Are the Rays getting a new stadium

With the Rays in the World Series last years and a new mayor in town new stadium talks are coming back to life. The Rays still have interest in the team, but now that they have ben in the World Series they have proven that they are for real. The new stadium is on people’s minds. Neither the local governments nor the Rays have begun to act.

New Mayor Bill Foster wants to talk to Rays about a new stadium somewhere in the future. He wants to negotiate when they would get this stadium. He also wants to negotiate the concept of having the Rays pay for some of the stadium themselves, or even paying for the whole like the Yankees did for their brand new stadium that opened this season.

People still talking about the prospect of a new stadium but are questioning the intelligence of building an open-air arena in the lightning capital of the world. “It rains here every day during the summer “said Travis Martin. “It is really stupid” said Angela Kurtz. “An open air is a questionable idea especially since summer temperatures are over 90 degrees and it rains here every day. One of the reasons people don’t go see the Marlins is because it too dam hot and now they want an open air stadium here”? Travis said.

Some people liked the idea of a retractable roof. Heather Davis said “a retractable roof like Rogers Centre in Toronto or Safeco Field in Seattle might be nice.”

People did not want the new stadium a year or two ago when it was first proposed because The Rays had been stinking up the game of baseball since that started playing in 1998. Now a year and a shot at the title make all the difference in the world.

The new Stadium will be in Downtown St. Petersburg. This stadium is only blocks from the St. Petersburg campus of USF. Steve Johnson said "The traffic is going to be horrible coming in and out of downtown. The noise is going to make it much hard to hear teachers and videos in class." Ryan Levin said. "Parking is going to be a nightmare. People will probably try to use our student parking on game day." The noise and the detours are going to cause huge problems for USF students.

Kent Mattingly, spokesperson for the campus police, said that they do not have a plan yet to protect student parking. Mattingly also said that the St. Petersburg Police will help the campus police with security in the area.

Ryan Levin continues “The people of this town always wanted the Rays to succeed; they just didn’t expect the lowest payroll in the league to make the World Series. Now that they’re winners, the people want to thank them with a stadium fitting a major league baseball team”. When asked if he was worried that the team was a fluke, he said “no I’m not worried, there is no way this is a one and done team. There is too much talent. There are now three powers in the East. It is fitting to be talking about a new stadium for the Rays since the power up in the Bronx is opening a new Yankee Stadium. That means that if this new stadium plan goes through, 2 of the 3 powers in the Eastern Division will have a new stadium”.

The new stadium is expected to cost around 450 million dollars. The original plan was for the Rays to put up 150 million and the rest would come from the State, City and County. Governor Charley Christ has already said that the state will not help finance the new stadium. The city and the county have not said how much of the total cost they are willing to pick up. To make a stadium a dome, an average cost of about 200 million dollars will have to be added. The problem is always money. The pencil pushers are having trouble coming up with 450 million dollars let alone another 200 million to make Ray’s stadium a dome. Corporate sponsorship usually solves this problem. Companies love to write a large check to see their logo on the face of a large complex. Current economic times will probably prevent someone from stepping forward.

The man-in-the-street is again enthused about a shiny new ballpark, now we just have to see what the local Governments and the Rays are going to do.

The business achievement center is one of the great new things to hit the Midtown area of St. Petersburg. This city funded program is designed to bring new business and new life into the Midtown Community.
A program created for the exchange of ideas and support helps promote growth and longevity to businesses in the midtown community. Called the Entrepreneurial Exchange, the achievement center started this new program. Small Business people can obtain the equivalent of consultants by discussing their problems and needs with other business people who share similar concerns and many times have discovered solutions they can share.
There are two different tracks for this exchange program. The first program is for veteran business owners. These industry leaders meet once a month to discuss such things as how do I stay in business, how do I increase my cliental, how can I establish my niche or should I diversify. This group meets at the business center on the first Monday of each month at 8am.
The second track is open is specifically for hairstylists. It is led by William Bennett otherwise known as Doctor Frogue. This track includes SCORE.counselors and other industry experts. This group meets on the fourth Monday of each month at 9am. Score counsels people about every aspect of running a business from getting financing to finding and maintaining a client base.
All of these breakfast meetings are open to people who have been in business for at least 6 months and use the service of the Business Assistance Center, or are recommended by a client. There is a $5 fee for these breakfast meetings.
One of the great things the center is doing is teaching the people of midtown how to run businesses. This is good because it helps the people of midtown create businesses and jobs. Economic Development and business growth are the keys to refurbishing and reviving a community, which is why the city is funding the Business Assistance Center.
The Business Assistance Center partners with Score, The Florida Small Business Center at the University of South Florida, The Tampa Bay Black Business Investment Corporation and The Eckerd College Intern Volunteer Program. These Partners help the BAC teach aspiring Midtowners how to run successful business so they can refurbish the midtown community
Score is a counseling organization that helps small business owners with everything from sales to finance and management and even marketing. They have success toolkits and podcasts on to survive in the weak economy. They give loan advice. They also have downloadable finance guides. They teach you how to use the social media to your advantage. They even tell you how to whether a crisis.
I tried several times to reach the Business Assistance Center Assistant Director Shirmatee Ojah-Maharaj. She could not be reached for comment. I did reach Administrative Secretary Ondria McDonald, She refused to answer any questions.
I spoke with several business owners including Cecil Michaels. He said that “the government needs to step out of the way and help business owners.” “The way to develop a community is to give tax breaks and other incentives for business owners to take the risk of starting a new business from scratch in a developing community.” Doug Wright is considering starting a new cabinet shop he said that “starting a new cabinet shop is tough especially in this economy.” “I am considering getting help from the business center.” Cecil also said that if the deal is right lots of business owners and developers will want to come into midtown.

