Rays' Stadium Proposal To Face Additional Scrutiny

ST. PETERSBURG - City leaders aren't the only ones scrutinizing the Tampa Bay Rays' downtown stadium proposal.

The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce announced it is forming a blue-ribbon task force to study the proposed $450 million waterfront ballpark the Rays want to open by 2012.

At the same time, opponents of the stadium proposal are organizing, forming a group called Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfront, or POWW.

The 35-member task force of business and community leaders will evaluate all aspects of the proposal, including financing, traffic, parking and environmental issues, said John T. Long III, the chamber's president.

The panel, with help from stadium consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers, then will make a recommendation to the chamber's board of governors, which will "take a position one way or the other and be very aggressive in supporting that decision," Long said.

The city administration also is evaluating the Rays' proposal to use revenue from the sale and redevelopment of Tropicana Field to pay for most of the cost of a new stadium at the site of Al Lang Field, Home of Progress Energy Park.

The chamber's board decided to create the task force largely because the 2,800-member organization has been asked by many in the community for its position on the new ballpark and redeveloping the 86-acre Tropicana site, Long said.

"This is obviously something the chamber should weigh in on, but we can't do that because we do not have sufficient information,'' Long said. "Making a decision is easy. Making an informed decision is more of a challenge.''

The task force will be co-chaired by former state House speaker Peter Rudy Wallace, Tech Data chief executive Steve Raymond and former St. Petersburg councilman David Welch, Long said. He said the chamber hopes to complete the task by July 1.

The city council, though, is set to decide by June 5 whether to authorize a November referendum on the new stadium.

A representative for the Rays said the team welcomes the scrutiny.

"The chamber's doing what they need to do to inform themselves about the project and we'll cooperate in any way we can,'' said Michael Kalt, the Rays senior vice president of development and business affairs. "Any information we have and they need we'll be happy to share with them.''

Although the chamber is taking a neutral position, Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfront is mustering opposition to the Rays' proposal.

"We have no right to help a private corporation with this kind of corporate welfare by transferring city assets to their control, ownership and tax benefit,'' said Lorraine Margeson, a St. Petersburg community activist who recently formed the group.

She and fellow critic Hal Freedman said Tropicana Field is perfectly adequate and that a new ballpark on the downtown waterfront, which would require filling in part of Tampa Bay, would harm the environment as well as create traffic and parking problems.

"To move it down there, where logistically it's going to create a nightmare on the streets, makes no sense at all,'' Freedman said.