TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Rays Stadium Plan Kept Secret For Months

ADVERTISEMENT

By BAIRD HELGESON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 15, 2007

Updated: 11/15/2007 01:11 am

TAMPA - Sports fans frustrated by the secrecy surrounding the Tampa Bay Rays' proposal to build a new waterfront baseball stadium could soon get a few answers to their questions.

St. Petersburg city leaders will release some of the details about the plan "in a couple of days," said David Goodwin, the city's economic development director. Officials also will release the terms of their confidentiality agreement with the Rays' owners, which Goodwin agreed to in March.

The confidentiality agreements keep the public in the dark about projects that will likely use taxpayer money to lure private businesses, said Adria Harper, director for the Florida First Amendment Foundation.

"I hate that exemption," she said. "So many deals get done in the dark that way."

Goodwin cautioned that the city is merely in early discussions with the Rays about a new stadium.

"Nothing has been signed," he said Wednesday. "No deal has been done."

The team is expected to make a formal stadium proposal in the next month. St. Petersburg residents are likely to vote on the plan in 2008.

The Rays want to build a $450 million waterfront stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, which could open by 2012. The stadium would replace Al Lang Field, which had been the Rays spring training facility since the team's inception in 1998. The team is moving spring training from the stadium, formally called Progress Energy Park, to a refurbished facility in Charlotte County in 2009.

The Rays offered to pay up to $150 million of the new stadium cost and plan to ask the Legislature for a $60 million sales-tax rebate. The team hopes money from the sale of the 70-acre Tropicana Field site would make up part of the remaining $240 million.

The Rays owners have not elaborated on the proposal since a hastily called news conference Friday night.

Taxpayers and fans are left with questions, like:

•Who will pay the gap in financing and cost overruns?

•Does the team have a developer in mind for the Tropicana Field site, which is owned by Pinellas County?

•Would the city and county use the sale of Tropicana Field land to pay off the $94.3 million debt on the 18-year-old building, or shift the revenue from the new stadium?

•What would the new, 35,000-seat stadium look like?

•What are the plans for parking at the new stadium?

The confidentiality agreement the city signed off on is typically used when companies like big-box retailers want to come to a community and seek a taxpayer subsidy. The agreements allow companies to share private financial information with government employees without fear it could get into the hands of competitors.

Supporters of the agreements successfully convinced the Florida Legislature that doing away with them would discourage businesses from coming to the state or expanding.

The confidentiality agreement expires after 12 months or if the information is publicly disclosed or reported in the media, under the law. The parties can approve a 12-month extension.

Rays team officials have met privately with leaders from the city and Pinellas County.

Goodwin and Rays' staff would not say with whom the team has met so far. Several St. Petersburg city council members said they saw the first details of the plan this week.

Rick Vaughn, a team spokesman, declined to comment for the story Wednesday.

The scant stadium details demonstrate how the confidentiality agreements stifle debate, Harper said.

"I think it's critical that the public have input on these deals," she said.

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT