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Volunteers Sought For Rays Coalition

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By JOSH POLTILOVE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 22, 2008

LARGO - A coalition working to keep the Tampa Bay Rays in the area is recruiting volunteers and plans to spend 12 to 18 months on research.

The coalition's goals include helping to find a site for a new Rays ballpark.

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

A Baseball Community will have eight additional members. Representatives 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 said at a news conference Monday.

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.

Building Support For Team

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 site.

Members must be a baseball fan committed to helping the Rays stay in the area for the long run, Lyash said.
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 they would abandon their plans to build a $450 million stadium on the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront. The team had planned to seek a referendum in November on an open-air, 34,000-seat stadium to open by 2012 at the site of Progress Energy Park, Home of Al Lang Field.

The effort helped the community acknowledge the team needs a new stadium, Rays president Matt Silverman said.

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

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

Searching For A Site

Besides Progress Energy Park, the coalition will look at other locations and the team's current home at Tropicana Field, which the Rays proposed demolishing and replacing with a community of homes and businesses.

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 did not rule it out.

Silverman and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker 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.

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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