"St. Pete had the right amount of weird for us, it felt much closer to a young San Francisco than most Eastern cities."
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https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2017/11/01/how-a-dinner-helped-woo-a-san-francisco-tech.html
How a dinner helped woo a San Francisco tech company and 100 jobs to St. Petersburg
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https://www.facebook.com/TampaBayRowdies/videos/10156730486283835/
Tampa Bay Rowdies
On behalf of everyone at the Tampa Bay Rowdies, we’d like to thank our amazing fans for their continuous support during the 2017 USL Season!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/7adi6i/florida_tropics_sc_news_roundup_interview_with/
Florida Tropics SC News Round-Up! Interview with Coach Clay! New uniforms! New signings! 🌴🌴🌴 (self.TampaBayRowdies)
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/7ab9ix/tampa_bay_rowdies_2017_season_in_review_schafers/
Tampa Bay Rowdies 2017 Season in Review: Schafer's MVP debut. Home dominance, road woes. Defensive questions? (medium.com)
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https://medium.com/j-king-s-labratory-project/tampa-bay-rowdies-2017-season-in-review-d51cd3af0c34
Tampa Bay Rowdies 2017 Season in Review
A prolific season cut short as the Rowdies miss out on the Conference Finals
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/7a8hzj/video_thank_you_fans/
Video: Thank You, Fans! (youtu.be)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Z_M8v2lPg
Thank You, Fans!
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Published on Nov 1, 2017
On behalf of everyone at the Tampa Bay Rowdies, we’d like to thank our amazing fans for their continuous support during the 2017 USL Season!
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https://www.reddit.com/r/TampaBayRowdies/comments/7a0bdp/i_notice_the_upcoming_games_on_the_sidebar/
I notice the upcoming games on the sidebar... (self.TampaBayRowdies)
Wish it said Louisville, but alas...
Has it been confirmed the Suncoast Invitational is coming back next year? I remember in the last game program of last season, Bill made mention of it in his note to the fans. I don't recall seeing anything about it in this year's program (although idk if I actually picked up a program that night). I also would have figured it would be mentioned in the email he sent out this morning.
Don't get me wrong, I hope and pray it comes back because it was a great value and a fun way to kill a Saturday after football is long since over. But I just haven't heard anything yet, at all...
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http://www.espnfc.com/major-league-soccer/19/blog/post/3253616/cascadias-soccer-craze-boosted-by-nasl-roots-and-community-outreach
Cascadia's soccer craze boosted by NASL roots and community outreach
SEATTLE -- The question is posed often enough to those around the sport in this part of the world: What is it about soccer in Cascadia?
Portland, Seattle and Vancouver finished first, second and third in Major League Soccer's Western Conference this season. The Sounders and Timbers are the two most recent MLS Cup champions, and all three Northwest clubs remain alive ahead of the second legs of the conference semifinals later this week and over the weekend.
The reasons behind the recent on-field successes are straightforward enough.
In brief: the original North American Soccer League buried the grassroots deep into the soil, inspiring a generation of players, coaches and fans who kept the flame of the game going throughout the dark decades after the NASL folded and before MLS came this way.
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https://archpaper.com/2017/10/populous-modular-soccer-stadium-san-diego/
Populous unveils modular soccer stadium for San Diego County
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http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-news-hartford-dillon-stadium-redevelopment-20171101-story.html
Three Developers Make A Pitch For Hartford's Dillon Stadium
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/major-league-soccer-broke-many-attendance-records-year-193216621.html
Major League Soccer smashed attendance records this year
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http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nba/pistons/2017/11/02/detroit-mls-bid-ford-field/823112001/
Ford family joins Detroit's MLS bid, offers Ford Field as venue
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http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2017/11/02/ahead-nashville-mls-stadium-vote-rival-city-now-proposing-nfl-venue-soccer/826567001/
Ahead of Nashville MLS stadium vote, rival city now proposing NFL venue for soccer
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https://elitesportsny.com/2017/11/02/cosmos-nasl-receiving-end-wwe-style-heel-turn/
Are the Cosmos and NASL On the Receiving End of a WWE Style Heel Turn?
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https://www.inquisitr.com/4595662/mls-to-detroit-updated-bid-places-team-at-ford-field/
MLS To Detroit? Updated Bid Places Team At Ford Field
Aiming to spearhead a Major League Soccer expansion effort in Detroit, the Ford family has joined Detroit Pistons owner Dan Gilbert and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Tom Dores in their effort to bring top-level soccer to the Motor City by offering, at least temporarily, Ford Field as a possible venue for the team.
This new development could potentially mean an end, or at least a pause, to a previous plan by the group to build a soccer-specific stadium on the former construction site of an unfinished criminal justice complex in Wayne County, Michigan.
The Ford family also owns the Detroit Lions of the NFL, who would share the stadium with the proposed soccer team.
