ABC interim reports on Tropicana options, financing

ST. PETERSBURG -- Renovating Tropicana Field is impractical, selling it now doesn’t make financial sense and paying for a new stadium will be difficult when there’s millions of dollars in debt on the old one.

Those were some of the highlights of a meeting Monday by A Baseball Community, the private group studying stadium options for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Read the actual reports here and here.

Aaron Sharockman, Times Staff Writer

Group may have something to report by June

ST. PETERSBURG — The group studying sites for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium said Tuesday it could have a series of interim findings by June.

But, they cautioned, the site for a possible new stadium will not be among them.

Jeff Lyash, chairman of the group called A Baseball Community, said he hoped to focus — at least initially — on areas where a stadium could be located, not specific properties. Talk mostly has centered around the Carillon and Gateway areas in north St. Petersburg and, to a lesser extent, downtown St. Petersburg and Tampa.

“This is not meant to be conclusionary,” said Lyash, Progress Energy Florida’s president and chief executive.

Thursday's ABC meeting

TBARTA executive director Bob Clifford told members studying potential locations for a new Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium Thursday that from a transportation perspective, a new ballpark would fit best either in the Gateway area of St. Petersburg or the Westshore area of Tampa.

And since we know the city of St. Petersburg won't support a Tampa location, that singles out the Gateway are -- which Clifford said would include Carillon -- as the best location from a transit perspective.

The Rays also on Thursday released more detailed transportation and parking information for six potential sites -- Carillon, Derby Lane, the Sod Farm, St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport, Toytown, and Tropicana Field.

You can read the study for yourself here here. Froy my first blush, the study again seems to favor Carillon.

-- Aaron Sharockman, Times Staff Writer

ABC group meets today at 3 p.m.

Meeting Agenda
EpiCenter
13805 58th St. N., Largo
Thursday, January 15, 2009
3–5 p.m.
Meeting Room 1-455

I. Opening Comments                            Jeff Lyash/Judy Mitchell

II. Approval of Minutes

III. TBARTA – Regional Transit System    Robert Clifford 

IV. CIG Reports
           • Fan Support                             Barbara Heck/Richard George
           • Corporate Support                    Chuck Sykes
           • Stadium Options                      Craig Sher

V. Round Table                                      Board of Directors

VI. Adjourn

Actual attendance up 45 percent last season, city says

While Tampa Bay Rays ticket sales increased 30 percent last season, the number of people actually attending games shot up even more, according to the city.

City of St. Petersburg officials on Wednesday said the number of people attending baseball games last season increased 45 percent when compared to 2007. The city tracks actual attendance records because it receives a small percentage from each ticket used.

City senior development administrator Rick Mussett said attendance at Tropicana Field improved even more near the end of the season. From July through September, actual attendance increased 59 percent when compared with 2007.

The figures were released at a meeting of A Baseball Coalition, a community group studying stadium options for the Rays.

Ballpark financing deals

Here's something else for folks to chew on from the Rays. It's a ballpark funding summary for every stadium opened since 1991. The product is the work of the Rays and has been forwarded to the ABC baseball coalition for its use. It seems as though the document was prepared by New Jersey sports finance consultant MZ Sports LLC.

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Rays ABC presentation

Because I'm good like that, I wanted to share the Rays' presentation to the ABC coalition yesterday. It's a PowerPoint. Happy hunting. Rays ABC presentation.

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No to Airco, maybe to Toytown; other news

A lot came out of this morning's A Baseball Community meeting. Look for more in tomorrow's paper or here at Ballpark Frankess, but I did want to share the major points:

• A baseball stadium likely could not be built at St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport or neighboring Airco Golf Course because of light and height concerns.
• Preliminary testing shows that the 300-acre former Toytown landfill along Interstate 275 near Carillon could work as the ballpark site. More testing is needed, however, and it could be three years before construction could start.
• The ABC group will identify what the stadium should look like before location concerns are addressed. At issue are the design, whether it will have a roof, and if it will be surrounded by parking garages, surface lots or a mixed-use development.
• Any new stadium would probably not open before 2014 and possibly not until 2016, the group said.

The Rays' Michael Kalt also gave a eye-opening presentation about the Tampa Bay market that touched on a lot of the things we've already talked about here (population, density, income, corporate base). To be honest, the numbers didn't look good, and I heard one committee member mumble to himself that the report was sobering.

Here's probably the scariest stat. Using demographic data, the Rays say 615,000 people live within a 30-minute drive of Tropicana Field. Compare that with Pittsburgh, where 1.2-million people live within a 30-minute drive, according to the Rays. Or Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland or Kansas City, which all have populations twice as dense as the Rays' base.

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What ABC's been up to

So I just got back from ABC's third committee meeting at the EpiCenter in Largo. The group is still getting organized and really hasn't gotten to the nuts and bolts of what it's been formed to do. Officials promise that is coming shortly.

What I can tell you is that no sites have been discussed for a potential stadium. Neither have funding plans or the design of the facility.

Anecdotally, it seems most members prefer a facility with air conditioning. But other than that, there just isn't much to report. Stay tuned.

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ABC meeting tonight

Just a reminder that the ABC baseball coalition is meeting tonight. Here are the details.

Date and time: 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 1 
Location: EPI Center
13805 58th St. N
Room 1-455

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