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Phil Rogers
Guest Columnist.
Or do the two men running baseball’s best operation – without question the most efficient – know something that the rest of us do not?
Maddon, who was named the American League’s Manager of the Year for the second time in four years, could have had his choice of three highly attractive vacancies – the Cardinals, Red Sox and Cubs – but wouldn’t ask out of his contract with the Rays. He agreed to a three-year extension Wednesday that will keep him with the club through 2015.
Friedman, the neophyte who has proven to be a natural, could have had a Theo Epsteinstyle contract with the Angels or his hometown Astros if he was willing to abandon owner Stuart Sternberg and team president Matt Silverman, a close friend who had the inspired idea that Friedman’s business background would translate to baseball. But he left the Angels’ job for Jerry DiPoto to have and showed absolutely no ego as he spoke about working to make the Rays better.
Did these guys never look around Tropicana Field last October? Management covered up thousands of seats with tarps but still didn’t sell out division series games against the Rangers.
Sternberg certainly noticed. He told reporters afterward that if fans in the Tampa Bay area continued their tepid support, MLB would ‘vaporize’ the Rays.
If ever there was a time when Sternberg could lose his management team, this was it. But as 2012 opens, the Rays look stronger than ever, from the front office all the way down.
Their lineup still looks a slugger or two short of teams such as the Rangers, Yankees and Angels, but pitching is power. Some people will pick the Rays to build off an 11-14 record in the playoffs since 2008, winning the World Series this time around.
But would the ultimate championship team sell tickets in baseball’s worst stadium, which is planted hard against the highways on the outskirts of downtown St. Petersburg, which itself seems stuck in the 1980s?
Not for long.
The Rays are dead in the water at Tropicana Field, and even St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster knows it. Vince Naimoli agreed to a lease that ties the Rays to the Trop through 2027. There was once a thought that fans would come there if the team was strong enough, but that idea has faded since a trip to the 2008 World Series brought an minimal attendance increase the following season.
Friedman, Maddon, their textbook staffs and strong starting pitching have kept the Rays competitive, yet they ranked 29th in attendance in 2011, having lost about 4,250 fans per game over two playoff seasons.
Something has to give, and soon.
But does Sternberg have a bigger appetite? What if MLB has decided Florida should be a one-team state and is prepared to play a little shell game, letting the Rays move while offering Sternberg his choice of moving or transferring his equity to another franchise, such as the Mets?
Or for that matter, could contraction be on the agenda at some point in the next few years? Sternberg did say ‘vaporize,’ didn’t he?
Sternberg’s tone during a January meeting to discuss the stadium situation surprised Foster. He says the focus wasn’t on the need to replace Tropicana Field but rather a bigger question – whether the St. Pete-Tampa market can support a baseball team along with the NFL’s Bucs and the NHL’s Lightning.
Really? The fight is no longer about a stadium, it’s a market?
You wonder what Maddon and Friedman know that they’re not saying.
- Chicago Tribune
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By MICHAEL SASSO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 16, 2012
Updated: February 16, 2012 – 8:01 AM
TAMPA –
The Tampa Bay Rays seem no closer to landing a new ballpark, but team executives say they’re selling slightly more tickets and are convinced baseball can work in the Bay area.
They’ve set their goal at drawing 2.5 million fans a year to Tropicana Field, roughly average for a major-league team. For now, though, they can’t answer how they’ll reach it.
Last year, the Rays drew slightly more than 1.5 million fans, 29th out of 30 teams in attendance.
“We’re looking to crack that code,” team President Matt Silverman said in an interview with members of the Tribune staff Wednesday.
Silverman and Rays executives talked about their marketing and community outreach, saying a growing number of Rays players are making appearances at charity and civic events and many even have contract clauses about giving.
Pitcher James Shields is known for his work with foster kids, and pitcher David Price has his own charitable foundation. Still, that message often doesn’t get out, said Mark Fernandez, a Rays marketing executive.
Silverman insists the team’s efforts are working. They pointed to a recent report by Scarborough Research saying the Rays now have more total audience — in the stadium, on TV and radio — than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Lightning.
