The recent news about the SEC's investigation into the Marlins' new stadium has stirred up conversation in the Tampa Bay area. It's been awhile since we've talked about the Rays' own stadium issues, and the first time we've spoken with Noah Pransky about the matter. For those of you who don't know, Noah is an investigative reporter for the local CBS affiliate, WTSP, and has maintained the blog ShadowOfTheStadium since 2009, chronically any and all stadium related business. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for us. As always, enjoy.

Erik Hahmann: What is your opinion on the stance Mayor Foster has taken regarding the stadium issue? Is he doing the right thing by playing hardball?

Noah Pransky: Mayor Bill Foster is a very intelligent, well-studied man who also happens to be a lawyer by trade. He knew the track record of teams leveraging cities for subsidies, so since he took office in January 2010, he's refused to give up any of his delicate leverage. He's approached the stadium saga as a litigator and his refusal to make contract concessions to the team seems to mirror the team's refusal to make contract concessions to the city. In the big picture, he has done a good job of protecting the interests of his constituents.

EH: Attendance is always a hot topic in the area. What's been the biggest variable affecting attendance of games at Tropicana Field?

NP: There are a lot of things that hurt attendance at The Trop, but ultimately, it comes down to the willingness of Tampa Bay residents to drive to a baseball game. This is not a traditional baseball market and most "Rays fans" aren't going to The Trop for nine great innings of baseball. Instead, Tampa Bay residents go to the Trop for the entertainment experience, which may also include time at the ballpark bars, the kids' activities in the concourse, and the ability to tell their friends they went to a cool event. But there's a perception that going to The Trop isn't as "cool" as going to see the Lightning at the Forum or the Gators at The Swamp. Maybe the perception is fueled by the team's complaints about the ballpark, but the problem is very real.

EH: Fill in the blank (and why); If the Rays and the powers that be don't agree on a new stadium by _____, the team's departure from the market becomes a matter of when, not if."

NP: If the Rays and the powers that be don't agree on a new stadium by 2027, the team's departure from the market becomes a matter of when, not if."

From a legal standpoint, the Rays have little leverage to break their use agreement. While I don't think the Rays will be playing in The Trop in 15 years, I do anticipate many years of slow, deliberate, uncomfortable posturing. To set any arbitrary deadline would be foolish.

Continue reading this post »

We start off our series of interviews with someone outside of the traditional baseball landscape. It's good to expand your mind sometimes, yanno. Michael Kruse is an award winning staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times who has also written for ESPN.com, Yahoo! Sports, the Sporting News and ESPN The Magazine. Please check out his story queues for the Times and Grantland and follow him on Twitter @michaelkruse.

We talk about the newspaper industry, media, the ever changing consumption of media, and the good and bad of sports journalism. This was my favorite interview I've done. I hope you all enjoy it.

Erik Hahmann: How'd you come to work for the St. Petersburg Times?

Michael Kruse: The St. Pete Times is a place you want to be if you do what I do. This is where Rick Bragg worked, and Anne Hull, and David Finkel, and David Barstow, and Jeffrey Gettleman, and Chris Goffard, and Tom French, and so many others who helped establish a culture and a standard that's recognized throughout journalism. When Ben Montgomery and I were working together at the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson Valley, we went to conferences to hear Tom, Kelley Benham and Lane DeGregory talk about the craft. Now Ben and I get to work with Kelley and Lane. How cool is that?

EH: The St. Pete Times, along with other papers across the country, has been implementing pay cuts and downsizing staff for a few years now. Do you think eventually papers will have to put up a pay-wall for their online coverage so they remain financially viable?

MK: People have lost their jobs. People with bills and homes and kids in college. People who've worked for the St. Pete Times for almost as long as I've been alive. People. And it sucks. What's frustrating beyond the obvious is that more people than ever are reading the St. Pete Times, thanks to TampaBay.com, and the paper's print circulation is in fact going UP, not down. That this doesn't translate into profits is right now a reflection of an ad market that is the pits. That's an economy problem more than it is a journalism problem.

We're living also, of course, in a moment of great, fundamental change. The media, not what most folks these days regrettably mean when they say the media, but THE MEDIA - words, sounds, images both moving and still - are disseminated in ways that are shifting, profoundly, and those shifts are happening in terms of years, not decades. Old ways are broken. New ways? They're being made, but they're not done, and they're not done because now NOTHING is ever DONE. And so it's unsettled. And this isn't a newspaper issue. This is an everything issue.

But I do know one thing that hasn't changed, has not and will not, and that is that someone somehow has to pay for stuff. SHIT IS NOT FREE.

I'd also like to note that the Times isn't only cutting. The paper just hired a new investigative editor who recently helped the Sarasota Herald-Tribune win a Pulitzer. We, the Times, can still do journalism at a higher level than anybody in Florida, and increasingly anybody in the Southeast, and we can and do still do national-caliber work. We have the staff to do that. We do it.

I like working at the St. Pete Times. Can you tell?

Continue reading this post »