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Chamber supports ballpark plan, a bit late

In print: Friday, June 27, 2008

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ST. PETERSBURG — The day after the Tampa Bay Rays pulled the plug on plans for a waterfront stadium, the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce issued a report largely supporting the idea.

Chamber officials, who had been reviewing the Rays' waterfront idea for months, did not formally endorse the proposal. But members of the group's task force on baseball said several aspects of the waterfront location seemed ideal.

"The Rays' original proposal was not an unfair one by any means," Steve Raymund, chairman of the chamber's baseball task force said Thursday. "Not based on what we've seen across America."

The chamber report underscores the difficulty community leaders face in finding a viable alternative site for a new ballpark. Each constituency — the city, the county and the team, for instance — will have a particular preference. The chamber's, it appears, may have been the waterfront.

It is unclear whether the chamber's view will help guide or assist the broad coalition of community leaders forming to investigate sites for a new Rays' ballpark. The waterfront site will be considered during that review, but so will other sites.

In defending the downtown site, Raymund said a ballpark at Al Lang Field would cost less and potentially offer more in return than other locations.

"One thing you can say about the waterfront, like it or hate it, you were going to leverage a lot of in-place infrastructure," he said.

The chamber task force, which included St. Petersburg community and business leaders, also believed that though financing the ballpark and parking downtown remained issues, they were not insurmountable.

An analysis performed for the chamber by Pricewaterhouse­Coopers found that the Rays contribute $92.5-million a year to the city in economic activity and that a new waterfront stadium would generate $134.4-million a year.

The potential redevelopment of Tropicana Field, which is now also delayed, could generate an additional $75.1-million a year in new spending, the analysis found.

The chamber task force had expected to make a recommendation on whether to support the Rays' proposal on Wednesday, but it was pre-empted by the team's announcement that it was abandoning its previous proposal.

In the place of that recommendation, the chamber joined other city and community leaders in urging that the city rally behind the team in finding a viable stadium alternative.

Rays officials said Thursday that the chamber's recommendation would not have altered their decision to delay the stadium push.

Chamber president John Long said he hoped the exploration of other stadium sites begins quickly.

"We should not kid ourselves," Long said. "There are other communities that would like to have our team. And they would not worry about cost."

In the meantime, the chamber is launching a program aimed at helping the team in the short run. Long said the chamber will offer up to a $600 discount for any of its 2,800 members who renew their chamber membership and purchase Rays season tickets for the second half of 2008.

"There is a cost to have baseball in a community that's part of a small market," said chamber chairman Charles M. Harris. "That ultimately has to be better communicated to the body politic."

Aaron Sharockman can be reached at asharockman@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2273.