Top Rays executive: Rowdies purchase is an ‘exciting business opportunity’

After buying the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the Tampa Bay Rays will reinvest proceeds from Rowdies’ games back into the soccer club.

Matt Silverman, president of baseball operations for the Rays, declined to disclose the purchase price, but talked about the economics behind the deal after a Tuesday morning news conference confirming the sale, which was widely reported Monday.

“It’s an exciting business opportunity and it’s a community asset,” Silverman told St. Pete Catalyst. “Just like with the Rays, we’re going to pour back in the revenues to enhance the product and the fan experience and make it a great thing for our fans.”

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NPR’s Eric Deggans: ‘The more ambitious consumers of television have left broadcast’

As television changes, so changes the role of the television critic.

No longer are the auteurs and innovators breaking new ground on the major broadcast and cable networks. Streaming TV – unfettered (for the most part) by advertising and FCC restrictions on language and subject matter – is where the old rules are being pulverized. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and others are wielding mighty hammers.

No one knows this better than St. Petersburg resident Eric Deggans, the full-time television commentator for National Public Radio, who sees his job as helping viewers navigate through it all.

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Here’s how many Florida businesses expect to give their workers a pay raise

One in three Florida small and mid-size companies expect to increase wages for workers in the next six months.

The biannual survey of businesses across PNC’s footprint, including 150 Florida business owners, found that nearly one in four Florida business leaders – or 24 percent – plan to add full-time employees in the next six months. Those expecting to reduce the number of full-time and part-time employees fell to record lows, less than 1 percent and 2 percent respectively.

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