St. Pete prepares for World Series Games

We're going to listen in to this great bit because we can't go without playing it before introducing Mayor Ken Welch. If the Brewers win, I'll ride this Harley through St. Pete and Tampa Bay wearing a Brewers jersey. Milwaukee engine, Milwaukee jersey, sounds like a winning combination to me. But when the Rays win, you're putting on a Rays jersey in Milwaukee and you're wearing it proudly. If the Rays win, I'll wear your team's jersey along our river walk in downtown Milwaukee and we'll light up the home bridge in your team's colors. No, I like the sound of that. We like the sound of that too. And St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch joining us live right now. Mayor, how are we feeling about this little wager on this Monday morning? Good morning to you. Thanks for joining us. Good to see you, Regina. I'm highly confident. I have faith in our race. They need just some home cooking, get back in the truck. I do not want to wear a Brewer's jersey on this. St. Pete Fools is a local organization that does a lot of good work supporting youth. And they have an annual charity ride. I think it's November 14th. And it's all around the county. It's escorted hundreds of bikes. So if I have to, I'll wear it there. But I don't think I'm going to have to do that. Yeah, Mayor Welch, I have to say, I don't think I knew that you rode a motorcycle. That's kind of a fun fact. Oh, yeah, I've been riding for since 2017. That's awesome. I love that for you. I love to see that. Hopefully, you will not have to wear that Brewers jersey around town. But at least either way, it would be for a great cause. However, Mayor Welch, I did want to get your take on first. We watched two pretty tough losses in Milwaukee for the Rays over the weekend. What was your take watching that? And how do you feel about going into this evening? I feel great. I mean, these are two extraordinary clubs. I hadn't seen the Brewers play before. They're obviously very talented, but we had the best record in the American League for a reason. And as Kevin Cash said, after they lost to the Guardians, I think, a game, hey, we're not going to go straight through and win every game. So I'm confident in what the Rays are made of, getting back to the fundamentals and getting back to the Trop with that home field support. I've never heard the Trop as loud as it's been through these playoffs. It is a true home field advantage for the Rays, so I'm confident they're gonna pull it together. And I couldn't agree more, and we're actually getting live feeds coming in from Tropicana Field right now, Mayor Welch. I mean, we have focused on this storyline a lot, but it's because it's so important. This team has shown a lot of resilience in just the last two years. What does it mean to see them back at the Trop, much less hosting a World Series game? What does this moment really mean for the city of St. Pete? Yeah, I mean, it is a story of resilience. I mean, it's two years since we were all horrified when the trop was destroyed during Milton. And just a lot of uncertainty if we'd ever have baseball back in St. Pete or Tampa Bay ever again. But I think it shows we can overcome a challenge if we take our time, pool our resources, look at it in a realistic way, get all the facts in front of us. And that's what we did. We had a team led by Beth Herendien of our city development administration, who looked at all the data, all the numbers, all the logistics and said, yeah, we can get this done in a year. Even though the panels are manufactured in Germany and put together in China and then shipped here, it was a global enterprise. And they got it done under budget and on time and the rest is history. The rest is certainly history. We actually spoke with one of the gentlemen who helped create the roof overseas and talked about the timeline, that at first they were scared that they weren't gonna make, but they did. And now we've got a game tonight, Mayor Welch, I heard you mention over the weekend that there could be as many as 100,000 people in and around the city because of these games. What is your message right now? What can you tell us about safety and everything the city has had to do to make sure everything runs smoothly? Well, the city's prepared. Chief Holloway had a press conference on Friday to kind of talk about preparations. All of our police officers are on the job, both in downtown but throughout the city. We want folks to be patient, though. If we're getting 40,000, 50,000 people in and out of downtown, that's going to take a little bit of time. So we just ask folks to plan your route, plan your parking. If you go to stpete.org/parking, thank you, right on time, You can see a map and it shows you the different places you can park downtown. And just understand that when you're leaving, it's gonna take a little while to get out of the city, but plan come early and enjoy the game. Yeah, and what I love so much Mayor Welch is we have spent a lot of time as a Fox 13 team at Ferg's, but we've been talking to businesses who have made race themed drinks and you talk about all the excitement in and around this area. I mean, what has this meant to our local restaurants and businesses? Well, that was one of the main things that we looked at when we were trying to determine whether rebuild or not, is that economic impact. We estimate it's almost $8 million per day of regional economic impact that we're seeing from hotels to restaurants, you name it. And it goes all the way down to the waterfront and then many miles west when you talk to to businesses, there's a real difference when the Rays are in town versus last year when they were playing at Steinbrenner Field and being in the playoffs in the World Series just heightens that impact even more. Yeah, and I mean, we actually have a team right now at Tampa International Airport for visitors getting their first taste of St. Pete. What would you recommend to folks from Milwaukee that need a little taste of St. Pete? a downtown waterfront, the arts, restaurants, basically anything that you have a passion for, we have it in St. Pete, in the greater St. Pete area, all the way out to our great beaches on the West Coast. There's something here for everybody. I love it. Mayor Welch, we have to mention the fact, and we have really felt this here as a news organization as well. This is all happening, tomorrow's a week away from election day. You have been campaigning while also putting on a show for visitors and making Sure, the Rays have everything they need to have a safe and smooth World Series run here in our area. What is your message to voters right now? And what are you looking towards the next week? Well, we can multitask, so make sure you vote. A lot of folks, I was visiting a church yesterday, a lot of folks have already voted. And I love that about Pinellas County, St. Pete, folks vote early, they vote by mail. So you've got, you know, a week to get it done, you can vote by mail, you can pull out your ballot and walk it to an early voting site or to a supervisor elections office and Sunday is the last day for early voting. They'll be sold to the polls and if you don't vote early, vote on election day and make sure your voice is heard. Absolutely, um, I wanna go back and I wanna have you put on your coach's hat for a second, Mayor Welch. What is your best advice? What do you want our Tampa Bay Rays to know ahead of tonight? First of all, I'm a football guy. I played left tackle at Lakewood, a Pinellas County champion. So I'm not, I'm not going to give Kevin Cash any advice on baseball. Do whatever Kevin says, that's my advice. I love it. Mayor Welch, we appreciate you joining us on Fox Tampa Bay Live during a very busy week, very busy day. We'll be talking with you soon. Go Rays. All right, Rays up. Rays up. All right, Mayor Welch, take care.