Meantime, they are selling “slightly” more season tickets than last year. Unfortunately, most of the increased sales are going to individuals rather than corporations, Silverman said. Persuading companies to boost their ticket purchases is a key goal.
“We need to get the corporations that have two tickets for half the games to buy six tickets for all the games,” Silverman said.
The Rays may be reaching out to businesses more, but much of the business world’s attention lately has focused on the Lightning. The hockey team’s owner, Jeff Vinik, has wowed Tampa leaders with his $40 million renovation of the Tampa Bay Times Forum and his charitable giving.
Silverman said the buzz surrounding the Lightning isn’t drowning out the Rays’ message. Still, it has been seven years since owner Stuart Sternberg bought the team so the Rays are mixing up some of their marketing efforts to keep things fresh.
The team has stopped using an outside advertising agency and started making ads in-house.
Rays executives were careful when addressing the 800-pound gorilla in the room: the debate over a new stadium.
The team has been in a stand-off with St. Petersburg for at least two years. The Rays say they want to look around the whole region in choosing a site for a new ballpark, but St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster wants them to honor their contract and stay inside the city.
Asked Wednesday whether the Rays would accept a St. Petersburg ballpark if the city offered one, Silverman said the team answered that question for Foster. He would not reveal what was said during that discussion. He followed up by saying the team would consider St. Petersburg as long as it were able to consider the region.
He also had a ready answer when asked whether the Rays have a dream stadium on the drawing board.
“Yes, a full one,” he quipped.
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2010, PAUL LAMISON/STAFF… Mayor Bill Foster has insisted the Rays pick a stadium site in St. Pete or one that could be annexed.
By JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA | The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 18, 2012
Updated: January 19, 2012 – 2:40 PM
TAMPA –
The Tampa Bay Rays are concerned about the region’s ability to support three major professional sports teams, Mayor Bill Foster said after meeting with the team’s owner.
Foster met with Stuart Sternberg at downtown Tropicana Field on Tuesday, and discussed ways to get more fans to attend games at the stadium. Sternberg has said the stadium’s location is a large part of the reason for the team’s attendance woes and wants to explore sites for a new stadium outside Pinellas County.
However, on Wednesday, Foster said he sensed Rays officials aren’t sure Tampa is the answer, either, though much of the public conversation about alternatives has centered around possible sites in downtown Tampa or near the fairgrounds on Interstate 4.
“I think the Rays as an organization have serious questions about the Tampa Bay region’s ability to support three professional franchises,” Foster said. “I didn’t leave there with the impression that Tampa would be the panacea.”
Foster said he remains optimistic the Rays will honor the team’s agreement to play at Tropicana Field until 2027.
However, he said, “at present they aren’t interested in working with the city (of St. Petersburg) to explore sites in Pinellas County.”
Foster said the meeting with Sternberg lasted more than an hour. The mayor said they discussed the stadium and other issues, including perpetually low attendance at Rays home games.
Sternberg said Tuesday that much of the conversation focused on how the city might help the team with marketing to improve home attendance. Although the Rays made the playoffs last season, home attendance was the second-worst in the major leagues.
Foster said the meeting was frank, cordial and ended on a positive note. He declined to outline many specifics of what was discussed, saying he would reveal more details at a public meeting with the St. Petersburg City Council at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
Foster said both sides agreed to keep the lines of communication open.
“We both committed instead of offering shots across the bow that are reported in the media that we would discuss it personally together,” Foster said.
The mayor said he and Sternberg didn’t discuss any shortcomings of Tropicana Field.
“Nothing was talked about perceived deficiencies with Tropicana Field,” Foster said.
On Tuesday, Sternberg said the two reached no deals on the Rays’ future in St. Petersburg and added that he was no closer in persuading Foster to allow the Rays to look throughout the Tampa Bay region for a stadium location.
He also said the two sides didn’t discuss potential sites for a future stadium or whether the Rays might buy out the team’s contract to play at Tropicana Field.
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The Rays expressed some doubts about Tampa, St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster said.
