New Rays stadium could still host Big East bowl

Plans for a new Rays baseball stadium on the water in St. Petersburg in 2012 should not hurt the chances of the city landing a bowl contract with the Big East, associate commissioner Nick Carparelli said Thursday.

"Everybody knows we've had talks with the Devil Rays, though not with any great regularity. If they build a new stadium, the game would be just as viable," Carparelli said.

The Big East's current bowl contracts expire after the 2009 season, and the league is in far better negotiating position than they were when the current four-year contracts were signed and the league was in flux after losing three teams to the ACC. The conference is unlikely to reach bowl agreements beyond the six contracts that will be in place next season -- a BCS bowl, the Gator or Sun, Meineke, Texas, Papajohns.com and International bowls -- so any new bowl would replace an existing relationship.

Carparelli said the relatively small size of the proposed Rays stadium, with a regular capacity of 34,000 that could get a bump for football with temporary bleachers, would not be a problem. USF played to a crowd of 32,023 fans in Birmingham last year, and last season's game in Toronto drew about 27,000 fans.

"I don't think that would be a problem at all," Carparelli said. "When you're in a large stadium that's not full, the atmosphere suffers. A more intimate stadium that's full is a great atmosphere."

The only potential obstacle created by the change in stadiums would be the 2011 bowl, which could see the new stadium still not ready, but Tropicana Field done and potentially already demolished. It's unclear whether such a conflict would happen or not because the timelines for the transition are still largely speculative. The Big East expects to make a decision on its affiliations for its next bowl cycle -- generally a four-year agreement -- sometime late next fall.

Comments

[Mike Lakeland]

Please, PLEASE keep Notre Dame out of our bowls.

I'd gladly take the Pizza Bowl or Freezing Cold Bowl (Toronto in January...need I say more?), if the reason we got there was conference position, and NOT the Gator Bowl or Sun Bowl picking ND over a more worthy Big East team.

[steve oneal]

Ya'll talk like the new stadium is a done deal. If it passes in this time of tax problems for working people and puts ANY tax dollars in the hands of rich team owners you can expect a revolt by the people and I would gladly be at the front! I am a sports fan but I AM DEAD AGAINST ANY FOR PROFIT ENTITIES GETTING PUBLIC MONEY!! It is wrong and I am TIRED OF THE BS!

[SRQ Steve]

Wouldn't that seem like an overcrowding of bowl games in the area since the Outback plays in Tampa? That's a really good bowl that plays on January 1st (Prime day to play other than the BCS games).

Even with that concern I would go to the bowl game no matter who played (as long as I wasn't at the USF bowl game somewhere else.)

[Sammy]

More bowls in Tampa Bay = more money in Tampa Bay. What great advertising for that bowl with the stadium by the water. That would be awesome.

If it's not a new years day bowl, they could just play it in the Ray Jay until the new stadium is done..

[JL]

Steve...

It will be a done deal. Hold your ankles and lube up.

[steve oneal]

You can hold your ankles and lube up. Me I will stand up and fight this crap. I'm fed up with all the thieving whores that screw us on a daily basis, so you my friend go ahead and lube up and lay down, that is exactly what they count on. Me, I'd rather die than give in to one more thief.

[Traveling Sam]

Steve, relax. You probably make 6 figures. You probably don't even live in Pinellas County. Even if you do you can swing the $8 a year.

Just put it under the hotel or rental car tax and make the touristas pay for it. :-)

[Brendan]

I would gladly welcome a new bowl. Doesn't New Orleans have 3 bowls every year? I wish we had that many here!

[JL]

Go Steve, Go Steve...

Give me an S.....S!!!!
Give me a T......T!!!!
etc!

hahahaha

I live on the east side of the state, so I say....

Go Rays!!! Build a stadium baby!!! Not a dome, so that it can get packed just like the Marlins pack the stadium in Miami!!

That stadium is just BRUTAL when it comes to the heat!!!! Horrible!

[steve oneal]

I don't live in pinellas county. I don't make six figures. The tax break they ask for is STATE sales tax traveling sam. It effects everyone in the state. If you want the stadium you friggin pay for it. If you don't mind taking public property for private gain, maybe you could sell your house and give the money to rays to help build the stadium.

[nybullsfan]

The Big East is the only BCS conference that doesn't have its own "home" bowl.

ACC has the Orange, SEC has the Sugar, B12 has the Fiesta, and B10/P10 share the Rose.

Wouldn't it be cool if this new bowl game could become the 6th BCS game as the "home" of the BE. This'd also give us 12 BCS teams instead of 10. (It'd be just as great if the Outback Bowl became the BE "home" BCS bowl!)

After all, the bowl renegotiations are coming up next fall...

BTW, I don't know the numbers in this case, but the stadium subsidies are usually backed up with pretty solid numbers that show how the local area gets more financial benefits from having the stadium than from not spending the money. Things like extra jobs, extra tourists, etc, all mean extra tax dollars. In the end, do the team owners get richer? Sure they do. Is the local area better off anyway? Usually is. No need to cut off the stadium subsidy noses just to spite the rich owners' faces.

