Rays Colored Glasses » Rays Stadium http://rayscoloredglasses.com A Tampa Bay Rays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More Thu, 23 May 2013 17:47:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 Rays Notes: Proposal to Amend Tropicana Field Lease Fails, Stadium Talks Go Back to Square One http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/02/08/rays-notes-proposal-to-amend-tropicana-field-lease-fails-stadium-talks-go-back-to-square-one/ http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/02/08/rays-notes-proposal-to-amend-tropicana-field-lease-fails-stadium-talks-go-back-to-square-one/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:41:12 +0000 Robbie Knopf http://rayscoloredglasses.com/?p=9869 We saw it right in front of us- an end to this Rays stadium saga and the frustration experienced by everyone involved. On Thursday, the St. Petersburg council voted on an amendment to the Tropicana Field lease that would have allowed the Rays to look at stadium sites in both Pinellas and Hillsborough for a [...]

Rays Notes: Proposal to Amend Tropicana Field Lease Fails, Stadium Talks Go Back to Square One - Rays Colored Glasses - Rays Colored Glasses - A Tampa Bay Rays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> We saw it right in front of us- an end to this Rays stadium saga and the frustration experienced by everyone involved. On Thursday, the St. Petersburg council voted on an amendment to the Tropicana Field lease that would have allowed the Rays to look at stadium sites in both Pinellas and Hillsborough for a fee of 1.42 million dollars a year. The Rays have always said that they would refuse to look at any individual site in the Tampa Bay area unless they were given the opportunity to survey every possible site, and if this amendment has passed, that’s exactly what could have happend. Just because the Rays would be looking at every site in the area, including quite a few in Hillsborough County, that wouldn’t mean than they would necessarily move to downtown Tampa- Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said previously that if allowed to look at stadium options in both counties, his first call would by to Darryl LeClair, the developer behind the promising Carillon proposal. If the amendment passed, there would be more controversy ahead if the Rays decided to leave St. Petersburg, but it would certainly get the ball rolling on the stadium discussions than ever before, and if the Rays decided to choose the Carillon proposal or another proposal in Pinellas County, the stadium sage could have finally been over. But instead, the proposal was voted down, with the 8-person St. Pete council voting an even 4-4, and suddenly talks are set to stall again. Noah Pransky of WTSP had play-by-play of the talk prior to the vote in the St. Pete council chamber via the @StadiumShadow twitter account and had some very interesting quotes from the people on the council.

#StPete councilmember Curran: If anything weakened our (legal) position, it was releasing the Carillon plan.

— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 7, 2013

Councilman Kennedy: #StPete offered a plan at Carillon, even though it didn’t have to, and #Rays still wanted nothing to do with it.

— Shadow of Stadium (@StadiumShadow) February 7, 2013

Why did the Rays want “nothing to do” with the Carillon plan? The same thing they’ve said again and again, that they’re not going to look at any individual site in the Tampa Bay area until they’re allowed to look at the entire region. Like Gerdes said, the St. Pete council has to be more confident that the stadium sites in their county, particularly Carillon, will compare favorably to anything to Hillsbourgh. The Carillon proposal was a great idea- it generated interest in the stadium discussions and the Rays were ready to seriously look at it if they received the concessions they wanted. Instead, the St. Pete council not only rebuffed the Rays but hung Darryl LeClair and the developers behind Carillon out to dry as they refused to show confidence in Carillon as the place the Rays could build their new stadium. After Bill Foster said after he denied the Rays’ request to look at Hillsborough sites a few months ago, he said that the Rays were still open to look at Carillon and people have been befuddled that the Rays never took him up on that offer. But why were the Rays ever going to build a new stadium when it wasn’t on their terms and when they didn’t know how it compared to other stadium sites in the area? All the St. Pete council did with the Carillon proposal was show everyone a light at the end of the tunnel and then quickly close it up before anything could happen.

Wait a second, Mr. Foster- you’d rather have the Rays play in Tropicana Field for the next 16 years and then bolt the area than find a solution for this problem now and solidify the Rays’ presence in the area for years to come? That first statement sounds everything like he expects the Rays to leave the Tampa Bay area after they leave the Trop. Nobody wants that to happen, and the only way that it will happen is if stubborn politicians like Foster refuse to see the whole picture of the situation and refuse to compromise.