By The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 19, 2012
Updated: January 19, 2012 – 8:44 PM
ST. PETERSBURG –
The Tampa Bay Rays declined St. Petersburg’s offer to help look for a new stadium site within Pinellas County earlier this week, but Mayor Bill Foster was nonetheless upbeat Thursday about the team’s future in the city.
Foster also downplayed the stadium standoff’s urgency as he gave a briefing to the St. Petersburg City Council.
“There is no dire urgency for us to develop plans this year or next,” he told the council.
Foster and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg got together for a much-anticipated summit Tuesday to talk about the Rays future in St. Petersburg.
Foster had revealed some of what happened to reporters earlier this week, but he opened up about the discussion to the council on Thursday.
Foster said the Rays still want to look throughout the Bay area for potential stadium sites.
“They were very clear they were not going to join a unilateral effort by the city to look at sites in Pinellas County,” he said.
Yet the Rays expressed some doubts about Tampa, as well, Foster said. The team has questions about the region’s ability to support three professional sports teams –the Rays, the Lightning and the Buccaneers.
“I did not leave the meeting feeling that the Rays believe Tampa would be the panacea.”
No one from the Rays attended Thursday’s City Council meeting, but Sternberg had made similar comments to the Tribune immediately after his meeting with the mayor Tuesday.
At that time, Sternberg said the team was no closer to convincing Foster it must be able to look outside the city and county.
In recent months, several members of the St. Petersburg City Council expressed frustration at Foster’s unwillingness to talk about stadium issues with the team.
Council members seemed relieved Thursday that Foster promised to speak more openly with the Rays. They also seemed eager to take on an unusual task for a governmental body – ticket salesman.
Council members unanimously agreed that council Chairwoman Leslie Curran should write a letter to the Rays offering to help the team sell tickets.
Councilman Jim Kennedy and a city development administrator accompanied Foster on his trip to Tropicana Field on Tuesday to meet with Sternberg.
Thursday evening, Kennedy said he was struck by how rattled Sternberg seemed by the community’s rejection of a 2007 team proposal for a new stadium on St. Petersburg’s waterfront.
“This was very much of a fresh scar,” Kennedy said.
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By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, January 20, 2012
ST. PETERSBURG — Encouraged by a reported thaw in relations between Mayor Bill Foster and the Tampa Bay Rays, the City Council agreed Thursday to become one of the team’s biggest boosters.
The eight-member board unanimously voted to enlist themselves as “ambassadors” of the team to help increase attendance, which was the second lowest in baseball last season.
“This is the logical way to begin the conversation,” Karl Nurse said. “To me, the common ground is quite clear: We have to sell tickets or we won’t have a baseball team.”
Still to come is a specific plan for this mission. Thursday’s discussion was limited to vague talk about getting the city’s and the team’s marketing teams coordinated, scouting for charter buses to ferry fans to games from across the region, and working with other Tampa Bay cities and counties to help sell tickets.
While sounding trite, the vote did signify that, for now at least, the council was going along with Foster’s handling of the Rays. Last year, the board pressed Foster to more actively engage Rays officials. Some members of the council, most notably Leslie Curran, had grown restless with the lack of communication between Foster and Rays owner Stu Sternberg.
The two had stopped talking after Sternberg announced in June 2010 that he wanted to explore new stadium sites outside of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. Foster has refused to let the Rays explore outside Pinellas. The club is contractually obligated to play at Tropicana Field through the 2027 season.
At the council’s urging, Foster and Sternberg set up a meeting. Held Tuesday at the Tropicana Field, it lasted two hours. Afterward, Sternberg and Foster said their positions hadn’t changed.
Still, both went out of their way to characterize the meeting as a positive step toward better communication. With low expectations met, council members encouraged Foster to continue to talk with Sternberg — and next time tackle more solid issues like the stadium and transit options like light rail that can make it easier for fans to attend games.
“There’s more work to be done,” Curran said.