Go BULLS! Beat the Pac10!!

[steve oneal]

nybullsfan, I don't know what solid numbers you are looking at. Maybe the ones supplied by the people wanting the tax breaks and subsidies. The reports I've read all say there is little if any benefits to the local economies. The debt on the Trop isn't even paid yet and won't be by the time this goes through. The 150m the team said it would put up is actually increased rent payments on new stadium, not upfront money from team. This means bonds and borrowing money to build and that means INTEREST that the team won't pay. Hell we're stil waiting on the 1/2 of the cost of ray jay that the Glaziers promised and NEVER paid. If they collected property tax on Lightning,Bucs,Rays etc think how much money that would bring in. Now add the sales tax break the pro sports teams already get and we could have more money. NO TAXPAYERS MONEY TO ANY FOR PROFIT ENTITIES AT ALL! If you think the bucs or rays or any sports team brings in enough EXTRA tax revenue to offset the breaks they get you are wrong! I am a sports fan but I don't think every tax payer should subsidize these teams. If all governments were not allowed to finance these for profit teams and businessess they wuoldn't be able to threaten to move and play one city against the other. I was happy when we got the Bucs and so on, but Tampa was a beautiful place before and would be just as beautiful without them.

[JL]

Hey Steve....

Name one "great" city that does not have some sort of major sport linked to it.

NY
LA
Miami
Tampa
Boston
San Fran
Dallas
Houston

Name one!

[JL]

Lube up Steve...

start accepting it...It will happen, and you will see people in Kayaks trying to catch the HR by Tampa Bay.

Regardless if we accept it....

I hate the feeling too.

The same feeling I get when I pay $60 to fill my gas tank, but Exxon's profit are in the Billions....I think 22 Billion...........Yes, with a B!! Billion....

[nts]

steve O

The registered voters of St. Petersburg will have to OK this deal per city charter. It will not be up to you or me...so accept it.

I do not live in Hillsborough County but I have no problems with paying a .50 sales tax surcharge when in Tampa to have kept the Bucs(and provide the BULLS a home stadium)in Tampa.

Relax.

GO BULLS!!

[Jim]

I live in Pinellas and I will for NO NO NO for paying for a new Stadium. The Glazers already hosed Tampabay why should another set of owners. No body has even thought can downtown St. Petersburg handle the traffic, no so we will have highway construction issues to allow people to get to the game. Tell me how one Bowl game a year will pay Pinellas county back for chipping in to pay for a stadium?

[steve oneal]

NTS I will have a say when I lobby the state legislators that have to approve the 60 million tax subsidy. The same type that the Marlins have not been able to get approved. The people on here are sports fans and of course want teams especially if the rest of the state subsidizes them. You might find the vast majority of the people do not want to give their tax dollars to fatten the wallets of a few RICH owners that can build it themselves. The days of gouging the public just may be coming to an end. GO BULLs!

[Mike]

nybullsfan,

They're not going to add another BCS bowl, much less put it in a 32,000 seat baseball stadium in St Pete.

I like the Big East not having a home bowl so we have the flexibility to go wherever the good match up is.

If (and this is a long ways off) they build this stadium and want to play a Bowl game there, it will probably be around Dec 18 and have the 6th place Big East team against the 2nd place Sun Belt team or something. It would be fun regardless who plays though.

[Al]

"Name one "great" city that does not have some sort of major sport linked to it.

NY
LA
Miami
Tampa
Boston
San Fran
Dallas
Houston"

Which of those cities is the size of St Petersburg.

What's so great about the cities in your list.

BTW, St Petersburgs has a MLB team which is under contract to play at the "Trop" for 20 more years. It's called the Tampa Bay Rays.

[Al]

"I like the Big East not having a home bowl so we have the flexibility to go wherever the good match up is." mIKE

Right, Great places like Birmingham!

"I do not live in Hillsborough County but I have no problems with paying a .50 sales tax surcharge when in Tampa to have kept the Bucs(and provide the BULLS a home stadium)in Tampa." nts

The Bulls would have had a real "home stadium" if the RJ wasn't built and the
Glazers had packed their bags and left Tampa...a stadium that was built for the University of Tampa Spartans...Today it would be decked out in Green & Gold not red and peweter.

[SRQ Steve]

There is certainly nothing better than watching a last place team play baseball.

Wait, there is something better. It's watching a last place team play baseball outside in 100% humidity during the summer.

[Oldie Green and Goldie]

I don't think tax payers would vote to subsidize a stadium for the Bulls, so I don't get why tax payers are willing to vote to line the pockets of pro sports team owners. It really hit home this year when I learned the Glazers are earning money from a public university's football program. That is insanity.

[Chris]

Vote NO St Pete and Pinellas County...Stick it to the man!!! Then maybe the Rays will come to the other side of the bay where it would be manageable for me to make it to games on a regular basis...Oh wait this is the Bulls Blog I digress.