Winning might have helped this matter - TBGR

Florida based power company striking out in its bid to its sell share of D-Rays

By Louis Hau
The St. Petersburg Times

Progress Energy Inc. isn't making any bets on finding a buyer for its 5.8 percent stake in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Instead, the parent of Florida Power Corp. expects to exercise an option to sell the stake back to the other members of the Major League Baseball team's ownership group in 2006, a Progress spokesman said Monday.

"The bottom line is, it's for sale but realistically we don't expect to sell it until we sell it back to the partnership in 2006," Progress spokesman Keith Poston said.

Although the power company based in Raleigh, N.C., put its stake in the team on the market two years ago, Progress never made a major push to find a buyer, Poston said, out of the belief that there aren't many would-be investors interested in acquiring such a small stake in a professional sports team.

Besides, Poston said, the team has "had issues." The franchise has finished last in the American League East for five consecutive seasons and has lost a combined 206 games during the past two seasons.

A Rays representative declined comment. Progress Energy inherited its stake in the Rays in November 2000 when the utility, then called Carolina Power & Light, bought former Florida Power parent Florida Progress Corp.

Under the federal Public Utility Holding Company Act, Poston said, the newly merged company was required to sell off operations or investments that weren't directly related to its core utility business.

In addition to the Rays stake, those unrelated interests included a barge business, which Progress sold last year, and a rail transport subsidiary, which the company must sell by November 2003, Poston said.

But the Securities and Exchange Commission never set a deadline for the sale of Progress' Rays stake. In an order approving the acquisition of Florida Progress, the SEC simply stated that Florida Progress "will endeavor to sell its interest in the Devil Rays ... but, in any event, commits to sell its interest in the Devil Rays back to the partnership in accordance with the partnership agreement."

Under the terms of that agreement, the owning partnership is obligated to buy the stake back for cash no later than March 31, 2006, Poston said. Florida Progress bought its interest in the Rays in 1995 for $5-million, but Poston said he didn't know how much the stake was worth now.

Despite Progress' plans to sell its Rays stake, the company remains an enthusiastic supporter of the team, Poston said, noting that it signed a major sponsorship deal in 1999 that won't expire until Dec. 31, 2007.

The deal includes signs, a mini-blimp and a luxury box at Tropicana Field; Florida Power Walkway, the ceramic-tile mosaic that leads to the main entrance of the stadium; and naming rights to Florida Power Park, the Rays' spring-training facility in St. Petersburg. The park will be renamed Progress Energy Park in the spring as part of a broader rebranding effort at the company.

"As a part owner and advertiser, we want the team to succeed," Poston said. "But the (ownership stake) is small and is not a major focus for the company."

A man has to have goals- for a day, for a lifetime- that was mine, to have people say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived." - Ted Williams