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New training facility for Bucs in the works

It will be built on across Himes Avenue from Raymond James Stadium, on the site of a mall.

TAMPA - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are moving ahead with plans to build a new training facility that could be complete as early as the 2005 season, a team official said Saturday.

The facility will be built on the site of the Tampa Bay Center shopping mall, across Himes Avenue from Raymond James Stadium.

The Glazer family, owners of the Bucs, purchased the property in December 2002 for $22.8-million. The Glazers bought the 55 acres after spending more than a year looking for a location.

The team expects to make an announcement soon, possibly in the next month or two, said Jeff Kamis, the team's public relations director.

"We're still putting final designs together," Kamis said. "This is the top thing on our agenda right now."

Money for construction of the new center will come in part from $12-million set aside from the community investment tax, the half-cent sales tax passed seven years ago to pay for Raymond James Stadium and other public projects.

The training center will cost more than that, Kamis said, but taxpayers will not pay the excess.

"The rest of it will be paid for by the team," Kamis said.

The Tampa Sports Authority will hold the lease.

The team's current training complex at One Buc Place is one of the shoddiest in the National Football League.

The 28-year-old facility near Tampa International Airport houses not only the reigning Super Bowl champions but also a number of rodents.

Coach Jon Gruden recently joked that he planned to try a new technique in setting the traps in his office to catch the rat that prowls at night.

New general manager Bruce Allen, introduced at a news conference Friday at One Buc Place, joked that the Glazers did not bring him to the facility during the interview process.

"Imagine that," Allen said.

"Actually, I was here in 1977. There was an all-star game here called the Canadian-American game, and I played in that and we practiced on this field here. And we ate at the Steak and Ale where we had lunch (Friday).

"It's Groundhog Day. We haven't changed this facility, have we?"

- Times staff writer Anne Lindberg contributed to this report.