Tropicana Field gets football makeover

The City Council approved $45,000 worth of renovations Thursday to get Tropicana Field ready for the new ESPN St. Petersburg Bowl.

The repairs will allow for a regulation football field to fit into the turf area of the stadium. An existing concrete wall and seat riser will be demolished. In its place will go a portable wall and seat riser system, allowing the Tampa Bay Rays to easily convert the field to accommodate both baseball and football games.

The money comes from the $1.5-million Capital Repair, Renewal, and Replacement Sinking Fund, which can only be used for modifications to Tropicana Field.

So what does this mean for the ongoing stadium debate? Not much.

Council Chairman Jamie Bennett said some community leaders have talked about adding a retractable roof to the Trop, but no one knows yet how much that would cost.

Comments

[Absurd]

Are they going to utilize the quarter million dollar cement mixer the city just bought or will the work be subcontracted out?

From today's Times:

The City Council battled over a $188,412 dog park this week.

But they had no problem approving a new $229,977 cement mixer truck even though the truck costs nearly twice as much as the last cement mixer truck the city purchased. The council voted to buy the truck Thursday without any public discussion.

Of five bids turned into the city, Nextran Corporation in Tampa turned in the lowest bid, said Joseph Krizen, the city's fleet operations manager.

The last time the city purchased a cement mixer in 2001 it cost $143,267. Krizen chalks the difference up to inflatation.

Does the city even need a cement mixer truck, you ask? Even though the city hires outside contractors to do most of its dirty work, Krizen said the truck is used on a daily basis for sidewalks and other maintenance.

[Jill]

Well making a retractable roof for the trop? Just wait for Hurricane Ike and that will take care of it.

[Kathleen]

All council members who vote to fund dog parks are fiscally irresponsible, in my opinion. Exactly where are there heads?

[Kathleen]

There would be more money in that fund if the Rays were selling all of tickets to the stadium instead of covering up thousands of seats. A sell out crowd used to be north of 40,000 seats not 34,000 seats. Who is looking out for the City of St. Petersburg's interest?