State fair venue; top praise; cheap men

Tampa columnist HOOPER E-mail: Click here Archive

© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2003

I was struck by the fact that Civitan presented its citizen of the year award last week just before the Florida State Fair Authority met to discuss its proposed amphitheater project at the fairgrounds.

Do we call board members who answer their charge and do what's best for the fairgrounds good citizens?

Or do we question their civic responsibility because they endorsed a project that could adversely affect the community, especially downtown?

The mayor, the county commission and other downtown interests have raised concerns about the impact the 20,000-seat amphitheater will have on events at the St. Pete Times Forum and the related benefits to downtown.

Preliminary analyses from the county and Downtown Partnership indicate the amphitheater could reduce ticket sales at the forum by as many as 350,000 annually. That would cost the county $175,000, and the city $87,500, in revenues from ticket surcharges.

The authority, however, voted 16-1 to move forward with contract negotiations between Clear Channel and the amphitheater. The goal is to have the project, which will create six-figure revenue streams, up and running by next March, the 100th anniversary of the state fair.

Tampa Tribune publisher Steve Weaver is an authority member well-positioned to address the question of city/county interests vs. fairground goals. The Tribune may be the oldest business downtown, and the paper's editorial board thinks the project should be delayed until its impact can be further studied.

But Weaver, like the rest of the board, has to address the concerns of the authority, which needs money to maintain and improve the fairgrounds.

Weaver said he is pushing for a compromise that can meet the needs of the fairgrounds without hurting downtown. He already has been assured that the fair and downtown officials will work together to determine the amphitheater's impact, and to develop a co-marketing agreement.

Says Weaver: "It's important that we work together. The fair needs this in order to survive and prosper. When the Ice Palace, now the Times Forum, was built, it sucked some revenue away. The circus is a good example. The Clear Channel folks, who have done some of the analysis, say there aren't a lot of acts at the Times Forum that are going to move.

"There may be a few, hence the $175,000 number. As a county resident and a city resident and a local downtown business, none of those things are good. But it appears the net result of this amphitheater will be more shows for you and I and our families to go to."

Rafael Vinoly will be in town Tuesday to unveil the final design for the new Tampa Museum of Art. Since we last heard from Vinoly, his stellar reputation has only grown. He is now part of THINK, an international architectural team that is one of the finalists for the new World Trade Center. "It is a work of genius, a towering affirmation of humanism in modern times," said New York Times architectural writer Herbert Muschamp.

Hopefully, we'll hear similar praise for the new museum.

I'm going to try and get my sons to go a step beyond those smart men who get married on Valentine's Day. If they can marry a girl who was born on Valentine's Day, they can go from buying three gifts a year to just buying one.

That's all I'm saying.

-- Ernest Hooper can be reached at 226-3406 or hooper@sptimes.com .

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