The city staff's stadium memo

Don't forget today's two-hour live chat on the stadium proposal, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. here on TroxBlog. Come back and look for a new post with the headline, "The April 22 chat is OPEN." The full chat announcement and comments with "pre-filed" questions can be found two posts below.

In my column this morning, I made reference to a 45-page memo from the St. Petersburg city staff finding some problems with the Tampa Bay Rays' site plan for the proposed waterfront stadium. Here's a copy of that memo: Download citymemo.pdf

I hope to see you at today's chat!

Comments

[Big Fan]

How could this possibly be a good idea to build a new stadium downtown. That is just ridiculous! The team sucks. They never finished out of last place since the beginning of the franchise. And I am sure this burden will fall to the taxpayers no matter what they say. Ship them off to Tampa like every other team that started in St. Pete. Why don't they build more condos than a new stadium? You can never have enough eyesores on the waterfront.

Here are the email addresses, including County Administrator Fred Marquis and his admin Della Klug. Time to speak up, folks.............remember, Commissioners Ken Welch and Karen Seel (thanks Comm. Seel for your STRONG stance against using ANY money from the city or the county for a new stadium). The commissioners and other candidates need to clearly understand that their election or re-election bids will depend on the protection of their TRUE constituents, the voters of Pinellas County. They need to understand that we will not tolerate the destruction of our downtown waterfront, we will not tolerate dredging and filling the bay, that we will not tolerate ANY government subsidies for a wealthy corporation who wants to build a stadium for their own corporate need and investment future....even if it's Toy Town as the ultimate site choice. North County, it's time for YOU to start speaking up...........I can assure you, any commission meetings on this topic will have the COMMISSION CHAMBERS filled with advocates AGAINST this new stadium.

See the Will Van Sant piece on the County and Rays below.

Lorraine

charris@co.pinellas.fl.us, ktwelch@co.pinellas.fl.us, slatvala@co.pinellas.fl.us, rduncan@co.pinellas.fl.us, jmorroni@co.pinellas.fl.us, rstewart@co.pinellas.fl.us, kseel@pinellascounty.org, dklug@co.pinellas.fl.us, fmarquis@pinellascounty.org

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article466995.ece

[bob guckenberger]

I keep trying to find out what's wrong with Tropicana Field. Good sight lines, plenty of parkeing and,oh yes, it's always 72 degrees.
Dome lover.

[Justin Elza]

Howard, once again I wanted to let your readers know just how massive this new stadium is going to be. There is a to scale diagram at http://www.stpetepoww.com that shows the size and height in relation to other structures.

[Diane M. Foss]

Didn't the Rays say earlier that they were going to pay for most of the new stadium?

[Jack]

Don't allow our Pinellas County Commisioners to sell us out in supporting the Rays as they did with the Smith Land deal. All or any tax revenue should be used for the good of the County and the welfare if ist residents.

[Jack]

We are in very rough times right now in affording to keep pace with the cost of living in any entity of maintaing an affordable lifestyle. There are also many people out there that legitimately need assistance. It may be conceiveable by local and state government to deny assistance, cut programs and take jobs with less tax revenue as is deemed with property tax cuts. But to offer assistance in funding a new baseball stadium is a slap in the face to county residents affected by these cuts.

[Jack]

Does anyone realize that when a professional sport's player is signed to a contract, he makes more money than the average working individual will make in a lifetime. These individuals start off in millions! Any hard working individual out there making just enough to get by and loosing it tell me why taxpayers should even be considered to support new stadiums for professional sports. And don't be snowed any longer that it helps the resodents of the local economy effected. The Rays, the Trop! Are you better off today because of this franchise?

[Russell Olson]

I cannot for the life of me understand why the taxpayers should go on the hook for dime. 95% of the people could care less about the Rays. I've been to three games with "announced attendance" of 10-12,000 and there aren't 2,500 there. 450 million bucks is a travesty!!