once in St. Petersburg. You know, the one where the Trop would pay for itself.

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TIF financing okay, court rules

Big news out of Tallahassee this morning:

• TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Supreme Court now says that voter approval isn't needed for billions of dollars in roads, buildings and other local public works projects across the state. The justices on Thursday reversed a decision they made last year to require local referendums on redevelopment bond sales backed by property taxes. After a rehearing, the justices reverted to a legal precedent they set 27 years earlier by not requiring voter approval for tax increment financing.

What does this mean for a new ballpark? Well, it potentially gives the city and county a new funding mechanism, tax increment financing, that would not require a referendum. It likely will only come into play if a ballpark is envisioned for downtown. In Miami, the court's ruling essentially paves the way for the Marlins new ballpark.

Back in November, the Times estimated that the redevelopment of Tropicana Field could generate almost $150-million in TIF dollars for a downtown ballpark.

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Congressional panel rips Yankees' stadium deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional panel has taken tough swings at the New York Yankees and New York City government over a new stadium for the Yankees. But neither the team nor the city budged from their positions on the $1.3 billion structure.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich said Thursday he found "waste and abuse of public dollars" in the financing of the new stadium under construction in the South Bronx.

Kucinich is an Ohio Democrat who heads a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee. He charged that city officials misrepresented to the IRS the value of the property, helping them to get special tax deals from the federal government and in effect dumping the cost of construction onto taxpayers. No one from the either the city or the Yankees spoke at the hearing.

Inside baseball: Who applied for ABC

So the ABC coalition just turned over a list of the 300-or-so applicants who applied for one of 10 available baseball board member positions. You can see the entire list and their applications here (its 400 pages).

I've gone through the list and can make a couple of observations. By and large, the applicants appear to be "regular" people, but we did have some well known folks apply or be nominated. Among those considered, but not selected:

Former Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst and current Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard, Clearwater City Council member and former Bill Young aide George Cretekos, former St. Petersburg City Council member Bill Foster, one time state house candidate Charlie Gerdes, former St. Petersburg City Council candidate Ed Montanari, architect Tim Clemmons, POWW members Niel Allen, Hal Freedman and Hamilton Hanson, Clearwater Beach chamber leader Sheila Cole, and  Tim Clemmons, Dave Feaster, Dave McKalip, and Mark Ferguson.

Also, in a somewhat interesting turn, it was Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch that nominated colleague Bob Stewart for the ABC board.

Four of the members appointed by chairman Jeff Lyash (CONA's Barbara Heck, Russ Kimball, Chuck Sykes and Steve Raymund) appear to have not been nominated in writing. Lyash did say he accpeted nominations orally as well from community leaders and potential stadium stakeholders.

Where we've been; where we're going

We here at Ballpark Frankness haven't had too much to post these past few months (with the news that the Rays were abandoning their plans for a waterfront ballpark and all). But now that Jeff Lyash's ABC coalition is kicking into gear and the Rays are in the playoff hunt, it's time to pick things back up.

So starting next week, we're going to try to rev things up a bit. We hope you come back to see what we're up to. Suggest what you may like to see more of.

I'm going to include more video pieces about stadiums that I can find on the Net. I'll also try to keep folks up to date on stadium sagas in places outside St. Petersburg. We'll also finish our HeatCheck work, which is testing how baseball would have been this year had it been played outdoors.

And I plan to have some online-only Q&A's with people at the forefront of the stadium debate.

See you all next week.

Aaron

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Stadium roundup

Couple of things I wanted to share with you. First, we now have an agenda for tonight's ABC coalition meeting. Here it is:

Welcome and Introductions -- Jeff Lyash, Judy Mitchell

• Election of Officers -- Jeff Lyash
• Overview
  • Mission and Objectives -- Jeff Lyash
  • By-Laws -- Jeff Lyash
  • Ground Rules -- Alan Bomstein
  • Community Involvement Group (CIG) -- Judy Mitchell
• Sunshine/Public Records -- Charlie Harris
• Round Table -- Board of Directors
• Adjourn

I didn't think there would be anything all too interesting for a first meeting. A discussion of public records laws will probably be the closest thing to news made at this first get-together.

Also, I know some people are sick of talking about attendance this year. But here's an interesting stat. The Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros played a game last night (on one day's notice, mind you) in Milwaukee. The game was moved from Houston because of Hurricane Ike. Well, 23,441 people showed up in Milwaukee. The first-place Tampa Bay Rays are averaging 21,573 a game in their own stadium, more than 1,800 people less than showed up for a game in Wisconsin between Houston and Chicago. Go figure. UPDATE: I just read in the Houston Chronicle that the Cubs-Astros game in Milwaukee would have even sold more tickets, but the Brewers didn't have enough people to work the ballpark, so the teams couldn't open the upper deck.

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