Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster sat down yesterday "with top business leaders from both cities for an unprecedented meeting" focused on determining how the region and its business community can "better support" the Rays, according to Richard Danielson of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. Foster "organized the meeting." The get together "was not about whether to build a stadium," and the "two-hour conversation didn't have a formal agenda but was focused largely on building relationships." The chamber presidents "talked about ways to expand their annual springtime Rays luncheons to bring in more people, generate awareness of the franchise's economic impact and fuel interest in ticket sales." One idea was to "create some cross-pollination by having the Tampa mayor to the St. Petersburg lunch and vice versa" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 2/22). In an interview on WDAE-AM Friday, Buckhorn said the Rays' stadium, if not in St. Petersburg, "needs to be in downtown Tampa." He added, "If the divorce occurs, I think the Rays are a regional asset that we need to keep, and I've said from day one, long before anyone cared what I said, that downtown Tampa is the best place for them. I think the economic opportunities around an urban baseball stadium are huge. Huge. It would transform downtown Tampa like nothing we could ever imagine." In Tampa Bay, Danielson & Van Sickler note when told of Buckhorn's comments, Foster "shrugged." He said, "From Buddy Dyer saying Orlando is best, to Bob Buckhorn saying Tampa is best, to Bill Foster saying St. Petersburg is best, that's what mayors do" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 2/17).
