By Jim Bleyer The obsequious Tampa Bay media, never passing up an opportunity to genuflect to the local lords of professional sports, uniformly term the shrinking of Tropicana Field’s seating capacity as creating “an intimate fan experience.” The national press and fans of the Tampa Bay Rays know better: …
By Jim Bleyer Major League Baseball’s near decade-long attempted extortion of Tampa Bay taxpayers is over. It culminated with Tampa. Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan whiffing on their misguided effort to relocate the Tampa Bay Rays to Ybor City. Rays’ owner Stuart Sternberg’s earthshaking announcement …
By Scott Myers, Contributor and Jim Bleyer What we’ve known for months has become official: Tampa Bay Rays owner and public trough addict Stu Sternberg has blessed an Ybor City site as the location of a new stadium. Cost estimates are around $700 million but should never be trusted. …
By Jim Bleyer Hillsborough County taxpayers, take a look around. If you can’t find the sucker, it’s you. Anyone favoring a new taxpayer-funded stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays is either in the cabal of grifters that will share in the $600M+ windfall or baseball aficianados that have …
By Jim Bleyer Two highly-regarded city councilwomen from opposite sides of Tampa Bay articulately discussed intra-city collaboration on transit, the arts, the environment, international trade, and law enforcement at the weekly Cafe con Tampa gabfest Friday. But …
