Raymond James' seatmaker agrees there's a problem, but it wants some time to work with a subcontractor.
By BILL VARIAN
Published May 19, 2004
FADED LUSTER ORIGINAL COLOR: bright red when the stadium opened in 1998 PINK TODAY: A UV inhibitor was missing from the original coloring, Hussey Seating Co. has acknowledged. ORIGINAL COST: about $4.8-million to install 50,000 seats COST TO REPLACE: about $1.5-million to replace seat backs and seat bottoms
TAMPA - The company that made the fading red seats at Raymond James Stadium has a verbal, tentative agreement to replace them.
But fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have to endure at least one more season in what are now pink seats.
Tampa Sports Authority executive director Henry Saavedra said that Hussey Seating Co. has acknowledged that its testing shows seat coloring doesn't include a required sunblock of sorts. The missing so-called UV inhibitor might have prevented the seats from fading.
Hussey gets the materials that go into the moldings for the plastic parts of the seats from another company. It was supposed to include the inhibitor.
So Hussey has asked for an additional 30 days to see whether it can reach an agreement with its subcontractor on replacing the seats, which TSA officials estimate could run $1.5-million.
John Van Voris, general counsel for the TSA, said Hussey president Tim Hussey stopped short of saying his company would replace the seats regardless of whether the subcontractor assists with the costs. The 30 days is meant to give Hussey time to come up with a plan and timetable.
If Hussey does not present an acceptable plan, the Sports Authority will consider filing a lawsuit as Tampa Bay Buccaneers representatives have encouraged them to do.
"We don't have anything in writing," said Saavedra. "But it was sufficient comfort for us to hold off on any kind of lawsuit and see if we can work this out amicably, which is really best for everyone involved."
A lawsuit is exactly where negotiations appeared headed before late last week.
The Buccaneers began voicing complaints about the fading seats late last year, calling them defective and encouraging the TSA to demand new ones. The Sports Authority is effectively the public landlord of the stadium and the Buccaneers its primary tenant.
The 50,000 seats in question were bright red when the stadium opened in 1998, reflecting team colors. Pewter seats in the club section are not affected.
Hussey initially requested time to test the seats to see whether they could figure out a defect. In a May 3 letter, a Hussey lawyer informed the TSA that it could find no cause for the fading and denied that it had to be remedied under a 10-year warranty.
Van Voris strongly disagreed in a response two days later, including in it language that indicates that the warranty expressly covers fading seat coloration. He received no response.
The Sports Authority staff was prepared to ask its governing board for permission to sue the company during a meeting Monday. But Hussey officials contacted the TSA on Friday with the revelation about the missing UV inhibitor and a request for more time to work out a plan for replacing the seats.
The seats likely will take months to replace, meaning there is not enough time to do the work in time for this fall's football season.
"Even if they started tomorrow, it would take months to produce 50,000 seats," Van Voris said. "So there isn't any way it can be done this year anyway."
The original contract placed the cost of building all of Raymond James' seating - for production and installation - at roughly $4.8-million. The replacement estimate is less because it does not affect all of the stadium seating. Plus, only the plastic seat bottoms and backs must be replaced, not the metal standards that affix them to the stadium.
Attempts to reach Hussey's president were unsuccessful. A Buccaneers spokesman said the team continues to monitor the situation.
"We're not going to have anything to say until we have a final solution," said Jeff Kamis, the team spokesman. "We're going to keep a close eye on it until it's sufficiently resolved."
FADED LUSTER
ORIGINAL COLOR: bright red when the stadium opened in 1998
PINK TODAY: A UV inhibitor was missing from the original coloring, Hussey Seating Co. has acknowledged.
ORIGINAL COST: about $4.8-million to install 50,000 seats
COST TO REPLACE: about $1.5-million to replace seat backs and seat bottoms
