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Commission to discuss Bucs freebies

The Tampa Sports Authority is in charge of most of the professional arenas and many public sports facilities in Tampa, and it members get some pricey perks for their “volunteer” efforts. Tickets to Bucs games, a luxury skybox, and expensive catering at taxpayer expense are all part of the mix.

Nearly three dozen of Hillsborough County's best-connected citizens gathered at Raymond James Stadium last Sunday to watch the Bucs defeat the first-place Atlanta Falcons.

They settled into padded chairs, as they do for every home game, to witness the action from one of the stadium's 196 luxury suites. They dined on beef tenderloin, grilled chicken breast sandwiches and key lime pie, and washed it down with Heineken beer, Dasani spring water and Absolut vodka.

And they didn't pay a dime.

These privileged few are unpaid members of the board of the Tampa Sports Authority, their family members and guests. The sports authority is the governmental agency that oversees a stadium built by taxpayers and safeguards their interests in dealings with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bucs provide the suite and the parking each season, a $150,000 value. Taxpayers pick up the food and drink check, which was $935 for last week's game after the $150 tip to the servers.

The value of one ticket to the Sports Authority box: $457.17, including food and parking.

The typical board member who uses all of his luxury suite tickets - each gets at least two tickets to every game - will spend more time in the luxury box than the board room.

One board member, Johnny Dean Page, a semiretired TECO Energy executive appointed by the Hillsborough Commission, has attended more Bucs games this season than board meetings.

The arrangement seems a little sleazy at best, and one Hillsborough County Commissioner wants to put an end to the practice of Sports Authority members passing on valuable tickets to County Commissioners. Kathy Castor was shouted down the last time she brought up the subject, but now she has placed it on this week’s County Commission agenda.

Fellow board members silenced Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor three weeks ago when she wanted to rid them of their habit of accepting lavish gifts like free skybox tickets at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games.

"Out of order!" some declared. Others sat mute. Castor's motion, which wasn't on the official agenda of that day's meeting, died.

"That was unfortunate," Castor now says.

That was also last year. In their first 2005 meeting on Thursday, commissioners will be forced to finally discuss freebies - thanks to Castor's resolve to place the topic on the official agenda.

Agenda Item F-1 would prohibit commissioners from accepting gifts or other items of more than $100 value, a rule that already applies to other county employees. If commissioners pass it, the rule would also match a similar gift ban approved by the city of Tampa last year.

Castor's motion follows a series of stories in the St. Petersburg Times last month detailing the free skybox tickets at Raymond James Stadium, valued at more than $450 each, that members of the Tampa Sports Authority receive and hand out to elected officials. Many of those officials, including county and city officials, oversee the authority's budget.

"Accepting these gifts creates a clear conflict of interest or at least the appearance of impropriety," said Castor, who said she got more than 50 complaints after the stories appeared in th e Times . "I want it to be simple, so there's no confusion: Commissioners can't accept anything over $100."

Such a rule would certainly change the game day habits of three commissioners.

In two years, Ken Hagan has gotten 11 tickets to six games. Not including a game he didn't attend, that's about a $4,385 value. Tom Scott accepted four tickets. Jim Norman, who sits on the authority board, has attended about 80 free games since 1994.

You know, it’s really not surprising to learn that the body which is supposed to represent the public in dealings with the Bucs is in bed with them, but billing the citizens for about $1,000 per game for fancy food is just pure arrogance.