The methodology behind the proposed amendment was quite sound- but how in the world was it ever going to pass? Gerdes, the councilman who proposed it, had opposition in the St. Pete council, but that wasn’t his only problem- the proposed amount the Rays would pay was embarrassingly low. Gerdes got that number from the amount St. Pete pays to subsidize the Trop every year- but in the scheme of things, that number is pocket change. Kyle Farnsworth‘s base salary in $1.35MM in 2012- for only 7000 more dollars, the Rays would be allowed to end the stadium stalemate. What? Gerdes said that the money could be used to improve the city- but how much can the city do with only $1.42M? If Gerdes was really going to make this amendment happen, he was going to have to ask the Rays for significantly more money, maybe even 10 million dollars a year. The Rays would have loved if this proposal passed, but it would have been an absolute gift for them if it did and to really come up for a reasonable deal for both sides, it’s going to have to involve considerably more money and make a statement that the Rays will have to understand that they can’t even think of getting out of an ironclad contract at the Trop without a major financial commitment.

One piece of good news was that Pransky tweeted that Foster is scheduled to meet with Stuart Sternberg a week from today. But considering the positions that Foster has steadfastly clung to, the chances are that the meeting between him and Foster will amount to nothing and the stadium stalemate will continue.

]]> http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/02/08/rays-notes-proposal-to-amend-tropicana-field-lease-fails-stadium-talks-go-back-to-square-one/feed/ 0 Rays Notes: Proposal for Rays to Look at Stadium Sites, Mark Hendrickson Returns to Orioles http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/02/04/rays-notes-proposal-for-rays-to-look-at-stadium-sites-mark-hendrickson-returns-to-orioles/ http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/02/04/rays-notes-proposal-for-rays-to-look-at-stadium-sites-mark-hendrickson-returns-to-orioles/#comments Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:24:18 +0000 Robbie Knopf http://rayscoloredglasses.com/?p=9823 One of the biggest reasons for the impasse between the Rays and the city of St. Petersburg regarding a new Rays stadium is that mayor Bill Fosterand the St. Pete council has refused to allow the Rays to look at stadium sites outside St. Petersburg, and the Rays have always refused to look at any [...]

Rays Notes: Proposal for Rays to Look at Stadium Sites, Mark Hendrickson Returns to Orioles - Rays Colored Glasses - Rays Colored Glasses - A Tampa Bay Rays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> One of the biggest reasons for the impasse between the Rays and the city of St. Petersburg regarding a new Rays stadium is that mayor Bill Fosterand the St. Pete council has refused to allow the Rays to look at stadium sites outside St. Petersburg, and the Rays have always refused to look at any individual site until given permission to look at every possible site within the Tampa Bay area. But a member of the St. Pete council has come up with a proposal that he hopes will finally end the stalemate. According to Christopher O’Donnell of the Tampa Tribune, councilman Charlie Gerdes came up with the idea that the Rays could look at stadium sites outside St. Petersburg over the next year in exchange for a $1.4MM “exploration fee,” an amount based on the amount of money St. Pete paid the Rays in 2012 for miscellaneous stadium costs, with additional time to look available for an additional cost. That monetary value is not very high at all, but the logic behind it being that sites within St. Pete and Pinellas County, specifically the Carillon proposal, are as strong as anywhere in Hillsborough County and places that the Rays could realistically choose as the spot of their next stadium. The Rays have previously stated that their first call would be to Darryl LeClair, the developer behind the Carillon proposal. The $1.4MM fee seems like something that Bill Foster would never agree to, but O’Donnell notes that the St. Pete charter does not allow the mayor to veto amendments to contracts between the city and third parties. Foster will still try to convince the council not to go through with the proposed amendment, but if the St. Pete council agrees to pass the amendment, there’s nothing he can do. If this amendment actually happens, this could be a major development in the Rays’ stadium situation and substantially expedite the process of resolving this whole stadium issue and solidifying the Rays’ place in Tampa Bay moving forward. Stay tuned to see what happens with those proposal, because this could be something big.

Remember big, tall lefty Mark Hendrickson? The former Devil Rays starting pitcher and NBA player who ended up with the Baltimore Orioles from 2009 to 2011, Hendrickson, now 38 years old, is coming back, having signed a minor league contract with the Orioles after sitting out for all of 2012. Hendrickson had one of the funniest careers in the history of the Rays, winning 10 games with a 4.81 ERA for the D-Rays in 2004 and then 11 with a 5.90 ERA in 2005 before managing a 3.81 ERA in his first 13 starts of 2006, and somehow that gave him enough trade value to be dealt along with Toby Hall for a package of three players highlighted by Dioner Navarro, who would be a major part in the Rays’ 2008 World Series run. Hendrickson managed just a 5.05 ERA in his two and a half years with the Rays, but he played a role in the Rays success through that trade for Navarro and for that, Rays fans should be appreciative. Good luck to Hendrickson as he tries to return to the major leagues.

