Read the article in the St. Petersburg Times

Owner: Rays don't need new stadium

Stuart Sternberg says while a new park might be nice, it's not the key to the team's success.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 8, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - On his first day running the Devil Rays Thursday, new principal owner Stuart Sternberg created good will by talking about some of the things he will do, such as offering free parking for home games.

Friday, he likely generated more by talking about something he promises not to do - demand a new stadium.

"You will never - and I will say it now and hopefully I can say it and you'll follow up - you will not hear the words, "We need to have a new stadium,' " Sternberg told a group of Times editors. "We might like to have a new stadium. We can work with the authorities to have a new stadium and work with businesses to have a new stadium, but it won't be from a sense of "need.'

"If we can't make it work at Tropicana Field, I don't believe - and I could be proven wrong - but I don't believe it automatically works because of some panacea of some other ballpark."

Among other things, Sternberg and team president Matt Silverman also said:

Season ticket prices won't change much, but season-ticket holders will receive enhancements such as credits for in-stadium food and merchandise and membership in a loyalty program.

Individual game ticket prices have not been finalized but, Silverman said, "don't expect dramatic change."

An advertising campaign will be launched next week with the themes unveiled Thursday - Under Construction and Rebuilding the Dream.

Sternberg said the Rays will spend time and money to clean, renovate and improve Tropicana Field, which opened in 1990 and underwent an extensive renovation prior to the 1998 start of play, but described the stadium as "tired."

"We'll do whatever is necessary to get it up to speed and make it a world class facility," he said. "It certainly wasn't built yesterday and it doesn't have the charm of something of a pre-war sort of building, but it is what it is and we're going to take advantage to the fullest extent."

Sternberg said Brian Auld, a Harvard Business School graduate, has been hired "to absorb all the input on what needs to be changed, from the duct tape that's holding together one of the walls to the leak in the roof to how the concession stands flow."

Even with improvements, Sternberg said, the stadium may not last the full term of the team's lease, which runs for 22 more years.

"Quite frankly, I don't see Tropicana Field being our home in 20-25 years," he said. "It just doesn't feel like it can last that long. And we'll get tired, as much as we can keep going and replacing things, it does get to the point where you just can't keep replacing the plumbing anymore and keep patching things over."

Sternberg said there have been no specific talks about a new facility, but eventually they "most likely are going to explore the option and the opportunity."

With technology evolving, Sternberg said, those options may go beyond the retractable roofs that are now common and, in his words, a little bit clunky.

"Ideally you want to be outdoors when it's beautiful and you want to be indoors when it's not," he said. "We will explore certain possible new technologies that develop and might give us the opportunity to keep out the weather but sort of keep in the environment. "Fifteen years from now maybe somebody will say, "Gee, an umbrella over the roof that can be air conditioned with pipes that go 500 feet down to bring out the thermal from under the ground,' that can be done. So we'll explore it."

Location also will be an issue - another St. Petersburg site (perhaps the waterfront Progress Energy Park plot) probably would make it easier to void the lease, though Tampa interests are likely to make a strong push.

Sternberg said the team is not asking for public help, but he would expect a partnership with governmental and business interests.

"I would expect it to be cooperative, and I think cooperative always works best. Now is it 90-10, or 10-90, or 50-50? You have to look at it and get a sense of where the benefit is coming and where it's going," he said. "We are not going to build a stadium at whatever point in time that comes to line our pockets. If it's necessary to do, and it will be necessary to do at some period of time, it will be done because it works for the community, it works for the area, it makes a lot of business sense and it makes a lot of sense for something that will create a lasting showpiece. "Even if we pay for the whole thing, it will be cooperative. But I don't anticipate us having the ability to ever pay for an entire stadium."

I like the way this guy talks: "Sure, a new stadium would be nice some day, but we're not going to 'demand' one. A new stadium is not the panacea everyone thinks it is, and we ought to be able to make it work with what we have."

OK, maybe that won't be his tune in a few years, but in the meantime, let's give him credit. Sternberg sounds like someone who isn't going to blame others for the team's struggles, and he's going to roll up his sleeves and make the best of things. I'm already rootin' for the guy!

Hope he doesn't change the name - I like Devil Rays (It IS a real Gulf of Mexico animal, you know). GO D-RAYS! (I love to root for underdogs!)