Yanks' font flows with fair advice

George Steinbrenner, asked his opinion on a new fairground amphitheater: ''My one word to you guys is caution, caution, caution.''

By BILL VARIAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 19, 2003

TAMPA -- In prose worthy of his parodied self on television's Seinfeld, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has weighed in on the Florida State Fair Authority's plans to build a new amphitheater.

Steinbrenner urged the authority to slow down.

"I just find it to be a little too juicy of a deal," Steinbrenner wrote in a recent letter to Rick Vymlatil, the fair authority's executive director. "So my one word to you guys is caution, caution, caution."

If this were indeed a Seinfeld episode, Vymlatil would be George Costanza standing before the boss' desk, the back of Steinbrenner's head filling the television screen.

Vymlatil said he didn't take it that way. He said he solicited the feedback from Steinbrenner, a Tampa resident who served six years as chairman of the fair authority beginning in 1995.

"It's written the way he speaks," Vymlatil said.

It's easy to imagine Steinbrenner dictating the letter.

He at first thanks Vymlatil for seeking his advice, then says: "Proceed very slowly," with the words "very slowly" underlined.

"If I were you, I think I would first ask the Mayor of Tampa, Dick Greco, to come out and address your board," he writes. "I would also think that you should have County Commissioner, the good Reverend (Tom) Scott, who I believe is already on your board, address you on how the county would feel. . . ."

"Take it slow," he continues, "and don't think that you have all of the ducks lined up behind you until they come and tell you they are. . . . I think it is significant enough of a situation that there will be a lot of toes stepped on, and you know how that goes."

Clear Channel Entertainment, which owns radio stations and billboards and is a major concert promoter, wants to build a 20,000-seat, $18-million amphitheater at the fair authority property off Interstate 4 at U.S. 301. In return, the company will pay the authority $1.5-million, rent starting at $275,000 annually and other concessions.

The proposal has drawn protests from Greco and Scott and other Tampa civic leaders who are concerned about the impact a new concert stage will have on other venues, particularly the taxpayer-underwritten St. Pete Times Forum downtown.

"I have nothing against these people, but in this business there can be a lot of slips between the cup and the lip," Steinbrenner writes in urging the fair authority to make sure the contract is thoroughly examined by attorneys. "In this case, I think that haste smells of waste."

Vymlatil said he has followed the spirit of Steinbrenner's letter. His staff and fair authority members have been negotiating the terms of the deal for months. A draft agreement has undergone four revisions, resulting in improvements for the fair authority, he said.

"His approach to most issues that we approached while he was chairman was to be very cautious and be careful to make sure you're getting what you think you're getting," Vymlatil said. "That's how I took the letter."

Still, authority members are eager to have the amphitheater ready to open by February of next year, in time for the fair's 100th anniversary. The board is planning to vote on a final version of the agreement Monday.

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