TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Group certain downtown Tampa stadium would score for Rays

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

BuildItDowntownTampa.org is made up of fans from throughout Hillsborough County who want the team to move to Tampa.

ADVERTISEMENT

By JOSH POLTILOVE

jpoltilove@tampatrib.com

Published: July 10, 2009

Updated: 07/10/2009 08:30 pm

There aren't many of them, but the members of BuildItDowntownTampa.org believe they can help shape the future of the Tampa Bay Rays.

That future, they say, is in downtown Tampa.

The group of fans _ so far, they number 10 _ wants to promote the idea of a new stadium in downtown Tampa.

"The idea came to be sort of by default," spokesman Ryan Neubauer said. "None of us could understand why there wasn't more discussion about this issue."

The members have worked on their Web site in recent weeks and announced themselves to the public today.

The inaugural members of BuildItDowntownTampa.org live throughout Hillsborough County, from New Tampa to Brandon to Riverview, Neubauer said. Their careers range from software development to shipping to homebuilding.

Neubauer, a 30-year-old software developer, said the group doesn't think a stadium in St. Petersburg is viable over the long-term and wants to make sure the team doesn't move from the Tampa Bay area. He said he attends about one game a month but would be a season-ticket holder if the stadium were in Tampa.

"The bottom line is the team is just not being supported enough where it is right now," he said. "The next step for us is to gauge the interest level for this [group] and try and bring as many people together that are interested in this as we can and try to produce a united front on this issue and try to approach the political and business leadership."

Through the group's Web site, people can join or sign a petition. People also can check out the group at rays2tampa on Twitter.

Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg was on a conference call today and was asked about the possibility of a new stadium that's more centrally located in the area.

"Right now we play in St. Petersburg, we're proud to be in St. Petersburg,'' Sternberg said. "We undertook an enormous project to try to build another ballpark in St Petersburg, so clearly we're sold on the area, we love the area, and we think there's tremendous potential. That didn't quite go as I would have hoped it did, but I always try to look at the positives, and the positive is that the ABC commission came out of that and we're looking forward to seeing what their findings are. It doesn't take a person to build a ballpark; it's going to take the whole region."

Reporter Marc Lancaster contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT