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City Wishes 'St. Pete Rays' Had The Same Ring

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By STEVEN GIRARDI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - City council Chairman James Bennett recalls the euphoria when St. Petersburg, still trying to shed its claim as "God's waiting room," finally got a major league baseball team.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays, before they dropped the "devil," were supposed to be an image-changer. But 10 years later, it seems the rest of the country never got the message.

In national stories about the team and its home, more often than not St. Petersburg gets left out and Tampa gets plugged in.

"Oh, it gets lost all the time," Bennett said Tuesday. "I don't get as upset as the mayor does ... but my blood gets boiling if they refer to city they're playing in as Tampa."

Now, as the Rays begin their improbable playoff run at Tropicana Field on Thursday, Bennett and others will have a chance to set the national record straight.

"And we're going be out there making sure everybody knows this is happening in St. Petersburg," Bennett said.

Swinging Beyond The Fences

Still, Bennett and the city's most ardent promoters acknowledge that, as their name implies, the Tampa Bay Rays are more than a St. Petersburg team.

And that was no accident, said Bob Stewart, chairman of the Pinellas County Commission and a former St. Petersburg City Council member.

"When we were debating whether to build a stadium back in the late 1980s, we realized in order to succeed it was going to have to be sold as a regional venue," Stewart said Tuesday.

Stewart was involved with the baseball efforts from the beginning, including the controversial decision to build the dome before the city had a team.

He wasn't sure how much of a boost the city will get from the playoffs now.

"I think the Tampa Bay Rays is the moniker everyone is thinking about," he said. "The fact the games are played in St. Petersburg helps a little bit in terms of our own morale and national exposure. It's pretty subtle to me."

St. Petersburg is in good company with its struggle for civic pride. There are no Anaheim Angels, Minneapolis Twins or Arlington Rangers, either.

In balancing civic pride and regional appeal, sports marketing experts say, the region pays the bills.

"If you call them the St. Pete Rays, then basically you're saying to the folks across the Bay in Tampa, 'Don't worry about making the 12-mile drive. This isn't your team, anyway,'" said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass.

Zimbalist, who has written extensively on the value and marketing of sports franchises, said broadening the media market and the fan base are important to teams' well-being.

The Florida Marlins did the same thing when they chose not to use Miami in their name, increasing their appeal to Broward and Palm Beach counties. For St. Petersburg to exclude Tampa wouldn't make much sense, he said.

"There's some advertising that St. Petersburg doesn't benefit from. But I don't think there's really any alternative," he said.

As for exposure, Zimbalist said, it's "really rare" that televised sporting events would entice people or businesses to move here.

If they did, "anyone with an IQ over 50 is going to look at a map or read books or Google 'Tampa Bay' and find out there are several cities, and that St. Pete is on the Gulf of Mexico ... and maybe decide that is the place they want to locate," he said.

Chris Anderson of The Marketing Arm promotions company in Dallas said regional names are popular with teams that aren't located in the market's primary city or that hope to draw from the entire region.

Until this year, the image of the Rays wasn't much of an issue. After 10 years of losing, few people were arguing about which place name attaches to the Rays, and mistakes about its home in the national media went largely unnoticed.

But with success, the demands to get it right have mounted.

Game reports in New York newspapers routinely refer to "the team from Tampa." A reporter for ESPN even sent an apology to the St. Petersburg Times after being chastised for repeatedly referring to the team as the Tampa Rays.

Fans Reveal Who Owns The Rays

Local fans are all over the field on who lays claim to the Rays.

Kim Merritt of St. Petersburg has a lot of pride in her city and declared that as far as she's concerned, the city that owns the Rays is "St. Pete all the way."

Kathy Walker, who took a break from her job with Hillsborough County schools Tuesday to rally for the team in Tampa, said, technically, the team belongs to the Bay area. But she considers it a St. Petersburg team. "They're playing over there," she said.

Even Jeremy Lagos, a server at Timpano Italian Chophouse in Tampa who attends at least 20 games a year, said he would like to "think it belongs to Tampa Bay," but concedes the Rays have a stronger presence in Pinellas.

Still, Pinellas fans who made the trip to Lykes Gaslight Square for the rally said the line separating Tampa and St. Petersburg is imaginary. "You just get in the car and go," said Paul Vari of St. Petersburg.

John Long, president of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said it's fair to acknowledge the Rays are not only a St. Petersburg team, just as the Buccaneers and the Lightning are not only Tampa teams.

Even so, the city is proud to be the team's home and looks forward to showing off its up-and-coming downtown to baseball fans who come to see where the Rays play.

"I would say people here are looking forward to at least the announcers trying to remember where the team plays. That Rays' ball park is in St. Petersburg," Long said. "I think that would be a positive thing."

Reporters Adam Emerson and Ray Reyes contributed to this report. Reporter Steven Girardi may be reached at (727) 451-2333 or sgirardi@tampatrib.com.

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