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Rays Stadium Could Be A Hit

By Peter Masa

The new stadium would be located on the site of current Al Lang Field

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By CARLOS MONCADA and MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Mark Ferguson took a pioneering leap of faith in 1993 when he converted an old Sunoco gas station into a sports bar, hoping the city would land a baseball team. It arrived five years later.

So what does the founder of Ferg's Sports Bar & Grill, 1320 Central Ave., think of the Tampa Bay Rays moving from across the street to the downtown waterfront?

"Believe it or not, but I was born and raised in St. Pete, and I really thought the best spot for the stadium would be on the water," said Ferguson, noting an open-air waterfront ballpark would be more of a destination and draw more fans.

Ferguson's comments Saturday were among the variety of reactions from downtown-area businesses and city leaders to news the Rays may move to a $450 million stadium at the site of the team's spring training facility, Al Lang Field, by 2012.

The issue of parking was a recurring theme.

Frank Hall of West Marine Express, 119 1st Ave. N., said finding parking is already a problem for his customers and he would not support using tax dollars for the stadium project.

"Not with the quality of the product they've got on the field so far," Hall said. "I don't think this community wants more taxes, with every tax issue facing us now."

Additional traffic from ballgame spectators would inconvenience the boating community on the waterfront as well, he said.

Other nearby businesses seemed to support the idea.

"I think it would be better for the city," said Kevin Clarke, a bellhop at the Hilton, which sits across from Al Lang Field. "Right now, there's nothing down here to bring people here. On game days, they'll come, have a drink and a meal."

Parking might be a consideration for the hotel, he said, suggesting that the project planners visit cities such as San Diego that he thinks have designed waterfront entertainment districts correctly.

More Cigar Smokers

Over at Central Cigars & the Havana Room, 273 Central Ave., salesman Benny Or was enthusiastic about the possibility of a new Rays stadium downtown. "People who go to games are cigar smokers," he said. "It's definitely going to be very positive for us."

Many of the cigar bar's customers come there only on game days, he said.

"A cigar bar is always a sports bar - always," Or said.

For 11 years, Fortunato's pizzeria at 259 Central Ave. has served up hot slices to Rays fans, longtime staffer Margaret Bishop said.

"We actually get a lot of people in here for the games anyway, because our pizza isn't $5 a slice like it is there," she said of Tropicana Field. "If there's a 1 o'clock game, at 11:30 we're packed."

Building a stadium downtown would bring Fortunato's regular ballgame customers 16 blocks closer, Bishop said.

"There probably would be a whole lot more business down here. It'd be good for us, but bad for Ferg's," she said of the Sports Bar & Grill near Tropicana Field.

If the team does move, Ferguson said he would either move closer to the new stadium or stay put and run double-decker shuttle buses on game days to ferry patrons to and from the ballpark.

Since the Al Lang site is only about 10 acres, about the size of Boston's Fenway Park, there would be no room for on-site parking at the new stadium. Fans would have to use downtown lots and garages.

"If you drive downtown and you're hunting for parking, you could hunt for 45 minutes," Ferguson said. "If you could come here and eat and every 15 minutes you know there's a shuttle to the game, what's the difference? Then we could have the best of both worlds."

Unanswered Questions

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker said Saturday that he could not comment on the plan, suggesting any announcement would come from the Rays, which are expected to do so within the next few weeks.

Asked what he thought of a downtown waterfront stadium, the mayor neither supported nor dismissed the idea.

"If a proposal like that were to come forward, there are an awful lot of different factors going into it," he said. "We'd just have to consider them all before deciding what to do."

Perhaps the biggest hurdle would be getting voter approval for the city to let the Rays lease the Al Lang site, which is considered public park land.

Also, St. Petersburg would face a hefty property tax bill on a new stadium. The city now avoids paying more than $1 million in property taxes on Tropicana Field because the city sold the stadium to Pinellas County in 2002 and leases it back. State law says entities leasing directly from state or county governments are not subject to property taxes. The city likely would try to negotiate a similar arrangement with the county on a new stadium.

The city also could look to sell the land to Pinellas County as a way to avoid paying property taxes, as it did with Tropicana Field.

The team doesn't anticipate asking the city to levy any new taxes or divert money from existing funds to the project.

Most of the stadium's $450 million cost would be paid for from the sale and redevelopment of the county-owned Tropicana Field site. The Rays also would put up $150 million, about a third of the cost. They also plan to seek state sales-tax rebates that would amount to $60 million. That move would require approval from the Legislature.

James Bennett, city council chairman, wondered how a 35,000-seat stadium would fit on a site that now seats slightly more than 7,000. "Waterfront stadiums in other cities are beautiful," he said. "Show me how it fits. How are you going to park people? These are the questions that first come to my mind." Bennett was trying to arrange to have city staff brief council members on the stadium plans Monday.

Council member Bill Foster cited Al Lang's storied 60-year history and the players who have passed through St. Petersburg over the years, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.

"That's the Holy Grail of baseball," Foster said of Al Lang. "If it worked out, I think it'd be very cool."

Reporter Carlos Moncada can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or cmoncada@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

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