The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce last week
"abruptly canceled" what would have been its first
countywide business exposition at Tropicana Field, according
to Mark Albright of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. Albright: "At
issue are the new rules for using the city-owned stadium now
that the Devil Rays have sold exclusive stadium advertising
and product distribution rights to an assortment of
companies." Chamber President Russ Sloan: "We were totally
unaware until just a few days ago that these exclusive deals
go beyond baseball games and spill over to every event held
at the stadium." The exclusive deals include such companies
as Tropicana, Anheuser-Busch, GTE, PrimeCo, Office Depot,
Auto Zone and the St. Petersburg Times. Devil Rays General
Counsel John Higgins said he was "personally prepared to
pick up the phone and call our sponsors to try to make it
happen. But nobody at the chamber picked up the phone and
asked." Once Higgins sent the chamber a letter "saying
potential conflicts with sponsors had to be addressed, the
chamber gave up" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 4/18).
