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Rays/MLB

Devil Rays get a base in Tampa

The team hopes to profit by reaching across the bay.

By CHRISTINA REXRODE
Published July 18, 2007

Still eager to romance Tampa and Hillsborough County, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays will open a new office in the heart of downtown Tampa.

On Aug. 2, they'll hold the ribbon cutting for their street-level digs in Park Tower, 400 N Tampa St. They plan to use the space - 3,200 square feet, with vaulted ceilings and wooden floors - to sell tickets, peddle T-shirts and, perhaps most important, court cross-bay executives.

"A lot of business decisions get made in downtown Tampa," said Rays senior vice president Mark Fernandez.

So it behooves the Rays, he pointed out, to be close by.

The Park Tower space will include offices and presentation areas for St. Petersburg-based staffers, so they can be on home turf even when they travel across the Howard Frankland Bridge. A mock suite, which will include a digital image of the view of the field, will show executives what they could enjoy at the Trop without having to actually go there.

"When they're thinking, 'Gosh, maybe I want to go to a game, maybe I want to buy a suite, maybe I want to partner with the Rays,' " said Fernandez, "we want to be easily accessible to them."

The Rays will also hold community events, like hot dog lunches, in nearby Lykes Gaslight Park, he said.

The 36-story Park Tower, also known as the Lykes building, is a downtown landmark. Other tenants include Lykes Bros., the U.S. Attorney's Office and Colonial Bank. It also happens to be owned by the owner of the New York Mets, Fred Wilpon.

Chris Lahey, who was just hired away from the University of South Florida's athletic department, will head the Rays' Tampa office.

The Rays will donate some display space to the Tampa Bay Sports Commission, which helps oversee the area's bids for national sporting events. The commission is housed on the 21st floor of the SunTrust building a few blocks away, so it currently has no street presence.

"They've been a great supporter of ours," Rob Higgins, the commission's executive director, said of the Devil Rays.

Paul Ayres, director of marketing for the Tampa Downtown Partnership, said the Rays' new office only makes sense, considering the large number of residents, vacationers and conventioneers in downtown Tampa who are interested in professional baseball.

It also fits with the spirit of togetherness now being pushed by many economic developers in the multicounty bay area. For example, the Tampa Bay Partnership, a regional economic development marketing group, just launched a new campaign called One Bay.

"It's no different than someone who works in downtown St. Petersburg who wants to come to a Lightning game," Ayres said. "We're all one big community, and it's a smart move on the Devil Rays' part to recognize that."

Christina Rexrode can be reached at crexrode@sptimes.com">href="mailto:crexrode@sptimes.com" mce_href="mailto:crexrode@sptimes.com">crexrode@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8318.

[Last modified July 18, 2007, 01:11:50]