As Rays consider new stadium, team looks to TBARTA for rail stops

[thelakelander]

Its nice to see these guys planning with the future in mind.

Friday, January 16, 2009, 11:34am EST
As Rays consider new stadium, team looks to TBARTA for rail stops
Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Larry Halstead Staff writer

Transit could play a major role in moving fans from outside Pinellas County to a new baseball stadium. But Tampa Bay Rays executives shouldn’t count on any relief until 2025 at the earliest.

That start time won’t preclude A Baseball Community Coalition from making its recommendations to the Rays and to the community about where best to locate a new baseball stadium to replace Tropicana Field.

Bob Clifford, executive director of Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, told ABC board members Thursday that TBARTA’s master plan could be tweaked to provide stops at any of the prospective new stadium locations. Connecting with the stadium would be a priority of any line, he said.

The biggest holdup to connecting Pinellas to Hillsborough County by rail is Tampa Bay. But Florida Department of Transportation is prepared to add space to the center of the Howard Frankland Bridge when it rebuilds the southern span as planned around 2025.

Also at the meeting Thursday, Michael Kalt, senior VP of development and business affairs for the Rays, distributed a report from Rummel Klepper & Kahl LLP that details the transportation and parking characteristics of each of the six prospective stadium locations in Pinellas. The report assumes that 12,000 spaces will be needed for the 34,000-seat stadium and an average of 2.9 fans per vehicle.

full article: http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2009/01/12/daily74.html

[tufsu1]

Agreed Lake....but it is ridiculous that TBARTA is saying a rail transit link between Tampa and Pinellas won't occur before 2025.

btw...Bob Clifford (TBARTA director) was the planning administrator at FDOT District Seven in Tampa for many years....and was not exactly known to be pro-transit....so I'm curious how this all pans out.