http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/artic...sp&c_id=mlb

 

New-look Rays want a new stadium

Club to announce details of waterfront ballpark design Nov. 28

By Bill Chastain / MLB.com

 

 

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays will announce details and renderings of a new waterfront ballpark and redevelopment of Tropicana Field on Nov. 28, according to a news release by the team Wednesday.

The stadium announcement will take place at 3 p.m. at Progress Energy Park, Home of Al Lang Field.

 

While the Rays' efforts for a new 35,000-seat, $450-million ballpark on the site of Al Lang Field in downtown St. Petersburg have been widely reported, Wednesday's scheduled event will be the Rays' first official acknowledgment of a proposed stadium.

 

Florida Governor Charlie Crist and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker are scheduled to attend, as well as Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball president and chief operating officer; Stuart Sternberg, Rays principal owner; Matt Silverman, Rays president; and Michael Kalt, senior vice president of development and business affairs.

 

According to reports, the Rays might contribute as much as $150 million -- to cover one-third of the costs -- and the team also would seek legislative approval for $60 million of future sales tax revenues from the state of Florida to make the stadium a reality by 2012. In addition, the team wants to find a private developer to construct a large retail/residential complex where Tropicana Field sits so the team could get out of its lease.

 

Al Lang Field has been the site of the Rays' Spring Training exhibition games throughout the team's history, but the Rays are scheduled to move from the locale on the St. Petersburg waterfront to Port Charlotte for Spring Training in 2009. Because Al Lang Field is housed on public property, voters would need to approve the new stadium. Also, the plan would depend on the city being able to sell the Al Lang site to Pinellas County, which would create a situation in which property taxes could be avoided. If the deal comes to fruition, the Rays would seek a long-term deal.

 

Approximately $100 million is still owed by the city on Tropicana Field, which will not be paid off until 2025. St. Petersburg could recover what it owes if a private developer purchased Tropicana Field and the adjacent parking lot.

 

Reports have said the proposed stadium will be an open-air facility, with a plan calling for an available option that would allow it to be covered with a sail-like material on a cabling system in the event of inclement weather.

 

Under this stadium plan, the design is expected to have a retro look. Longtime fans attending games at Al Lang Field would need to get used to having the playing field face a different direction to facilitate a field that would allow home run balls hit to right field to land in the water, which would be akin to AT&T Park in San Francisco.

 

Bill Chastain is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

 

 

But when does the city of Tampa get a major league baseball team?

But when does the city of Tampa get a major league baseball team?

Oh, but the new stadium will make sure that Tampa doesn't finish dead last again... please approve the tax hike!

I've heard The Hawk talk about how the stadium is on the wrong side of the city to draw attendance. Can anyone familiar with the area explain that?

I've heard The Hawk talk about how the stadium is on the wrong side of the city to draw attendance. Can anyone familiar with the area explain that?

 

The new stadium would allow the Rays to draw people from out of the ocean, ... those are your real baseball fans.

 

Sounds like a decent idea.

 

Obviously the stadium situation at the moment is a mess, and Tropicana is argubly the worst MLB stadium going around at the moment.

 

They need something like this in order to be competitve in the AL East. It's all good that they're bringing up young players and everything, but they'll have to pay them one day, and having attendances of 30,000+ will certainly help that.

 

And with the Marlins likely to move from Florida soon, they should get something like this done to keep baseball in Florida over the long - term.

one of the designs I saw was interesting. Looked like giant pirate sails

 

from the blog DRaysBay

 

http://www.draysbay.com/story/2007/11/18/93311/068

That's sorta neat. Reminds we of the Bucs stadium with the pirate ship.

Think they'll give away tickets to the first 500 guys named Ray on opening day?

 

 

The new stadium would allow the Rays to draw people from out of the ocean, ... those are your real baseball fans.

 

Mermaids or Cubans on rafts?

 

 

I think they need a stadium with a retractable roof due to Florida always getting hurricanes and all.

one of the designs I saw was interesting. Looked like giant pirate sails

 

from the blog DRaysBay

 

http://www.draysbay.com/story/2007/11/18/93311/068

Are they going to have videos of homesexual porn on the jumbotron too? That would fit with this scheme.

one of the designs I saw was interesting. Looked like giant pirate sails

 

from the blog DRaysBay

 

http://www.draysbay.com/story/2007/11/18/93311/068

 

The Roman Colosseum called...and the lions are on the way (once they finish eating Christians).

one of the designs I saw was interesting. Looked like giant pirate sails

 

from the blog DRaysBay

 

http://www.draysbay.com/story/2007/11/18/93311/068

 

That's one of those designs you can look at and confidently say, "there is no way in hell that's being built."

why don't they just rent out rafts and travel back and forth to Cuba to get people for attendence?

Official Ray Stadium Renderings

 

Looks like a real neat idea, I dont see how the retractable roof would work though.

 

If that actually gets built, id really want to go and see a couple whitesox games in it.

wow, it does look real nice. I still don't like the netting on top though.

i must be the only one here, but I don't like it.

 

plus I wonder how nice it will look with 13,000 people in it?

You know, I think it looks really cool, not really practical in that it wont hold much from the looks of it and lots of $, but very interesting. If you want to attract fans I guess you cant be normal, even though normal would include winning so maybe Im wrong

I like it. With the 'roof' closed it looks like a big ray hovering over the field. I hope their cover works better than the one at Olympic Stadium up in Montreal. They had the same design and they had nothing but problems with. I think they eventually just stopped using it.

so, is that thing that looks like netting actually a glass/see through roof with an opening in the back?

 

I'm still pissed they changed their name though. New logo/uniforms was a good idea and so is the stadium, but any team named the Rays is just so f***ing gay.

Edited November 30, 200718 yr by BearSox

Can someone explain to me why baseball in FL doesn't do very well?

 

I mean, (1) You have all the Cubans... they are supposed to love baseball and (2) Even though I've been told baseball isn't really a southern thing, isn't a large % of FL transplanted northerners?

 

I mean, I know the Rays have been pretty bad for a while, but the Marlins are less than 20 years old and have two WS titles.

 

What is the deal?