Is the city of St. Petersburg really safer stronger and better than it was before? According to St. Petersburg.org government services have been improving for a long time and not just in Midtown but in the entire city of St. Petersburg.
The official St. Petersburg website says that crime is down in midtown and arrests are up. Some experts would say that those two statistics coincide. Not everyone agrees that crime is down in the Midtown town area. According to Eric Atwater crime is up. He still sees murders and fights and still hears about rapes and other violence. While I was at Atwater’s I interviewed Bonnie Harven and she also told me that crime is up and she sees the same kinds of murders and violence that Eddy told me about. When I told Eric what the website said he said “that couldn’t be true.”
The city website also said that fire rescue response times also went down over the past few years but nobody could comment on whether this was true or not.
The area where the St. Petersburg website and the citizenry agree is in the area of Economic development. Most people agree that things have been going very well in the field of Economic development. All kinds of things are showing up in Midtown from the GTE Federal Credit Union to the Sweet Bay to the new Job Core and Small Business Center. Eric said “I see a lot of new shops and business here in Midtown.” Bonnie said “that just living here in this area, I don’t think crime is down.
The St. Petersburg website says that the crime numbers have been going down since the year 2001 which is the same year that Rick Baker took office. The fire rescue response numbers have also been going down since 2001.
Everybody else that I spoke to agrees with Eric and Bonnie on the crime front and the Economic development front. It seems that the citizenry agrees that the St. Petersburg is lying on its website. Now that Baker’s term is almost over it appears that Rick Baker has been playing with the numbers to make his mayoral terms look better. Is the city of St. Petersburg really capable of something like this.

Last week I visited The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa. The Hard Rock is a very nice hotel just off of I-4. The Hard Rock has all the amenities that make a short vacation.

The Casino is very large and holds more than enough slot machines to keep you and your friends entertained. The Casino is also home to the largest poker room I have ever seen. They are also expecting to get many of the other Las Vegas card games soon. They did not have exact dates on when they would be getting the other card games.

The Rock is home to some of Tampa's great clubs and bars. The lobby bar is a great place to have a good time at night. Heather said, "the lobby bar is great, its safe there are a lot of cute guys." John said, "this place is awesome, the girls are really hot." The really hot club to be in on weekends is of course Floyds. Floyds is great club to dance and party in. Paul said, "This place is great; I come here all the time." Britney followed that with "this is the best place to party." The center bar is located by the slot machines and it is complete with video screens and a powerful sound system. The center bar is a great place to sit and drink with your friends.

The Hard Rock has recently expanded so there are both new restaurants and old. One of the old classics is the green room that serves normal American food at reasonable rates. Upstairs you will find the fresh harvest buffet that will serve you anything from normal American food to Sushi to Italian and everything in between. The buffet is similar to the large Las Vegas buffets and it is all you can eat. Also upstairs is an Asian restaurant featuring Chinese and Japanese favorites including Sushi. If you win a big jackpot at the poker table or the slot machines you might want to check out council oak, which is the premier steak house of the Hard Rock. It is very high priced which is why I recommend going there after a big win.

The Hard Rock has some very nice hotel rooms priced from $170 to $370. They are complete with all the amenities. The Hard Rock features an excellent pool bar area with all the amenities, a huge, deep pool and great company. They also have a full spa with fitness center for you to stay in shape and to relax afterwards.

The Hard is great place to spend an evening or take a short vacation. Where else can you take a vacation and have the chance to make money.