The marketing and business strategies of the Devil Rays
are featured in both the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES and the TAMPA
TRIBUNE. In the new Pinellas County visitors guide, there
will be no pictures of the Devil Rays because the team
"wants to be paid for what would have amounted to free
exposure of its logo and photographs," according to Mark
Albright of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. Albright called it
"the latest in a string of business responses to the Devil
Rays' hard-nosed attitude in getting the Tampa Bay business
community to pay to play off its big league image." Cedar
Hames, representing the ad agency for the St. Petersburg/
Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau: "We wanted
to put them on the cover. They said they were trying to
reserve use of their photos and logo for their official
sponsors. They want about $750,000 for that. ... We thought
we were doing the Devil Rays a favor." Devil Rays VP/PR
Rick Vaughn "declined to comment on the situation in any
detail" (ST. PETE TIMES, 8/21). The TAMPA TRIBUNE's Rob
Shaw reports that no team official attended an event to
"celebrate baseball" attended by the St. Pete mayor and
county commission chair at the Extra Inning Ballpark Cafe.
Cafe Owner Ed Mlotkowski: "They have hinted to me that
unless I advertise in their program, there won't be much
cooperation. I was probably going to advertise in their
program anyway, I just don't like someone telling me I had
to." The Devil Rays' Vaughn said the team "is asked
constantly to send someone to a function such as" that,
adding, "If I told you how many of those things we did, you
could fill the whole newspaper" (TAMPA TRIBUNE, 8/21).
WHAT'S ON TAP: The team, and its SC-based
concessionaire Volume Services, announced features at
Tropicana Field will include a cigar bar, a three-tier
"upscale buffet" restaurant, an outdoor beer garden and a
video game/interactive complex (Devil Rays).
