With St. Petersburg officials convinced the waterfront Al Lang Stadium site is underutilized as a soccer facility and with no future foreseen as a spring-training site, a park anchored by an amphitheater is in the works.
The downtown waterfront site was home to spring-training baseball beginning in 1922 through 2008, when the Tampa Bay Rays relocated operations to Charlotte Sports Park. It was then reconfigured for professional USL soccer for the Tampa Bay Rowdies—a team owned by the Rays.
It’s not a stretch to say the waterfront site was one of the most scenic ballpark sites ever, and losing the Rays spring training to Port Charlotte was surely a disappointment for many fans. Not that the rebuilt Al Lang Field was any great shakes—more on that in a little while—but sitting down the first-base line and watching spring baseball with a lovely marina and waterfront in the background was always a treat.
The city wants to take advantage of that notable site with a waterfront park and amphitheater, creating a unified Center for the Arts District running from 1st Avenue South to 5th Avenue South and combine a renovated Salvador Dalí Museum and Mahaffey Theater, a new Florida Orchestra space, the existing Saturday Morning Market and the new parkland and amphitheater as well as 1,100 parking spots and a 60,000-square-foot conference center. The new design would also add more green space to the downtown waterfront and space for events of various sizes.
The cost: $289.2 million.
This is just a preliminary plan, roadmapped for a 2038 completion. It was presented last week to the St. Petersburg Economic and Workforce Development Committee, and while there was general support of some aspects of the plan, the proposed demolition of Al Lang Stadium didn’t seem to go over well. The Rowdies are a decent USL draw, but it’s safe to say the site is underutilized. And there are some who want to see baseball return to the site; a return of spring training has been rumored at various times during the Rays’ new-ballpark quest, and at one point the Rays floated an open-air ballpark covered by a tent-like structure at the site. From St. Pete Rising:
Demolishing Al Lang Stadium didn’t go over well with City Council members.
Council Member Copley Gerdes, a supporter of Al Lang Stadium, suggested retrofitting the stadium into an amphitheater instead of demolishing it.
“I can’t imagine not having the Rowdies,” said City Council Chair Gina Driscoll. “I know we are talking about extending [their lease agreement] and we are limited with the amphitheater in how its suggested here.”
As noted, spring-training baseball has been part of St. Petersburg since 1914 and at the general downtown waterfront area since 1916, when Waterfront Park opened at the corner of 1st Street Southeast and 1st Avenue Southeast, just to the north of the current Al Lang Stadium location. Waterfront Park hosted several MLB teams over the years—Boston Braves, New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals—before being replaced by a new Al Lang Field in 1947.
The Art Deco-influenced Al Lang Field was built south of Waterfront Park and continued hosting Major League Baseball spring training in the form of the St. Louis Cardinals and later the New York Mets. It was named for St. Petersburg Mayor Al Lang, whose efforts in pushing spring training as a tourism promotion led to multiple MLB teams training in the city. The facility was rebuilt in 1977 with lots more shade and concrete, serving as the spring home of the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Top rendering courtesy City of St. Petersburg.