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By MARC LANCASTER

mlancaster@tampatrib.com

Published: February 15, 2009

PORT CHARLOTTE - As far back as last fall, with the Tampa Bay Rays still fighting to stay alive in their unlikely playoff run, Joe Maddon was occasionally caught musing about how much he was looking forward to spring training.

It wasn't that the Rays manager wanted to get the playoffs over with. He was just that excited about the possibilities that might present themselves as the team moved its base of operations from St. Petersburg to Charlotte County.

For the first time in franchise history, every player in the Tampa Bay organization will gather under one roof this spring, a long-awaited consolidation made possible by the Rays' 80-mile move south to the extensively renovated Charlotte Sports Park. By the time all of the Rays' minor-leaguers report to camp the second week of March, about 200 players should be on hand and working toward the same goal.

"This is our opportunity to really homogenize how we do things, and that's the exciting element here," Maddon said last week as he got settled into his new office. "I just love the idea that on any given day I could say to Carlos Pena, 'Carlos, 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, I want you to go to the minor-league side and talk to the hitters about your approach.'"

Developing that type of continuity on the baseball side of the operation was only one of the reasons the Rays decided to make the spring training switch and signed a 20-year lease with Charlotte County in 2006. Leaving St. Petersburg made sense from a marketing standpoint as well.

Since Stuart Sternberg and his management team took control of the Rays before the 2006 season, they have been upfront about their desire to expand the franchise's appeal beyond the Tampa Bay area. Playing a regular-season series at Disney's Wide World of Sports each of the past two seasons was one step in that direction, and the move to Port Charlotte is another.

The fact the Rays stumbled into a perfect sales pitch for new fans by reaching the World Series just before the transition made it all the better. Demand for Grapefruit League tickets has been high, with reserved seats for every game in Port Charlotte sold out by Jan. 15 and about 3,000 season tickets sold overall.

The Rays "were blown away," said Charlotte County Commission Chairman Tricia Duffy. "The response from our community has been unbelievable."

Of course, the community has a stake in it as well. Charlotte County owns the facility and will be able to use it year-round for various activities when it isn't occupied by the Rays. Of the $27.2 million required to renovate the 82-acre site that hosted the Texas Rangers from 1987-2002, about $6 million came from a county tourism tax. (The rest of the financing consisted of a $15 million grant from the state and about $6 million from the Rays in annual rent payments.)

Some in the area see welcoming the Rays as another major step in putting Charlotte County back on the map after it was devastated by Hurricane Charley in 2004.

"It certainly helps our economy, but it's also a lot of fun," Duffy said. "I remember years ago when the Rangers came to town, it was so exciting for all of us - the young kids, middle-age people and the seniors. Everybody loves baseball."

The Rays are hoping to tap into and nurture that sentiment in the years to come by creating as fan-friendly an environment as possible at their new showplace. From an outfield boardwalk that helps facilitate 360-degree circulation around the ballpark to a Tiki bar and a children's play area, they want to ensure that their paying customers have fun even when all those unrecognizable players inevitably find their way onto the field in the late innings.

"The great thing about spring training is the ability of people to get close to the players and close to the action and feel like it's a really casual experience," said Rays senior vice president Michael Kalt. "We were trying to really keep the atmosphere of this place very light and very casual and really encourage people to kind of wander around and make their own experience in here."

The Rays took that suggestion to heart as they designed the complex. After spending their entire existence working in hand-me-down facilities, they finally got to build something from the ground up.

"You're tempted to compare it to other facilities within the Grapefruit League and it certainly ranks at or near the top, but what we take pride in is that it has our mark on it," said Rays president Matt Silverman. "We were able to make it a Rays facility as opposed to just a good baseball facility."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

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