Time has come for the next step in Tampa Bay sports

Posted Aug 7, 2010 by Tom McEwen

Updated Aug 8, 2010 at 05:10 PM

Years ago, I went with Frank Morsani to Texas, another trip in pursuit of a professional baseball team to play in Tampa Bay somewhere in Tampa Bay, on this side or on the other of the Bay just somewhere in Tampa Bay. It could be played immediately in the erector set that became Tropicana Field.  It remains an erector set that still is Tropicana Field because none of us around here have been able to do anything about a new modern home for the Tampa Bay Rays—absolutely nothing.  The best I can tell we are no closer to a new home for the Rays than when they came here to Tropicana Field, uncomfortable as they ever have been.

This all became clear again the other night when the Rays lost a game when a ball hit by Minnesota’s Jason Kubel hit the roof and fell safely for a hit that won the game for the Twins.  So instead of ending the game, Minnesota got the eventual winning run because of that fluke of The Dome.

“I saw it hit the catwalk and the rest is history,” said skipper Joe Maddon.

All this event did was affirmed that The Dome is no place to play a major league ball game. We all knew that when Morsani bought the team to play and we were right. 

So now the hue and the cry return to point out the pitfalls of playing in such a place as Tropicana Field.

However, I say again, we knew of these possibilities when Morsani bought the team and put it in The Dome. Now, farsighted owner, Stu Sternberg, bought the Rays and kept them in The Dome because he had no other choice. He still doesn’t, but now the pitfalls of the Tropicana Field are more glaring. All this late misfortune reestablishes that concerns about The Dome remain as they were when Morsani put the team there.

“You know,” said Morsani, “we had no other choice. We were in Texas and we were offered the franchise and we took it. I would do it again and I certainly know how owner, Sternberg, now feels.”

What this means now is that a formal search committee has to be made official, perhaps by Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster, for a new site and home for the Rays on either the St. Pete side of the Bay or the Tampa side. Most, I think, believe the site should be on the Tampa site north of the Tampa Bay Lightning Forum and south of the I-4, I-75 interchange in Downtown Tampa. Drive through there, go see for yourselves, it is ideal, and the land is owned by many owners including the Tampa Port Authority, which would surely cooperate. There are now committees looking into it, looking for possible site locations, with this one foremost and obvious. It is a perfect location as a center of activity, a center for sports and entertainment, indeed just dandy.

It would centralize our major league sports in Tampa and forget those foolhardy thoughts of putting it on the St. Petersburg side. The Tampa location is clearly superior and one familiar and centralized for sports fans on the West Coast and Central Florida.  Sports figures such as Paul Catoe, Sandy MacKinnon, Dick Greco, and aggressive City Council members and Hillsborough County Commissioners, would fit there well and get this done. They can look and look and study areas around Tampa Stadium for a possible field, but thinking here is that it might be secondary to a Downtown Tampa location.

This proposition will take forceful and thoughtful leadership, but it is a primary project for Tampa now.

No need to delay this proposition.

It cries for action now. The Rays, the area, and those of you who live in this great place deserve this next step be taken as soon as possible so Tampa can stay a leader in sports in this part of the world.

There is no time to waste. Go to it.

Babaloo!