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Business Journal: Yzerman preps for Bolts season

Posted at 1:24 PM, Sep 25, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-25 13:24:17-04

In this week's Tampa Bay Business Journal segment, editor Alexis Muellner previews the Tampa Bay Lightning's season as seen by GM Steve Yzerman, the baseball team eyeing a stadium for the Toytown landfill, and what Disruption Day Tampa Bay is.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning begin their defense of their Eastern Conference Championship on October 8 at Amalie Arena.

Thousands of hockey fans showed up last Sunday to the team's annual Fan Fest. During the event the Business Journal got a rare interview with Lightning General Manager Steve Yzerman.

Yzerman did not have a lot of business experience when came to Tampa Bay. He played twenty-two years with the Detroit Red Wings, winning three Stanley Cups. Immediately after retiring he entered the Detroit front office as a vice president for the team. He won a fourth Stanley Cup as an Red Wings executive before joining the Lightning.

What Yzerman told the Business Journal is to succeed in sports you must hire great people around you who also have a real passion for hockey. Those traits are helping the Lightning succeed both on the ice and at the box office.

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A new baseball stadium may soon be built in Pinellas County. It, however, will not be for the Tampa Bay Rays.

SportsPark Partners LLC, a development group led by Tampa native Gary Sheffield, is proposing building a $662 million spring training facility for the Atlanta Braves at the old 240-acre Toytown landfill site.

Toytown is located on the on the south side where Roosevelt Boulevard and I-275 meet.

The Braves currently hold their spring training at the Wide World of Sports complex at Walt Disney World. They are looking to move out of central Florida to be closer to other spring training sites.

Following the move of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros to West Palm Beach, the Braves and the Detroit Tigers, who winter in Lakeland, are the only Major League Baseball teams left in central Florida.

There are some issues with the Toytown site. As it is a former landfill, there is a lot of debris located underground. That debris could cause engineers some difficulties building a stadium and practice facilities there.

The Pinellas County Commission is expected to discuss the stadium proposal in a few weeks.

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October 1st is a big day for the Tampa Bay Business Journal. That day the Journal is hosting its first ever Disruption Day.

The all-day event features 30 speakers, short panels and 1-on-1s with CEOs.

Alexis says "disruption" is not a new concept. It is where you bring in new entrepreneurs to "challenge the status quo."

The Disruption Day event is taking place at District 3 Arts & Events in Tampa. You can find out more details on it at www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/event/133852.

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For more information on these stories, click on the video player, go to youtu.be/hdPGTnzZodY or pick up this week's Tampa Bay Business Journal available on newsstands and online.