[Last modified: Jan 19, 2012 10:25 PM]
Copyright 2012 Tampa Bay Times
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By Stephen Nohlgren, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, January 15, 2012
So the Tampa Bay Rays want a new stadium in downtown Tampa, which has key Hillsborough politicians salivating.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster has a contract that requires the team to play at Tropicana Field and a not-on-my watch attitude.
A civic calamity? Not compared to 10 percent unemployment.
The demise of Major League Baseball in our backyard? Not anytime soon.
An opportunity? Just maybe.
On Tuesday, Foster and Rays owner Stuart Sternberg will have one of their infrequent, private sit-downs. Who knows if either is inclined to step back from their line in the sand?
But having studied and written about this issue for four years, it occurs to me that one rarely discussed catalyst could lead them to common ground.
Spring training.
Those gentle games of March once brought grace and continuity to downtown St. Petersburg. Maybe now they offer a shot at compromise.
In the spirit of disclosure, I must note that my wife and I own a four-person office building catty-corner from St. Petersburg’s police station. This idea conceivably could add value to that property.
But really, I have no dog in this fight, other than being a baseball fan, taxpayer and a 40-year resident of St. Petersburg.
This is just one scenario, stemming from hours and hours of thought:
• St. Petersburg amends its contract to allow the Rays to cut a stadium deal in Hillsborough.
• If the Rays leave Tropicana Field, they bring spring training back to Al Lang Stadium.
• The Trop is demolished, remaining bonds paid off, and the site sold for development.
• If interested parties cannot craft a master plan by some deadline — say five or six years — the contract reverts to its present form and chips fall where they may.
Here’s why it makes sense, including for taxpayers:
Demographics suggest the stadium is badly located unless light rail somehow materializes. As the Tampa Bay area grows east and north, downtown St. Petersburg slips farther and farther from the population center. Though the region lacks a true urban core, where a tight concentration of companies could crank out season tickets, downtown Tampa comes closest.
The Trop is widely perceived within Major League Baseball as the least amenable stadium outside of Oakland. It’s unconnected to the outdoors. Concession areas are cut off from the field. Suites have terrible sight lines.
Fan and corporate support are suspect. Blame Vince Naimoli, blame the recession or blame the Rays’ own disparaging comments about the Trop. But what matters most is how the Rays view the market, and they have lost faith in St. Petersburg.
In 2008, they were prepared to invest $150 million in a waterfront stadium because they believed fans would come if they produced a winning team. Last year, the team reached the playoffs for the third time and saw baseball’s second-lowest attendance and dwindling TV viewership.
Sternberg suggests that his fellow owners will “vaporize” the Rays without a new venue.
But that’s tough to swallow. Baseball executives sometimes bluster about moving or contracting teams, but usually they honor their leases and work out new deals with existing regions. Among other things, many teams will ask their own cities for costly stadium renovations before 2027, when the Rays’ contract with the city ends.
Support for public financing would suffer in Baltimore and Cincinnati if baseball starts breaking commitments.
A cutting-edge stadium in downtown Tampa could generate millions of dollars of new revenue for the Rays, boost the franchise value and solidify Sternberg as a long-run partner in the multibillion-dollar enterprise that is Major League Baseball.
But to cross the bay within the next decade, he probably will have offer something tangible in return. Foster is correct: A “just let us go” position that gives no recognition to St. Petersburg’s investment is not good enough.
Time against St. Petersburg
Mayor Foster says he wants to protect the interests of St. Petersburg, as well he should. The Trop and the 15 years left on its contract are valuable city assets.
Yet they diminish each passing year.
Attendance likely would have to jump dramatically to entice Sternberg to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Pinellas County. Even then, city officials would have to risk voter wrath to finance a new stadium with a new round of taxes.
A new stadium will cost $500 million to $600 million this time, triple the cost of the Trop. Officials can shuffle money around to reduce direct tax burdens, but there’s going to be a public price.
Sure, downtown Tampa and its traffic snarls might be a disaster. Just imagine the Lightning, Rays and Les Miz playing all on the same night.
But focusing on those flaws is futile as long as the Rays hanker for Tampa. St. Petersburg officials can try to stretch out hometown baseball for another decade or so. They can try to extract compensation. But so far there’s no clear route to actually keeping the team in the long run.
