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Coalition Begins Planning For The Rays' Future

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 21, 2008

Updated: 07/21/2008 12:58 pm

LARGO - The community-based coalition working to keep the Tampa Bay Rays alive and well in the area is recruiting volunteers and plans to spend 12 to 18 months on research, organizers announced today.

The coalition's goals include trying to help find a site for the Rays' new ballpark.

The coalition filed paperwork today to become a nonprofit charitable organization known as A Baseball Community, said Jeff Lyash, the president of Progress Energy Florida and a member of the group.

A Baseball Community will have eight additional members. Liaisons from the city of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, the Rays and the Tampa Bay Partnership will help choose members, and Lyash will have final say, he announced at a news conference today.

Any Rays fan can apply to be a member through the organization's Web site, www.abc-baseball.com. The group is accepting nominations until Aug. 4 and hopes to announce its membership by Labor Day.

Lyash said the group's objectives are to build fan involvement and support in the short and long term, build business and corporate sponsorship and support, and evaluate alternatives for a new stadium venue.

To be a member, Lyash said, you must be a baseball fan and be committed to helping the Rays stay in the area for the long run.

Board positions are unpaid.

"I can be very clear on that," Lyash said.

He is not sure yet how frequently the board will meet, but by the end, he expects it will make recommendations on one or more alternative sites for the team.

The Rays announced last month that they would abandon their ambitious plans to build a $450 million stadium on the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront. Rays President Matt Silverman said that the team wouldn't seek a November referendum on the open-air, 34,000-seat stadium the team proposed to open by 2012 at the site of Progress Energy Park.

Although the team ultimately abandoned its plan for now, the effort helped the community acknowledge that the Rays need a new venue, Silverman said.

"This is a better process because it's led by the community, and it has broader representation," he said of the board.

Several leaders within Pinellas County had complained that the city and county were being rushed to commit millions of public dollars for the controversial waterfront project.

The County Commission would have been scheduled to make a final decision Tuesday on the Rays' request for $100 million in tourist tax money to help finance the new stadium. The city, which would contribute $75 million, was to have taken final action by Aug. 7 to have a stadium referendum appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Besides Progress Energy Park, the coalition will look at other locations as well as the team's current home at Tropicana Field, which the Rays proposed demolishing and replacing with a massive mixed-use community.

Asked last month whether the coalition would consider stadium sites in Hillsborough County, Lyash said he did not wish to speculate on that possibility, but he did not rule it out. Silverman and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, however, said they expected the group to look at potential sites only in the St. Petersburg area — possibly the former Toytown landfill site off Interstate 275 and Derby Lane on Gandy Boulevard, both in the Gateway area of northern St. Petersburg.

Information from Tribune archives was used in this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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