A committee studying the Tampa Bay Rays' stadium options seemed unanimous Thursday that the team needs a new stadium and that it should be outside downtown St. Petersburg.
Now comes the tough work of selling that idea to the public.
The ABC Coalition, a committee of business leaders created by St. Petersburg, met Thursday in Clearwater to cement members' ideas on the stadium issue. The coalition has been meeting for nearly a year to debate whether to renovate Tropicana Field, build a new stadium in downtown St. Petersburg or elsewhere, how to build fan and corporate support and other issues.
The coalition will use its conclusions to make recommendations to St. Petersburg, which has a stadium agreement with the Rays through 2027. The coalition appeared to be in sync on most issues.
Among its conclusions:
•A new stadium is required. Renovating Tropicana Field so that it is acceptable by modern standards would cost $200 million to $475 million.
•Downtown St. Petersburg probably is not the right location for a new stadium.
•Downtown St. Petersburg and the fairgrounds are at a significant disadvantage in demographics, it found. For example, both areas lag in average household income and in number of business employees and level of business revenue.
•Any new stadium project likely would involve a significant cost to the public. Recent history with stadiums suggests professional teams put up 20 percent to 30 percent of stadium costs, with the rest coming from public sources.
Taxpayers currently pay about $12 million a year on bonds issued to build Tropicana Field. Any future stadium would require annual payments "significantly higher" than $12 million, but the coalition fretted over putting a figure on it.
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