Stadium Central

After just writing about how excited I was about the plans for the new Tampa Bay Rays stadium, wouldn't it figure that they put their plans on hold. As this article on the Tampa Bay Online site indicates, the team is withdrawing their plan to hold a referendum in November to publicly fund the stadium. Local officials felt that the referendum was being rushed and were therefore not showing tremendous support for the stadium plan. Considering how well that they are doing this year and the premiere of excitement for baseball in the Tampa area, it is unfortunate that the team will not be able to build on the local interest in the upcoming election. We will see if the plan stays on the table and will be resurrected in the future, but, for now, it sounds like renovation of the existing Tropicana Field appears a more likely improvement to the Rays' challenging stadium situation.