Meanwhile, the city loses leverage as each successive year approaches 2027.
There is a sadness to this. It’s like being jilted 15 years into a marriage you hoped would endure. And it’s certainly not what civic leaders imagined years ago when they braved the unknown and built a stadium on speculation.
But it is reality.
A win-win?
The downside to St. Petersburg letting the Rays move to Tampa is obvious. Out-of-town tourists send a trickle of taxes into city coffers. A short hop to the game beats fighting Tampa traffic.
Possible upsides take a little more thought.
Redeveloping the Trop site could further transform downtown. Housing, retail, office, manufacturing or museums could draw in millions of tax dollars and boost surrounding property values.
A stadium and parking do neither. In fact, the city loses $1 million to $2 million a year on baseball by paying for traffic control and insurance.
In 2008, a developer offered the city $65 million for the Trop site, which illustrates its value in a strong economy. Huge chunks of urban land don’t come around very often. A similar price could finance the second phase of the Pier project or build a new police station. With adjustments to the Trop’s special development district, it could even reduce taxes.
A Tampa stadium also would eliminate any chance St. Petersburg residents would pay another round of taxes for a new stadium. It would eliminate any prospect of losing the team to Charlotte or Portland after the contract expires.
Fans could still attend games in person and watch on TV — and television is mainly how they interact with the team anyway. Beer doesn’t cost $8 at home.
Now add spring training to that mix.
Al Lang would need a major upgrade. It has deteriorated badly and needs more comfortable seats, bigger locker rooms and handy concession areas.
Think Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater.
Pinellas County hotel taxes underwrote Bright House, as well as upgrades to Grant Field in Dunedin. St. Petersburg could expect similar support.
That would be a lot cheaper than financing a major-league stadium, and St. Petersburg and the county could still reap economic benefit in the regular season when out-of-town fans stay at the beach or visit the Dalí as they follow their beloved Red Sox south.
Spring training stadiums often carry a bonus — minor league baseball. The Rays do not control where their minor league affiliates play, but an updated Al Lang would be a magnet.
Practice fields would be a hurdle. Modern spring training stadiums usually have four or five adjacent, which lets management monitor players without busing them all over town.
The Al Lang parking lot could hold one practice field, creating more green space and activity on the waterfront. A redeveloped Trop site could hold a few more.
Dogs and Frisbee fans would like that during the off-season.
Prospects in Tampa
Cities trying to lure professional sports usually offer teams better deals than cities trying to keep them. That points to Tampa even though Hillsborough’s hotel and community taxes already shoulder large burdens for existing sports venues.
Tampa’s corporate presence will be critical to the next Rays stadium. Businesses buy two-thirds of season tickets in the average major-league city, but only a third here.
This time around, the Rays will have to contribute a big chunk of their own money, which they did not at the Trop. And even in Tampa, they run considerable risk that attendance would still languish or tail off after a honeymoon.
A strong business community can offload some of that risk by pledging years of season ticket sales and luxury suite leases.
It’s no given that business leaders and politicians can pull off a new stadium anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. Tea Party is no longer just a history lesson about Bostonians polluting a harbor.
Politicians must balance how baseball enhances quality of life versus the cost of keeping the team. That evaluation could lead to a harsh answer: Go ahead and move to San Antonio.
More likely, Hillsborough interests will craft a deal, because that’s what major-league regions always do. For the residents’ sake, the challenge is to tap the least onerous funding sources — like a car rental taxes — and then squeeze the Rays as much as possible.
If the deal gets done quickly — say with construction beginning by 2015 — the region still retains lots of leverage. Maybe the Rays have to kick in $200 million or $225 million instead of the $150 million they proposed for the waterfront in 2008.
If the current stalemate stretches on and on and then a new stadium gets built on either side of the bay, the Rays gain the upper hand, politicians may panic and taxpayers will be more likely to take it on the chin.
