Wednesday, October 17, 2012

New Rays Stadium Proposal

The Rays are back at it again sorta
 A group of developers proposed a new Rays stadium located in the business park named Carillon in north north St. Pete near the airport. The proposal is on the other side of the highway from my concept, if you need help visualizing. This one would cost roughly $600 million, with the developer putting up $150 million and the Rays believed to be willing to put up another $150 million. The Rays, aren't involved with this particular plan. It's just something a developer has come up with. 

St. Petersburg's City Council held a special two-hour meeting Friday to hear the proposal and hopes to get a new stadium built in St. Petersburg, as opposed to across Tampa Bay in Tampa. The proposal is beautiful, and planning to have around 35,000 seats. Actual businesses will be built into the side of the ballpark. The plan is to have business go on during the day, and then come gametime the parking lots around the stadium to be cleared and be available for parking. On top of that, Disney-style trams will go around making the walk not bad. Plus the renderings are pretty.

Many people want them to build the stadium in downtown Tampa. Thing is, the developers did a study on population and travel time and found that in this location across the bay from Tampa would have the most people within 30 minutes. So all of Tampa, Clearwater, and St. Pete could essentially drive there in a half hour. Sound familiar? But the Rays should take this seriously, the proposal is still in the St Pete city limits, and there is already bars and businesses all around that could host fans before and after games. 

I just hope this gets done coming from a huge fan.

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