Anti-stadium group accuses Rays of illegal lobbying

ST. PETERSBURG -- The group trying to stop the Tampa Bay Rays from building a new $450-million stadium at Al Lang Field has accused the team of illegally lobbying City Council to support the plan.

Members of St. Pete Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfronts say team executives broke city rules when they handed out T-shirts at a public hearing last month that referenced the Rays' web site for the stadium proposal, www.majorleaguedowntown.com. That site suggests Hines, the developer the Rays are working with on plans for Tropicana Field, already has been awarded the work -- when in fact the city is in the middle of an open and competitive bidding process, said former City Council member, POWW member and attorney Kathleen Ford.

"The ... process has been tainted," Ford wrote in a letter to the city, which also cites as examples the discussion of the Rays' proposal at the Governor's Baseball Dinner last week, and references in trade magazines that discussed the project as if Hines already had won the work. You can read Ford's entire letter here.

Ford and POWW members are asking the city to reject Hines' bid or cancel the entire bidding process. City officials say that's unlikely to happen.

Complete coverage: Ballpark by the bay

-- Aaron Sharockman, Times Staff Writer

Comments

Boy I wish the resident's of Bayfront Tower would stop whining.

That bar's too loud . . .waaaa!

The city's too noisy . . . waaa!

The stadium is icky-poo . . . waaaa!

A majority of those complaining only pay property taxes, and have no incentive to work, support the economy, or do anything besides trying to keep from dying.

I bet it is nice an quiet and cheap in _______ (insert northern city here), why not try that out for a change. as for us living, breathing, working, hometown loving, Rays fans, we support the team and the stadium. Not to mention it will raise the value of your precious condo when your kids inherit it.

[Justin Elza]

Wow, seems like the last two responses were from real class acts! Insulting the elderly, very tasteful.

I myself am a 30-year-old business owner, father, taxpayer, married to a native St Pete resident. Like everyone I know (and that list is 99.99% non-bayfront residents), I do not support this silly scheme.

I'm a Rays fan (well, I have to admit, I'm more a fan of the players than the owners) but I refuse to let the city and the current owners try to cram 10 pounds of stadium in a five-pound sack.

Leave Al Lang alone, let local colleges or even community teams play there. Put a nice park where the parking lot is now where we can have the Saturday Morning Market. If you want shops and stuff in the current Trop parking lot, heck, put them there and build a parking garage. A lot of people were kicked out of their homes to build the Trop, out of respect for them we should get our public domain's worth out of the place!

But quit trying to aggressively put through an agenda that will ultimately be bad for the city (I want to live in "St Pete" that's why I moved here, quit trying to change the city into Tampa or another congested-sports-obsessed-scab of a quasi-metropolis).

And quit insulting people!

[Justin Elza]

Or at least grow a pair and sign your actual name rather than hiding behind the cloak of the Internet like some coward pervert.

[John]

Hey 5:20, speak for yourself. I was born at Mound Park (Bayfron) and have lived within a mile of downtown for 40+ years. Why don't you move to Boston if you want a ruined waterfront with baseball? I prefer having our parks, greenspace and views over another concrete monster taking up our waterfront. We HAVE a stadium already, folks. Perhaps the team could instead use more of the $$ for this doomed effort into picking up some QUALITY players and making the team more sucessful?? Gee, what a concept!!

[H.L.Menchen]

There are plenty of hard working people who live all over the city that love St. Petersburg and don't want to see our precious waterfront decimated by this monstrosity stadium that we will end up paying for with funds that would otherwise go to the improvement of our city. Many of these people are Rays fans that just don't subscribe to corporate welfare and buying the worse team in the league a stadium they are deserving less and less.