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Rays pitch stadium plan
TDC told to ‘think big’ for future
By SUZETTE PORTER
Article published on Sunday, June 15, 2008 |
CLEARWATER – Big plans and the future were the focus of the June 11 meeting of the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council.
Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman presented information that the team hopes will lead to a favorable recommendation from the TDC for a proposed plan to build a new $450 million stadium on the waterfront in St. Petersburg.
Silverman made his pitch immediately after Lou Plasencia, chairman and CEO of the Plasencia Group, a hotel investment and consulting firm, gave a fairly gloomy report on the impact the current economic climate was having on the hospitality industry.
Plasencia said currently things were “about as bad as they can get in the commercial real estate business” and that is was “going to get worse.” He said he expected it would be 18 to 24 months before money began flowing again and the economy started to get better.
He said the economic woes of commercial real estate included the hotel industry.
“Fortunately, we’re not seeing a great deal of new construction in hotels, which is a big plus,” he said.
The big plus, he said, is that it allows time to make plans for the future while not being pressured by builders.
Occupancies for hotels are continuing to drop and rates are still rising, he said, but both trends are beginning to moderate. He said profitability would continue to decline as hoteliers are forced to spend more of their money on expenses.
He said thus far the local hospitality industry had been doing ok due to international and “drive up” travelers. But he doesn’t expect to see that continue in the future as economic conditions are beginning to impact other parts of the world, especially Europe and the UK.
His advice for the future was to “think big” and come up with a “well orchestrated” plan to court high end resorts which could attract higher paying domestic and foreign travelers.
In the meantime, he recommended taking care with spending, especially bed tax revenue “which is not going to go in an upward direction.”
Bed tax revenue is the crux of funding the Tampa Bay Rays need from the county to help pay for a new baseball stadium.
Silverman said he believed that the stadium plan fit in with Plasencia’s advice to “think big” as he described the benefits of redeveloping Tropicana Field and building a new stadium that would provide a destination that would “highlight our area.”
He said a new stadium would lead to bigger events such as an All Star game and allow 30 million TV viewers to see the beauty of St. Petersburg waterfront during every televised game.
He said the Grand Prix had proven to be a successful draw to the area.
“The Grand Prix is one weekend a year,” he said. “The Rays play all summer.”
The TDC didn’t seem totally convinced and asked county staff to take a look at what things might not be funded if an agreement was made to tie up a penny of bed tax revenue until the year 2046.
Some members seemed uncomfortable that the TDC needed to be among the first to make a decision that could make or break the deal.
Timing is everything, explained TDC Chairman Robert Stewart. He said the TDC needed to make a decision about a recommendation for the Board of County Commissioners by its July 9 meeting to allow the commissioners to make a decision at it July 22 meeting.
He said the city of St. Petersburg had to vote no later than Aug. 7 on whether or not to put the referendum question on the lease of the waterfront property on the November ballot.
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Article published on Sunday, June 15, 2008
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