Ford Field was built in 2002 and renovated in the last year. The stadium can hold up to 62,000 spectators depending on configuration.
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https://www.draysbay.com/2017/11/2/16597730/tampa-bay-rays-new-stadium-update-hillsborough-county-commissioner-ken-hagan
Rays Stadium Drama: Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan appears to be a lone wolf
Jumping the gun on the potential site announcement was bad business.
Until last week, there had been few new developments in the Rays stadium saga. The City of St. Petersburg had selected the current 80-acres of Tropicana Field for a proposed stadium-office-retail complex — with the new Suntrust Park development in Atlanta as an example — while a Hillsborough site was nowhere to be found.
That changed with the recent surprise announcement that County Commissioner Ken Hagan, who has spearheaded the Rays Stadium search in Hillsborough County, had identified a 14-acre plot on the edge of Ybor City.
With the options narrowed, the Rays could now assess these two sites, and choose which county/city government they would work with to build a replacement for Tropicana Field.
In theory, anyway. But it’s a bit more complicated than it appears on the surface.
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http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/11/prweb14866935.htm
PandaDoc Opens East Coast Headquarters in St. Petersburg Florida
PandaDoc partners with Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation to boost tech economy in the peninsula
PandaDoc, developers of the award-winning PandaDoc document automation platform, today announced the opening of their East Coast headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida. The PandaDoc offices are located within Station House, a regional epicenter for business, cowork, and entrepreneurship, located on the 3rd Floor at 260 1st Ave S, St. in Petersburg. A grand opening celebration will take place on Thursday, November 16 at 4:00 p.m.
“We are excited to announce that our East Coast headquarters is in St. Petersburg, Florida,” said Jared Fuller, VP of Sales at PandaDoc. “We considered many cities, but after meeting with the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation, Station House and members of the greater St. Petersburg downtown community, the decision to come to Florida was an easy one – the community is experiencing explosive growth.”
PandaDoc recently secured a $15 million Series B round of funding and chose St. Petersburg because of its reasonable cost of living, beautiful environment and ability to attract young talent. Fuller added, “St. Pete had the right amount of weird for us, it felt much closer to a young San Francisco than most Eastern cities.”
PandaDoc currently has 15 employees in St. Petersburg and plans to double that number in 2018. PandaDoc also has offices in San Francisco, California, and Minsk, Belarus. St. Petersburg will be the company’s sales and customer service center, while its base of operations will remain in San Francisco and product development will remain in Minsk. PandaDoc is actively recruiting for sales, service, operations and support positions in St. Petersburg, a list of current openings can be found here.
“The City of St. Petersburg welcomes PandaDoc with open arms,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.“PandaDoc’s choosing us for their East Coast headquarters is more proof our Grow Smarter strategy is working. Relocating to St. Petersburg means harnessing our creative, competitive workforce for better productivity and financial results.”
“We are thrilled that PandaDoc now calls St. Petersburg home,” stated J.P. DuBuque, President at the Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation. “Our vibrant city is the perfect place for organizations that want to offer their staff a beautiful, warm, cost-effective place to work and play. We look forward to a bright future with PandaDoc.”
“We are very proud to call PandaDoc family,” stated Steve Gianfilippo, of Gianco Companies and Station House. “Station House is the perfect workspace for tech companies like PandaDoc. We offer a tech-friendly environment, collaborative workspace, events; a true Live, Work, Play lifestyle. So many of our Peers in the community made it possible for PandaDoc to establish a platform for future growth in the region. We are honored that we could assist and grateful that PandaDoc chose us. The talent they have and will recruit is to me the icing on the cake.”
The PandaDoc document automation platform is a unique Digital Transaction Management solution, helping accelerate the way organizations transact. PandaDoc has powerful features that enable businesses to easily generate, track and execute documents, including proposals, contracts, quotes and eSignatures. Companies that run on PandaDoc are consistently reporting higher close rates, bigger deals, shorter sales cycles, full compliance, and other improvements that relate to the final stages of the buying cycle.
To learn more about PandaDoc, visit PandaDoc.com. For more information regarding Station House, visit StationHouseStPete.com. And to learn more about the Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation, visit StPeteEDC.com.
About PandaDoc
PandaDoc helps organizations close more deals with better quotes, proposals and contract management processes. Founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, California, PandaDoc is backed by Altos Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners, Microsoft Ventures, HubSpot, EBRD, TMT Investments and others. Learn more at PandaDoc.com.
About Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation
The St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation is a partner in the Grow Smarter Strategy to create awareness of the business climate in St. Petersburg and to invigorate the growth of jobs in the target sectors of marine and life sciences, data analytics, financial and business services, specialized manufacturing and creative arts and design.