St. Petersburg officials sometimes talk of a big payday for letting the Rays explore Tampa. But finding money for a stadium in cash-strapped Hillsborough would be challenge enough. This isn’t New York or St. Louis, where baseball generates tons of wealth. An owner, however rich, is unlikely to plow lots of money into two cities.
That’s why spring training and developing the Trop site could make an effective peace offering. St. Petersburg gets a big return at little cost to the Rays.
Assurances
For St. Petersburg, spring training and minor league baseball would be the icing. Intensive use of the Trop site is the cake. That was true for the 2008 waterfront proposal and would be just as true if the Rays moved to Tampa.
In any contract amendment, the city could seek protection against the economy wallowing another half decade. Empty asphalt between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and 16th streets wouldn’t do. Maybe construction doesn’t proceed in Tampa unless it proceeds in St. Petersburg as well. Maybe the city retains veto power over any new stadium deal.
These moving parts would require skillful negotiations, which is what the Rays do best. If they can turn $50 million payrolls into playoff runs, maybe they can forge a regional settlement to suit everyone.
But they need freedom to have at it.
Come Tuesday, Foster could say, “There’s something I want.”
Or Sternberg could say, “I have something to offer.”
Stephen Nohlgren can be reached at snohlgren@tampabay.com.
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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 17, 2012
Updated: January 17, 2012 – 6:55 AM
Don’t expect much to come from the scheduled meeting between Mayor Bill Foster, left, and Rays owner Stu Sternberg.
I doubt much will come from the ballyhooed meeting today between St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg about a new baseball stadium, unless Foster’s head explodes from holding his breath until the team agrees to a new deal in Pinellas County.
While that would be entertaining, it probably won’t happen. So in the interests of seeing Tropicana Field go one-on-one with a wrecking ball as quickly as possible, let’s move this thing along, shall we?
Mayor Foster, you’re wasting oxygen and time in arguing to keep the Rays in St. Petersburg. Ain’t gonna happen, no matter how many times you wave that lease in Sternberg’s face that theoretically binds them to the Trop.
Sternberg hasn’t said publicly he wants a new stadium in downtown Tampa, only that he wants toexplore locations throughout the Bay area that happens to include downtown Tampa. My guess is he will decide he likes that one very much.
I also can’t imagine worse timing.
The lead story in The Tampa Tribune on Monday was about budget cutbacks in Tampa that will hit the poor. Everywhere we look public services are being reduced or eliminated, and the pungent odor of the deal our public servants gave the Buccaneers on Raymond James Stadium still remains from the late 1990s.
Think those deals are a thing of the past? Think again.
A few hours to the south, the Miami Marlins are preparing to open their new 37,000-seat, retractable-roof baseball stadium on the site of the old Orange Bowl. The Marlins will pay roughly $155 million of the estimated $640 million cost. Put another way, the public will pay $485 million – mostly through tourist taxes.
It’s so lopsided for the Marlins, the Securities and Exchange Commission last month announced an investigation into the whole process. This will not end well, and it serves as a warning here when the Rays come calling.
Assuming they can buy their way out of the remaining time on their lease in St. Pete (an equitable solution, I would think), leaders in Hillsborough should insist the Rays open their books before they get a dime of public money through tourist taxes or anything else.
The website Deadspin leaked documents in 2010 showing the Rays made a combined $15 million in profit for 2007 and ’08.
According to that report, they also took in about $39 million in each of those two years from Major League Baseball in revenue sharing. That fact led to Sternberg’s threat that fellow owners might “vaporize” this team because they were tired of subsidizing a team that was beating them.
He has a point. The Rays are an exceptional organization, probably the best in professional sports – not just baseball. According to the Scarborough Report they are the most popular pro team in the market.
Yes, Bucs, they’re more popular than you.
We know the Rays eventually will want to make a deal in Tampa and maybe they can, but they better bring more to the table than a tin cup. Between the Bucs, Lightning and Yankees, Hillsborough taxpayers have paid for enough stadiums, thank you.
I love baseball as much as anyone, but business is business.
