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A New Baseball Stadium For The Rays?

The Team and Bay Area Communities Could Be In Lockstep Once Again

By William Henry PhD

Although it seems like a long time ago, some may remember that the Rays Baseball ownership group and the City of St. Petersburg seemed to be in lock step to demolish the existing Tropicana Field Dome Stadium and build a state of the art waterfront stadium in downtown St. Petersburg site several years ago.

What Happened?
In 2008 the Rays Baseball Organization and a group of erstwhile government officials began planning a waterfront stadium near the current Al Lopez Field. At the same time, the City of St. Petersburg, under former Mayor Rick Baker, contemplated what the Tropicana Field site could become if the stadium were razed. To help the process along, an RFP was issued by the City to developers to solicit ideas as to what the 100 acre site could support in the way of an urban mixed use re-development plan.

While the Rays planned their new state of the art stadium with the world renowned architectural firm HOK, three development consortiums came forward with varying schemes to redevelop the Tropicana Field site; Archstone/Madison Marquette, The Hines Group, and DeBartolo Development/NRP Group/RGA Group. The Archstone and Hines organizations proposed a large amount of retail space along with a mix of multi-family housing. The DeBartolo team proposed mostly rental apartments and very little retail.

Since I was the lead partner of the DeBartolo team, I will state that the reason for proposing rental apartments was, and still is, a pent up demand for over 5,000 new rental apartments. According to TRIAD research, the generators are the nearby hospitals, government offices and downtown workers all clamoring for convenient workforce housing.

The City officials did not agree and selected the Archstone Group even though the DeBartolo bid was monetarily higher. One reason may have been that the City had its eye on the potential retail tax revenue that could find its way into City coffers. They wished to recapture retail tax revenues being siphoned from Pinellas County when residents traveled across the Bay to shop at International Plaza and the Westshore Mall in Tampa. Unfortunately the City has seen its Bay Walk project fall into distress. Interested parties may question the wisdom of proposing so much retail space without substantive quantifiable demand.

In the meantime, an organization known as CONA, comprised of many downtown condo owners, opposed the planned Rays state of the art waterfront stadium. Although the Mayor seemed to support the new stadium, the support didn’t overcome opposition.

What’s Next?
During the hiatus, there are several assumptions that can be made, and speculation can revolve around the following assumptions;

Assumptions
1. If the Rays current ownership purchased the team for approximately $100 million;
2. If the cost to buy out the remaining term of the lease is approximately $100 million;
3. If there is a penalty clause for early termination that, let’s say, approximates $100 million;
4. If all the assumptions above are correct (I will let the newspaper research departments confirm this), the team’s cost basis to leave for greener pastures may approximate $300 million. The greener pastures may include the robust economic regions of Charlotte NC, San Antonio, TX, Las Vegas, NV, etc.
5. If the value of a World Series caliber baseball team approximates $700 million, then the enhanced value to the Rays ownership for relocation of the team to a state of the art facility in one of these cities may equate to the following:

  $700,000,000 (value of Rays in state of the art stadium)
  -$300,000,000 (cost basis if team left)
  = $400,000,000 (enhanced ownership equity= value)

And it may be close to half a billion dollars. If you owned the Rays and can add and subtract, what would you do?

Is there a location in the Tampa Bay Area that can compete with these new charming suitors? The only one that can and should be considered is downtown Tampa.

The reasons are the following:

1. Enhanced Access–Urban planning 101 states that intense land uses that are supported by large urban metropolitan areas should be located on infrastructures of roads, highways, bridges and transit lines that serve those large geographic areas. By this reasoning, the nexus of I-275 and I-4 is the only infrastructure amalgamation that qualifies. Why? Because one can get to the nexus from points North, South, East and West – to as far north as Gainesville, as far south as Sarasota, as far east as Orlando, as far west as – yes – St. Petersburg in about two hours.

2. Enhanced Financing opportunities: The stadium will best be located in a Community Redevelopment District (CRA). CRA’s have built in financing mechanisms known as Tax Increment Financing ‘TIF’ vehicles. This allows the CRA to freeze property values at the pre-development lower level and capture most, if not all, the enhanced tax revenue for investment in the new stadium building project. Redevelopment of the stadium will likely spur nearby economic development in the CRA. A likely impact is the surrounding property values will surge. The nearby Ybor entertainment district’s retail sales will likely surge as well. Therefore, the City can contribute this stream of tax revenues to the re-development of the stadium site and perhaps site acquisition. Without a CRA then this avenue is not available, I am unaware of an available CRA tax district in the Pinellas Gateway or Carillon area. There is no CRA next to the Raymond James football stadium nor near the Tampa Fairgrounds. Also, in all those competing areas, the land acquisition price may be cost prohibitive.

3. Enhanced Ticket Sales and Corporate Sponsorship. With a retractable dome stadium near downtown the view of the Tampa skyline with the waterfront beyond, is unimpeded. Even the so called Pinellas corporate giants such as Raymond James, Tech Data and others could join Hillsborough giants such as Sikes and the banking conglomerates in corporate sponsorship.

Adding these factors up, the recent initiatives by Commissioner Hagan, member of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, begin to make common sense.

Recommendation 
Major League baseball can step forth and end this hiatus. While politicians walk on eggshells, fearing legal reprisals, Major League Baseball could GUARANTEE the Rays buyout of the lease and payment of any penalty clauses. The team and bay area communities could then once again be in lockstep and begin a long, careful planning exercise to ensure the team’s future in the area as well as the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site.

Reliable Group, LLC Architects AA# 0003523 is a well-known architectural and construction management firm based in Tampa, Florida. RGA is headed by Dr. William Henry, both an architect and certified expert witness who issues opinions and testimony concerning design and construction related matters. Having designed over 250 landmark buildings in the state of Florida, he has represented and testified for both plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving code violations such as associated with design and construction defects as well as American Disabilities Act – ‘ADA’ violations. William Henry, PhD (Bill) may be reached at (813) 226.2220 or bhenry@rga-design.com.

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