]]> http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/02/04/rays-notes-proposal-for-rays-to-look-at-stadium-sites-mark-hendrickson-returns-to-orioles/feed/ 0 Rays Notes: Breakdown of the Rays’ Meeting With the Pinellas Commission http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/01/30/rays-notes-breakdown-of-the-rays-meeting-with-the-pinellas-commission/ http://rayscoloredglasses.com/2013/01/30/rays-notes-breakdown-of-the-rays-meeting-with-the-pinellas-commission/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:06:12 +0000 Robbie Knopf http://rayscoloredglasses.com/?p=9747 After months of silence, the discussion for a new Rays stadium has started to heat up again. After meeting with the Hillsborough County commission last Thursday, the Rays headed to the Pinellas County Council on Tuesday, addressing some of the same points as before but also many divergent points that will help us get a [...]

Rays Notes: Breakdown of the Rays’ Meeting With the Pinellas Commission - Rays Colored Glasses - Rays Colored Glasses - A Tampa Bay Rays Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

]]> After months of silence, the discussion for a new Rays stadium has started to heat up again. After meeting with the Hillsborough County commission last Thursday, the Rays headed to the Pinellas County Council on Tuesday, addressing some of the same points as before but also many divergent points that will help us get a better understanding of the wholes stadium situation. Once again, Noah Pransky of WTSP had the recap via the @StadiumShadow twitter account.

That statement sure caught the public’s eye. Only 300 season tickets sold in the city of St. Petersburg, where Tropicana Field is located?! As St. Pete mayor Bill Foster later pointed out, that’s 300 season ticket ACCOUNTS, which amounts to more like 1000 season tickets, which still seems like a pretty low number. Why is it so low? The Rays aren’t trying to say that St. Pete residents aren’t passionate about the Rays, but just that it’s far from the ideal place for the Rays’ ballclub to be placed. Michael Kalt elaborated on that point later in the meeting.

Obviously there are people in St. Pete for whom buying season tickets should not be an issue if they’re Rays fans with the money to support it, but St. Pete isn’t the population center and is far from it, and as Pransky noted, a big reason why the Rays’ attendance has been so bad according to the ABC Coalition was that businesses weren’t purchasing season tickets like they do in other cities. How can you expect a person or business to purchase season tickets when it’s a hassle to get to the stadium every game because you live across the Howard Franklin Bridge and always treacherous traffic that makes it very hard to go from work to the Rays game too often? (By the way, the Rays starting at 6:40 some nights last season could not have helped that either- every minute counts and losing 20 minutes for each game could have definitely discouraged people from buying season tickets.) For other teams, you don’t have to do to nearly all 81 home games- you could go to as little as 35 or 40 and make your money back on the others and then some by selling your other tickets. For the Rays, there are so many tickets available that selling your tickets for a profit is a nearly implausible proposition and you’ll almost certainly incur a loss when you don’t go to games. The next Rays stadium does not have to be in Downtown Tampa- but it has to be in a place that is more of a business center and easiest for fans, especially those coming to work to get to.

There was a notion in the meeting with the Hillsborough Council that the Rays were purposely tanking their marketing efforts to make them look worse as a team and more desperate for a new stadium. Matthew Silverman tried to refute that entirely and essentially say that the Rays tried as hard they could to market their team, but their efforts were pretty futile because there simply are not enough fans who can make it to the Trop on a regular basis. How can they prove that? Even without exact marketing numbers, you can see how much the Rays’ TV ratings have surged and that clearly would not have happened without significant marketing efforts.

The Rays need a new stadium. But for the near future, that’s not about to happen and the Rays have to make the best of what they have. Even if the Trop is not a long-term solution that can realistically work, making the Trop nicer could only help the Rays’ attendance and could make the next several years more manageable until a stadium is (hopefully built). Instead of shooting for the moon in these talks and refusing to compromise all the time, it’s nice to see the Rays address a realistic possibility that could work for all sides.

The good news is that we’re no in a situation where the Rays want one thing and the community leaders want the exact opposite. There are certainly people who want to compromise and hopefully eventually we’ll see that become more of the norm.

All the Rays want to actually get the ball rolling and make things happen in these talks. Once a site is decided on, the controversy is only going to increase and who knows how long it will take for a new stadium to actually begin being built. But the Rays want to get a feel for the sites in the area and start to understand exactly the battle they’re fighting and what concessions and compromises it will take to make a new stadium break ground. Is that so unrealistic?

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