Filed under: Uncategorized
By MICHAEL SASSO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 17, 2012
Updated: January 18, 2012 – 6:48 AM
ST. PETERSBURG –
Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg said Tuesday he is optimistic the team will resolve its stadium troubles even though it came no closer to a solution during his meeting with St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster.
Sternberg and Foster met for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon at Tropicana Field to discuss stadium matters and other issues.
Sternberg didn’t go into details in a short interview afterward, but said the team and Foster reached no deals on the Rays’ future in the city.
Sternberg has said he wants to look throughout the Tampa Bay region for stadium sites, not just in St. Petersburg. Asked by a reporter if he were any closer to convincing Foster of that, Sternberg said no.
The Tampa Tribune was unable to reach Foster Tuesday afternoon.
Sternberg said the two sides didn’t discuss potential locations for a future stadium and there was no talk of how the Rays might buy out their contract to play at Tropicana Field.
Much of the discussion focused on how the city might help the team with marketing and improving upon home attendance in 2011 that was next to last, Sternberg said.
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By Stephen Nohlgren and Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writers
In Print: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
ST. PETERSBURG — Crowds won’t start filling Tropicana Field for another 78 days, but the two men who most affect baseball’s future in the region put it to some use Tuesday afternoon.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg held a much-anticipated sit-down for about two hours in Rays offices.
Foster declined to comment, saying he wanted to brief City Council members before making any public statements.
Sternberg characterized the meeting as “nothing dramatic” but did offer one optimistic note:
He foresees “a nice improvement” in attendance for 2012.
The Rays typically do not discuss season ticket sales, but “some sportswriters, misguided or not, think we have a great chance to have a very good team this year,” Sternberg said. “We feel really good about it. We had a great finish last year. Our TV ratings increased dramatically in the last couple of months.”
Any such improvement does not change the team’s determination to seek new stadium possibilities in Hillsborough County, Sternberg said. Nor did his meeting with Foster change the city’s determination to stick to the Trop contract and forbid such discussions.
The meeting mostly touched on ways to improve marketing and communication, Sternberg said.
“You kind of do a tune-up every six months or so — a what’s been bothering you, what’s been bothering us?” he said. “The city wants to know if they can help us promote the team, and we’d like to know what the city can do to help promote the team and work together in that vein.”
Several council members were pleased. Relations have been testy for 19 months, since Sternberg announced that he would not discuss new stadium sites in Pinellas County unless he can research Hillsborough sites as well.
“Just to have had an open door and have them sit down as adults and have a positive conversation on how we move forward is a plus,” said council Chairwoman Leslie Curran.
Council member Steve Kornell re-emphasized his faith that St. Petersburg can support a successful team, taking a sideways swipe at Tampa Mayor Bill Buckhorn’s statements that Tampa is waiting in the wings.
“Businesses all over the region should support the team by buying tickets, no matter what side of the bridge the stadium is located on,” Kornell said. “It’s a double message to say (baseball) is a regional asset only if it moves to our city. I hope the mayor of Tampa jumps onboard and helps us.”
Council member Karl Nurse said the Rays and city officials should concentrate more on getting light rail than on where a new stadium should be built.
“This is like a relationship gone sour,” Nurse said. “You need something you can work on together.”
Sternberg’s outlook for the 2012 season, plus recent business moves by the team, contrast with the run-up to the 2011 season.
Last year, the Rays cut their payroll by 40 percent to $41 million and talked frequently about how the team could not afford popular free agent players like Carl Crawford and Carlos Peña.
This year, they have said the payroll could grow to $60 million, and already have acquired one significant free agent, former Baltimore Oriole Luke Scott.
“I’m an optimistic fella,” Sternberg said. “I think the expectations coming into last season probably weren’t as great as they had been for the previous couple of years.”
As for marketing issues, Sternberg seemed sensitive to a recent report — via Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala — that Foster thought the Rays had purposely sandbagged their marketing efforts to depress attendance.
Foster has vehemently denied that allegation, but Sternberg said he “had to defend” the Rays’ marketing efforts during his meeting with the mayor.
In the next sentence, though, Sternberg struck a different note, saying Foster “thought we were doing a fine job marketing. I don’t want to put words in his mouth.”
