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Speaking of Sports

November 28, 2007

Traffic won't be a problem they say. Neither will the people that will populate the streets of downtown on game days.

It will be open-air but fans will be 8-10° cooler than the actual temperature they say. Quite a feat if you ask me.

Best of all, it is not going to cost the taxpayers one red cent. I want to see this one because I live here.

The last time there was this much buzz in Tampa Bay was 1998 when the Devil Rays played their first game at Tropicana Field and three years earlier when baseball commissioner Bud Selig reluctantly gave Tampa / St. Petersburg a major league franchise.

Now the new owners of the re-branded team hope they can sell their latest idea, a new waterfront stadium on a plot of hallowed ground known as Al Lang Stadium and would like to get the old okey-dokey in a year's time.

For a decade most people hardly noticed that St. Petersburg was on the major sports map, a quick look at the empty seats disguised as fans made that quite clear. However, Stuart Sternberg and his merry band of deep pocket-aires have hatched an idea that on the surface has merit and a very good chance of happening.

But there was an odd dichotomy on this warm sunsplashed afternoon.

On one hand you had all the rich and famous talking about erecting what was on dozens of painter's easels with media outlets from as far south as Ft. Myers making the drive up.

The overall cost? A cool $1 billion which includes the stadium and redeveloping the site where the Trop now sits.

Ten years and ten days ago the expansion draft was held and the old yard and I cannot remember if that same station had anyone present for the gala. Whatever. They were here now.

On the other side of First Street South there were the homeless. They have been there for a week and were set to protest the Republican Presidential Debate later in the day at the Mahaffey Theater, just a long poke from National League comeback-player-of-the-year winner Carlos Pena from Al Lang.

The only thing that covered them was a swarm of police and held back by steel barriers.

The cost? Some overtime pay for law enforcement.

You have to wonder about the timing though. Sternberg has scored big time in the public relations department since deposing Vince Naimoli but was this chutzpah or by design? After all, the debate was for YouTube and the stadium was for the people, right?

Who was going to dominate the eleven-o'clock news, Sternberg or Giuliani, the Rays or Republicans? What about the homeless?

How about the newspapers. What will be on page one above the fold? The way the proposal was laid out you would think you want the entire spotlight, not competition for the headline.

Even so, by an unscientific head count there seemed to be at least one person from virtually every outlet from Tampa to Tarpon Springs, St. Petersburg to Sarasota, Lakeland to Longboat Key, and beyond. Someone must be paying attention.

The two politicians, Governor Charlie Crist, who lives just steps from what would be Bays Ball Stadium, and the city's mayor Rick Baker, both support the idea. Especially the no out of pocket money promise from the team.

With the Rays kicking in a big chunk of the overall cost, added to the sale of land on 16th Street and 1st Avenue South minus the $100 million in bonds still remaining, how do you buck Crist and Baker? Or Sternberg for that matter?

The sketches are breathtaking, the concept state of the art and eco friendly. No retractable roof because the designers want no walls between them and the city. Naimoli built enough of them and this project understandably tears them all down.

In 1995, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig looked like he was at a wake when he handed Phoenix and St. Petersburg keys to the executive baseball bathroom. Today he was likely in New York giggling at the prospect of another new all-baseball stadium.

At least his number two, President & Chief Operating Officer Bob DuPuy, showed and almost bust a gut trying to hide his glee.

Toward the end, the podium was packed with the baseball elite and they all had answers for all the questions. Good ones too.

You came away feeling that despite all that happening on this day even those without a place to live would be proud to live in the city. Sadly, their future open-air home in another part of the city won't be a luxurious as the Rays.

Welcome to the show. Please step inside.