By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor
Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.
Tonight, Major League Baseball is holding the 80th All Star Game in St. Louis. With the recent success of the Tampa Bay Rays, the question could be asked – when will St. Petersburg host the All Star Game?
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In a report submitted to the A Baseball Community task force that is working on a site and funding for a new MLB ballpark, the Tampa Bay Rays have ID’d their Top 7 sites and the pro’s and con’s of each.
The sites include:
The location at the No. 1 position is sure to enrage downtown St. Petersburg activists who fought against an earlier proposal to build a ballpark at the Progress Energy-sponsored location. POWW was formed to fight against the plan, and having won that initial battle, now is gathering signatures for a November referendum that would prohibit using the location for anything but a park.
Now before anyone gets too far off the chain, here are the caveats from Rays VP for ballpark building Michael Kalt in today’s TBO.com:
“We’re not prepared to say that one site is preferable to the other,” said Michael Kalt, Rays vice president for development and business affairs. “The sites themselves are just sites that have been mentioned in the public, and we don’t necessarily think it’s an exhaustive list.”
You can download Part 1 and Part 2 of the report, in .pdf format (Adobe Acrobat).
As USA Today debates drilling for oil off the coast, CNBC braces for $150-a-barrel oil this week. Hang on for the part where interviewee and “preeminent energy investment bankers” Matt Simmons mentions “the American nightmare.”
The St. Pete Times editorial pages this Sunday asked that very question, in a way that tips their hand in supporting a new ballpark for the team, a $450 million taxpayer-subsidized waterfront facility:
The loss of team and stadium jobs and the loss of 81 game days and the corresponding hotel and restaurant use can be computed into fairly reliable economic numbers. What is much harder to measure is the extent to which the team is a factor in other business decisions that affect St. Petersburg and Pinellas and in the overall quality life of the entire area. The viability of existing and new hotels would most certainly be affected. But could the loss of the team lead to lost opportunities in business relocations? Could it shake the faith of banks that provide the capital for corporate growth?
So I ask the question that the Times does: What would happen if the Rays left town?
Let’s examine the team’s impact so far, or in other words, what will we get for the $323 million that the Trop and the team will cost us through 2016. The Times editorial begins this way:
A Major League Baseball team, one former St. Petersburg official said nearly two decades ago, would “light the tail on the rocket.”
The newspaper says determining the team’s role in St. Pete’s current state is less relevant than looking forward. But seriously, the team’s impact in our region was oversold from day one and remains overstated. It did not light the tail on the rocket; it didn’t put St. Pete on the map (much to the chagrin of city leaders, the team retains its geographic name as “Tampa Bay” and some broadcasters shorten it to Tampa); its impact on the larger region is even more dubious. It did not create an economic ripple in Downtown West; the few sports bars that were opened as a result, most notably Ferg’s, are lonely outposts for the most part in the immediate neighborhood.
So if the past is any indicator of the future, baseball is not going to “transform” St. Pete into America’s Next Great City.
The team has never directly threatened to leave, but the message has been delivered by two proxies: business leader Steve Raymund and Times sports columnist John Romano, the latter’s none-too-subtle channeling for the Rays ownership headlined “Rays will get their new stadium — somewhere.”
Since the Times has asked, here’s one scenario of what happens if the team leaves:
In this scenario, the city grows its own longlasting jobs, not just the 18-month construction job benefit the Rays tout. In this scenario, downtown St. Pete continues to be an eclectic affordable destination for dining, entertaining and the arts, something that downtown Tampa can’t claim. And the city gets a veritable windfall by cutting the team — and its subsidies — loose. St. Pete and Pinellas County would have to continue to pay off the bonds that were used to build the Trop through 2016, but it already has that burden and can’t do anything about it.
Bonus cuts: The Rays and the city’s secrecy; our Q&A with the Rays’ Silverman and Kalt; PoHo blog on the Trop redevelopment plans; download the Rays’ financial proposal and analysis.
(photo by Ben Ostrowsky)
The great unraveling.
IN OTHER NEWS:
(Photo Credit: Franco Folini)
UPDATE: WP has posted a link in the comments section to a story about the Florida Legislature proposing a bill to ban “bumper nuts.” Good lookin’ out, WP!
