http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2008/06/02/daily41.html

Thursday, June 5, 2008 - 6:28 PM EDT

Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal reaches first base on council vote, draft Beckham No. 1

Tampa Bay Business Journal

St. Petersburg's city council voted 7-1 Thursday to begin the referendum process for a new baseball stadium on the downtown waterfront, according to a report by Bay News 9. Councilman Herb Polson was the lone holdout.

The vote was the first of three public hearings scheduled to discuss the issue before a final vote on Aug. 7. If the council approves the issue then, it goes to a referendum vote in the general election in November.

Voters can then approve or deny the use of the Al Lang site for the Tampa Bay Rays, who want to construct a $450 million open-air stadium with a retractable sail-like canopy. If approved, the city will sell off the current site of Tropicana Field to developers that will build a mixed-use office, retail and residential complex.

Proponents of the plan believe the stadium will have amenities to address fan comfort, be more intimate than most in baseball, provide a significant boost to the local tax base and downtown businesses and be a win-win if the Tropicana Field site is developed successfully. Opponents of the Rays' plan still have questions about the financing process, believe the design is out of scale with downtown St. Petersburg, have parking concerns, and are against the use of public sources of revenue to support a wealthy private enterprise.

In baseball-specific news, the Rays drafted Tim Beckham, an 18-year-old shortstop who graduated from Griffin High School in Griffin, Ga., last week.

Beckham was selected first overall, the second straight year the Rays have picked first. Last year the team picked David Price, a left-handed pitcher from Vanderbilt University.

Beckham has retained Greg Genske of Legacy Sports as his agent. Legacy is based in Houston.