Sure, you might build it ...

Who’s for and against the Rays stadium deal? | Feb. 28

Mike Swesey, president of the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation, would like to bring you some late-’80s cinematic nostalgia. And he’d like Pinellas County and St. Petersburg to pay a cool $600 million to do it. Swesey writes, invoking the sickly sweet Kevin Costner vehicle of “Field of Dreams” in the service of begging the government for $600 million to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays. “If you build it, they will come,” the disembodied voice says in the movie, but those hundreds of millions of dollars would merely build another indoor baseball stadium in the same location we already have one to house the same team we already have. Swesey treads a well-worn path in tugging at heartstrings to get a taxpayer handout. But there’s more fantasy in the economic analysis than in the cornfields of the movie.

I think that he and Tampa Bay Rays owner Stuart Sternberg should be given a resounding “no” from our politicians. And if those politicians don’t stand up against this money grab, the voters should hold them accountable. If St. Petersburg or Pinellas County have $600 million lying around, what else might they do with it? For starters, they could cut my taxes with the surplus. I’ll leave it to the reader to imagine their favorite use of $600 million. In the movie, Kevin Costner constructs the titular field with the sweat of his brow, at great financial risk, and in the face of doubters. If you build it, Mr. Sternberg, we will come. But make like Kevin Costner and build it yourself.

Sam Landes, Safety Harbor

We thank the Rays

Who’s for and against the Rays stadium deal? | Feb. 28

I extend my gratitude to the Tampa Bay Rays organization for engaging Inclusivity LLC in our early days doing business as a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE). The Rays were one of our first legacy clients. We provided the organization with its inaugural cultural competence assessment, a process from which the leadership within the organization continues to implement recommendations. We are also grateful for the support that the Rays have provided annually for our conferences designed to develop an ecosystem for a more inclusive community throughout our region.

Now is an opportune moment for the Rays to educate the community on their plan to invest in marginalized communities. It is vital to highlight the work associated with the Historic Gas Plant redevelopment. It is my sincerest belief that the Rays will follow through on the best practices of supplier diversity including:

-- Unbundling of contracts so smaller businesses can engage.

-- Remaining vigilant with the commitment to scale smaller businesses through meaningful mentorship and development programs before groundbreaking.

-- Creating additional impactful workforce development programs.

The Rays also need to avoid any retreat from the commitment to the community through common rationalizations such as:

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-- We made a “best effort” but must now grant contracts to nonminority firms or firms outside the community.

-- The minority businesses in the area are not at scale and do not have the capacity to process, administer and/or execute meaningful contracts.

At Inclusivity, we remain committed to working with our partners and clients to create opportunities through the community benefit agreement and beyond.

Erik C. Smith, St. Petersburg

Too far west

Who’s for and against the Rays stadium deal? | Feb. 28

I moved to Orlando in 1977. I’ve been to scores of Tampa Bay Buccaneers games and quite a bit of Lightning hockey. How many Rays games? One. Why? It is too darn far to drive, an hour past Raymond James Stadium, where the Bucs play. What is just to the west of the proposed new stadium? Water, the Gulf of Mexico, zero population. I was so excited for an Ybor City location. Just the ambience would be great. A Tampa fairgrounds location, even better. But St. Pete is literally a bridge too far. Make the Rays a Central Florida team, not a coastal team.

Don Duenes, Orlando

Oh, the irony!

February letter of the month

Editor’s note: The February letter of the month succinctly reacted to two stories in the Feb. 18 Times, one reporting that two days after a judge rejected an injunction request from a nurse, Clearwater police say, her ex killed her, and another that pointed out how educators had to review books en masse because new, mandated training told them to “err on the side of caution.”

Only in Florida do we “err on the side of caution” when purchasing books for our libraries, but not when protecting victims of domestic violence.

Ginger Brengle, Clearwater

What suits you

The case for marriage is a myth | Perspective, Feb. 25

Columnist Lyz Lenz wrote on the satisfaction of being whole without marriage. That essay produced several thoughtful letters to the editors. I have been married 53 years and my wife has been a great friend and companion, though my sense of privacy and solitude may not always please her. The columnist and the letter writers are all correct in the sense marriage is an individual decision at inception. Lenz expresses what is right for herself. An insightful book on this topic is Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s “Gift from the Sea,” a nearly 70-year-old memoir about her spending a few days away from her family in a beach house on Captiva Island and her musings on the different stages in the lives of women. For the most part to each his own.

James Gillespie, St. Petersburg

A vote is not a valentine

The clash of the geriatric gladiators | Perspective, March 3

I have been voting since the 1950s and cannot remember a more consequential election cycle than the one we are now involved in. This clash of oldsters grabs most of the headlines and, to be honest, too much of my consciousness. But a recent email that I received has eased my pain. This is what it said: “Vote. A vote is not a valentine. You are not confessing your love for a candidate. It’s a chess move for the world you want to live in.”

Tom Reid, Seminole

Macbeth today

The clash of the geriatric gladiators | Perspective, March 3

The photo of the likely two candidates for president didn’t make me think as much of gladiators as of Shakespeare. The loud one had his trap open, no doubt at top volume. He “struts and frets his hour upon the stage. ... It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” — Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Charles E. Lehnert, Sun City Center

What should have happened

I handled high-level informants | Perspective, March 3

It’s good to read something I’ve been shouting to the rooftops for three years from the able pen and mind of Robert Mazur. From Hillary Clinton’s emails to Hunter Biden’s Burisma allegations, I think that this has been a near decade-long Russian op that the GOP has gleefully, furiously cooperated with to gain and keep power while subverting our nation and the Constitution. Mazur lays the foundation for that conclusion perfectly well. But here’s another thing. In the section of Mazur’s column titled “A ‘personal relationship,’” Mazur lays out the obvious but excruciatingly granular train of questions and analysis that should have been undertaken by those justly questioning Alexander Smirnov’s credibility. This exposition begins at “Smirnov didn’t just make general statements about these conversations.” The very same level of deep scrutiny should have been applied to what I consider to have been Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pre-2022 election “show prosecutions” of unwitting ineligible voters, most of them Black. This travesty, this abuse of the criminal justice system by the governor, should have been scrutinized with an electron microscope from the first murmur about it in the dungeons of the governor’s mansion all the way through the process — the “investigation,” the sworn probable cause affidavits, their signers, the indictments, the warrants for arrest and the prosecutions. Every single step of this outrage was palpably political and in bad faith, obliging responsible officials to call that out. And they did not. And DeSantis was returned to our governor’s mansion.

Steve Douglas, St. Petersburg

Editor’s note: The Times recently published a column related to attendance at new Major League Baseball stadiums. You can read it by clicking here. What do you think? Will a new stadium help boost Tampa Bay Rays attendance? By how much and for how long? Send us a letter to the editor using our letters portal by going to www.tampabay.com/opinion/submit-letter/ . That is a web address, not an email address. Please use the word “Attendance” in the “Subject” line.