Times staff writer Marc Topkin contributed to this report.
[Last modified: Jan 18, 2012 10:59 AM]
Copyright 2012 Tampa Bay Times
Filed under: Uncategorized
By Michael Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, January 19, 2012
ST. PETERSBURG — The question is no longer whether Tropicana Field is a viable stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.
St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster said he came away from a much-anticipated meeting with team officials with a more fundamental question.
“They, the Rays organization, have a question about the ability of the region to support baseball,” Foster told theTampa Bay Times on Wednesday. “It wasn’t a question of St. Petersburg or Tampa.”
Foster recapped his impressions from a two-hour meeting Tuesday with Rays owner Stuart Sternberg at Tropicana Field.
“That was the most striking thing about this conversation,” Foster said. “Tropicana Field, and whatever its deficiencies, never came up.”
The two men were joined by Jim Kennedy, a City Council member; Rick Mussett, the city’s senior administrator of development; Matt Silverman, Rays president; and Michael Kalt, the Rays senior vice president of development and business affairs.
The meeting was highly anticipated after talks between Foster and Sternberg stalled after a June 2010 news conference in which Sternberg said he wanted to look elsewhere for stadium sites, including Hillsborough County. Foster has refused to let the club look outside Pinellas.
Since then, Tropicana Field, where the Rays are contractually obligated to play through the 2027 season, has emerged as a dominant point of contention. Its amenities, location and slack attendance have been scrutinized in newspapers, blogs, sports radio and on ESPN.
Just last summer, a Rays official said the 22-year-old stadium had become a distraction.
“Clearly, something needs to be done,” Silverman, the Rays president, said then.
But Foster said he left Tuesday thinking a much larger issue was at play.
“There are huge questions about Tampa Bay’s ability to support three professional sports franchises,” Foster said later on WQYK-AM 1010. “That was a point that was made when I left there.
“I thought, ‘Wow,’ ” Foster said. “This is Tampa Bay fighting for major league baseball. It’s not so much that we’ll have them through 2027. It’s the next 30 years that I think we need to be concerned about.”
Foster said the best immediate strategy for keeping the team is fan support.
“If the region wants the Rays to stay in the region, then Tampa Bay needs to support this team this year by putting their backsides in the seat and going to the game,” Foster said.
To do that, the two sides discussed how to better market the team.
It’s a sensitive issue. Last year, Pinellas County Commissioner Susan Latvala said that Foster told her that he believed the Rays had purposely sandbagged their marketing efforts to depress attendance. Foster denied making that statement. But on Tuesday, Sternberg said he “had to defend” the Rays’ marketing efforts during his meeting with the mayor, but quickly added that Foster thought the club was doing a fine job marketing.
On Wednesday, Foster said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the Rays’ marketing efforts.
Rays officials said Wednesday they had no comment beyond Sternberg’s remarks the day before.
Foster said that the city will help market the team, and later, onWQYK, said that Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn also agreed to help.
Buckhorn is “willing to get involved in promoting this baseball team as a great regional asset in its present location for this season,” Foster said. “You’ll see touches from the mayors on both sides of the bay to really get support for this team.”
Long-term, Foster said a plan to bring light rail to Pinellas and connect with a system in Hillsborough is crucial to making it easier for fans to attend.
Echoing the comments Sternberg made Tuesday minutes after the meeting ended, Foster said much of the discussion focused on better communication.
“We’re back on track as far as open lines of communication,” he said. “The tone was positive.”
But the larger issue remains. Foster said his offer remains unchanged: a new stadium in Pinellas, or nothing. But he did come away with a deeper understanding.
“When (Sternberg) says he wants to look everywhere (for a new stadium), he means it,” Foster said on WQYK. “It’s not just Tampa Bay. . . . I don’t think they see Hillsborough County as the answer.”
Michael Van Sickler can be reached at (727) 893-8037 or mvansickler@tampabay.com.
[Last modified: Jan 19, 2012 12:47 PM]
Copyright 2012 Tampa Bay Times
