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Letter to the editor

Rays' formula wins over locals in Charlotte

The team impressed the state and taxpayers with its pitch for a spring training site.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published December 26, 2007

The Tampa Bay Rays and Charlotte County agreed last year to a $27.2-million renovation of the 20-year-old Charlotte Sports Park into a modern spring training facility. Work began this summer.
	[Aaron Sharockman | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT Special report Ballpark by the bay [Cherie Diez | Times (2006)] As mascot Raymond watches, Rays President Matthew Silverman and Port Charlotte county commission chairman Tom Moore, right, shake after signing the papers last year making Port Charlotte the team's new spring training home.

PORT CHARLOTTE -- The Tampa Bay Rays say they want to build a new stadium that will be fan friendly and environmentally conscious. Home runs, if they're hit far enough, will splash in the water.

The Rays will invest heavily in the project, they say. But the team also needs help from state and local taxpayers.

The pitch is at the heart of the team's proposal to construct a $450-million stadium at the site of Al Lang Field. But the same script also is playing out 70 miles to the south, where the Rays are building a spring training ballpark in Charlotte County.

The $27.2-million project in southwest Florida illustrates the opportunities and potential pitfalls that come when a community considers investing in baseball.

What's happening there is what the Rays say can happen here.

"It's about the way we approach building the business," Rays senior vice president Michael Kalt said. "Baseball fundamentally is a community-oriented game. The season is too long to pretend it doesn't matter or not if you're part of the community."

Leery Charlotte County

The Rays are bringing baseball back to Charlotte County six years after the Texas Rangers left for Arizona.

To hear those in the coastal Florida community tell it, the people gave their hearts to the Rangers, and the Rangers up and left for a younger suitor.

"The county had a very bad taste in its mouth," said David Dunn-Rankin, publisher of the Charlotte Sun, who first raised the idea of attracting a new major league franchise.

"There wasn't a good impression of Major League Baseball here," Dunn-Rankin said. "No one really wanted anything to do with it."

If baseball were to return, the county was armed with a list of things that could not be negotiated.

First, the stadium couldn't be Rays-only. There had to be time made for other sporting events or music concerts or whatever else the county could cook up.

Second, the team had to show, not just talk about, its commitment to the area.

And third, the project had to be funded without county-general tax revenues.

"When I first heard this idea, I thought it would be the easiest vote I'll ever have to make," Charlotte County Commissioner Tom Moore recalled recently. "I thought the Rays were going to want $20- or $40-million from me. I'd be able to say no in a heartbeat."

Instead, to each of the county's requests, the Rays said yes.

The team and the county reached a deal in August 2006 that included no local property taxes and guaranteed the stadium would be available to the county for much of the year.

The team pledged 5,000 free tickets a year to regular season games for county youth groups, committed money to the area's summer camps and promised free advertising at Tropicana Field and in the Rays' game-day programs.

The Rays sponsored the Charlotte County Fair.

"This was different," Moore said.

"They were professional and polite. They were serious. They were prepared; they laid out their plan. And wouldn't you know it, at the end of the day, we were not going to tax our people one penny out of our general fund."

The Rays and county this summer began the multimillion-dollar renovation of Charlotte Sports Park. When it's finished, the new stadium will include new seats, renovated suites, a 40,000-square-foot clubhouse and a boardwalk that circles the stadium.

The Rays expect to play their first game there in 2009.

Tourism tax for Rays

The Charlotte stadium renovation is scheduled to cost $27.2-million. But to get that money into one upfront payment, the team, the county and the state will have to contribute nearly $46-million between now and 2036.

The Rays are contributing $6-million in the form of yearly rent payments starting in 2009.

The state is pitching in $15-million in the form of an annual $500,000 grant. The money was designed to keep Florida spring training teams from leaving for Arizona. The Rays were never considering leaving the state, but the team qualified for the grant anyway.

Charlotte County is contributing the largest chunk, pledging nearly $25-million from its tourism tax. That money couldn't pay for road construction or parks or schools, but it could help in marketing the area.

The decision to shift resources to the Rays at first riled hoteliers in the small waterfront community of Englewood.

The Charlotte County tourism bureau and the Englewood Chamber of Commerce both initially opposed the plan.

But most have changed their tune, officials say.

"I'm impressed with how the Rays have embraced the surrounding community," said Englewood chamber president Karen Mauer, who in 2006 told the County Commission that the Rays' plan was mortgaging the future of the county.

"We're thrilled to have the Rays," Mauer said this month. "It's very exciting to have baseball back in Charlotte County."

Charlotte County Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department director Laura Kleiss Hoeft said the team has been part of every decision, from design to operations to financing.

"They have stood there watching every penny," she said. The team also has said it would cover any potential cost overrun, Kleiss Hoeft said.

At Al Lang Field, the Rays' current spring home, the team has about 300 season ticket holders for spring games, Kalt said.

In Charlotte County, 15 months before the team plays its first game, there are already 900 fans on a waiting list.

"They've been a part of the community, and they're not even here yet," said Charlotte County Administrator Bruce Loucks, who dealt with the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox when he worked in Lee County and who negotiated a potential deal to bring the Cleveland Indians to Charlotte County.

"They're a class organization. They keep their word," Loucks said. "They haven't pulled any stunts and if they would, I'd be shocked."

Aaron Sharockman can be reached at asharockman@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2273.

[Last modified December 26, 2007, 00:42:10]