Rays' Sternberg: Trop 'just not the right thing for organization'

Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg talk to the media about the possibility of a new stadium, attendance and team payroll as players reported for work in Port Charlotte.

When will you declare an absolute need for a new stadium? Sooner? Later?
We clearly went for a new stadium. We didn't just throw it out there. There was an enormous amount of work on our end, so that's our desire, and I stated since the very first day I came in to anybody who would ask, and I was asked quite often, we're not going to be there through 2027. It just can't happen. Baseball won't allow it. Our partners in baseball won't allow it. The other teams won't allow it. And it's just not the right thing for our organization, and quite frankly it's not the right thing for our population.

What are the revenue streams from a new stadium?
The streams themselves are going to come from the same places, but there is an excitement that comes around a new stadium. Certainly when you have something that'll have an open-air design to it as we proposed and planned out, I think that's something that's been a hindrance to some extent. It's important to have protection from the elements. A number of stadiums around the country don't currently. Minnesota is building one with a completely open seating area. They're going to have some challenges as far as the weather is concerned. I think that is sort of a blueprint at least from what you'll see relative to revenue streams, excitement, community engagement and what could happen. That was a team that was, eight years, people speculated about contraction, and they've had a lot of success on the field, they got a place built, and their payroll this year is going to approach 100 million dollars.

Does talk of new stadium hurt perception of Tropicana Field?
It's a great place to watch a game, but for whatever reason people are not as attracted to it as they would be to another venue.

A new stadium doesn't always translate into higher attendance
"There are no guarantees about anything. Basically, yes. There's excitement around. We can sit down and look at a long list of every stadium that's opened up. They've all been very successful."

When will you get involved?
"When something is proposed and there are some concepts out there and people want to move the ball forward, I'll be involved."

Will commissioner Bud Selig get involved?
Bud has been involved in stadiums far before I became an owner, and he's been very successful working with different municipalities, and the growth of the game and the excitement in those places have been evident.

People ask: Why doesn't he build the stadium himself?
"I don't have that money. I don't."

How much will you kick in?
"A lot. We were very detailed with the last stadium, and the kick-in, so to speak, was, I think we were talking about 150 million dollars."

Have you been approached by by any of the groups proposing stadium sites?
No. I haven't talked to any body.

Are you looking at the proposed sites?
No. We spent a few years trying to build a stadium. Effort, time, money and it wasn't helpful for the rest of the organization, and our focus is doing what we do best, which is putting a team on the field, marketing that team and trying to being as many fans into the stadium, and trying to bring as many business partners along with it.

How much will the payroll decrease after this season?
It's a word we use often: opportunistic. It was an opportunity this year, and it was a long, hard thought to trade for (Rafael) Soriano and sign him. We've signed a number of players to long-term contracts, so it's a question that can't be answered really right now, but my belief and what should happen is that our payroll is going to be a good deal lower, and we'll go from there.

Will lower payroll influence a new stadium?
None of the decisions we make like that have any relevance, we don't look at the outcome to the stadium to whether we spent $40 million our first year, $28 million and this year it's $73. You can tell there's not much of a pattern here.

Fans have to get used lower payrolls. Are those the realities and pitfalls of this market?
Yeah. Players work hard, they go through a lot, they have success and they should and will try to do what's best for themselves, for their families, whether that's where they're going to play or how much they're going to get playing. It ultimately becomes their decision, and we do our best, but clearly we don't have the resources. The flip-side to everything is that when you have the kind of quality players we have here is over time they tend to cost more money than guys who aren't very good. ... I would have said to you absolutely, as recently as two years ago, there's no way this team can run a 70-plus million dollar payroll, let alone a 60-million dollar payroll at any point. But we did some things right, and I felt it was best to try and continue the success, and now I think we've definitely over-stepped our comfort zone, and over-stepped our ability to pay, and that's got to come out at some other point of time."

Upset that market says he can't afford to keep payroll where it is?
"I'd say it concerns me. It's the nature of the beast. It's where we are. I question whether I'm doing the right think by spending it now or what? The last thing you want to do when you preach to people to be careful with themselves is to overspend your means and we are overspending our means, and there is always a cost for that."

How much did they blame attendance on the economy?
"We measured it very carefully, and that's why when we sat here one year ago, my goal was to be average. I wasn't looking for pie-in-the-sky. I wasn't looking to be leaders at any sense other than in the standings. And that was really the measure, because the economy is an issue around the country. Clearly this area has more challenges than many other areas. Clearly Detroit has its challenges. Where do you benchmark yourselves. There are other areas in the country that have their challenges and we didn't meet what I thought was sufficient coming off of a World Series. I my mind, at least, it came to head when we had a matchup of the World Series (with the Phillies) in June when school was out and a team that has roots in Clearwater and has a lot of fans, and we drew less than 55,000 for three games. That was to me the most telling of all. It wasn't bad weather, it wasn't school. We had promotions going on."

What is the goal for attendance this year?
"To get as many people, really. Our budget is what we budget and we always budget conservatively, but quite frankly, after last year, I don't really have an expectation until the season starts. We'll have a sense of things after the first month or two. But after seeing that surprise with the Phillies ... we penciled in sellouts for those games, which is over 100,000. We missed by half. I'm not used to doing business projections and missing by that much. When that happens I have to re-evaluate things.

"Things are a bit broken ... I think we're more energized to come out and give it another shot this year. The economy did, I would say stabilize a bit. We're not in a downward spiral ... People have to make choices, I can't tell them what to choose. And we're going to figure it out how to get it right."

Season-ticket renewals?
"Bad."

Fair amount of dropoffs?
"Yes."

By what percent?
"We haven't closed the book on it yet. We're stilling selling season tickets. We're getting renewals. The numbers are still up dramatically from where we are when we took over, and we'll see how it progresses. It's the lifeblood of the organization.

"Everything else is fine, but for some reason people are choosing not to come out as they do in other parts of the country for major league baseball."