About Station House
Station House is a marriage of business, technology, finance, real estate and the arts, brought together to create one complete networking mecca. Station House is dedicated to providing a comfortable, yet dynamic environment in which our guests can interact socially or professionally, work or co-work quietly, enjoy food, drinks and entertainment, and relax peacefully. By creating this communal environment and setting a standard of service that exceeds the expectations of our guests, Station House is sure to guarantee an experience that is sought out by the discerning consumer.
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https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:V-FA3Hdm8FUJ:https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2017/11/01/how-a-dinner-helped-woo-a-san-francisco-tech.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
How a dinner helped woo a San Francisco tech company and 100 jobs to St. Petersburg
PandaDoc, a San Francisco-based document automation company, is opening its East Coast operations center at Station House in St. Petersburg.
It plans to hire up to 100 people here by the end of 2018.
The backstory of how the tech company landed in St. Pete is a tale about college friendships, the affordability and workforce in the market, and making connections with business leaders who are passionate about the city and want to see the local tech industry grow.
Reuben Pressman, CEO and founder of Presence, took PandaDoc leaders, including Jared Fuller, vice president of sales and business development, on a whirlwind tour of St. Pete and set up a dinner with local business owners. Steve Gianfilippo, founder of Station House, provided free passes to use the facility and later office space.
No tax incentives were sought or awarded to attract the company, said J.P. DuBuque, president of the St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corp.
“One of the things I think the community is sometimes missing is how connections, many times, make a difference,” DuBuque said. “Incentives can be important, I’m not saying they’re not, but community connections are what matters.”
Atmosphere also played a role, Fuller said.
St. Pete has a low cost of living, high quality of life, a diverse culture and — like San Francisco — St. Pete “is just the right amount of weird,” said Fuller, who will lead operations in St. Pete.
Talking talent at dinner
PandaDoc was founded by Mikita Mikado, CEO, and Sergey Barysiuk, chief technology officer. They were working in Minsk, Belarus in 2011 when they developed Quote Roller, a product to track sales proposals. Their second product was PandaDoc, with features that enable businesses to generate, track and execute documents.
The entire process is digital, Mikado told TechCrunch in a May interview.
“The documents [we generate] are electronic. They are not files. They are web applications,” Mikado said.
That means transactions are completed faster, said Fuller, who initially was a Quote Roller customer and joined PandaDoc in 2015, two years after Mikado and Barysiuk moved the headquarters of PandaDoc to San Francisco. They maintained an office in Minsk as well.
The company has gotten more than $20 million in investor funding, including a $15 million Series B round led by Rembrandt Venture Partners. Microsoft Ventures, HubSpot, EBRD, via the EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme, and Altos Ventures also participated in the Series B round. The funding will help accelerate growth, a press release said.
About a year ago, Mikado started thinking about opening an East Coast office. Fuller’s wife, Brittany Fuller, had gone to school at University of South Florida St. Petersburg with Reuben Pressman, and she introduced Mikado and Fuller to Pressman.
“Jared originally talked about Orlando, Jacksonville or Miami,” Pressman said. “I talked him out of that.”
Citing St. Petersburg’s growing tech community, talent pool and lifestyle, Pressman convinced Fuller to come here and look at both St. Pete and Tampa.
On March 9, Pressman took Fuller and Mikado around St. Pete, visiting the offices of personal finance website The Penny Hoarder and other companies. There was an hourlong meeting with Mayor Rick Kriseman at City Hall, a meeting with DuBuque and the EDC, and a dinner at Red Mesa’s downtown restaurant.
Among those at the dinner were Hartmut Liebel, CEO of customer care company Iqor; technology attorney Brent Britton, managing partner of the Tampa office of De La Pena & Holiday; Rachel Carpenter, co-founder and CEO of financial technology firm Intrinio; John Adams, chief technology officer of e-commerce site Bringhub; Preston Faykus, founder and CEO of RankMiner, a predictive analytics firm; and Matthew Thomas, architect at Malwarebytes.
They talked a lot about the local workforce, Fuller said.
“We asked questions like, is there a talent pool here, and most said, ‘We can recruit from anywhere. If you show them St. Pete, they never want to go back to New York,’” Fuller said.
The local business leaders also said there’s plenty of entry-level, young talent here looking to build a career, which is Fuller’s focus.
Dinner was followed by drinks at The Canopy Rooftop Lounge at The Birchwood, when Fuller informally committed to opening an office in St. Pete, Pressman said.
Pivotal role
Also at the dinner was Station House founder Gianfilippo, who stayed in contact with Fuller and offered PandaDoc space at Station House before they could move into their initial choice for office space at Priatek Plaza at 200 Central Ave.
Around the same time, The Iron Yard, a computer coding learning center, announced it would close its Station House location and 14 others nationwide. Gianfilippo offered PandaDoc the space — about 6,000 square feet on the third floor of Station House, at 260 1st Ave. S.
“I texted Jared and two minutes later he said, ‘I’ll take it,’” Gianfilippo said.
There are about 15 PandaDoc employees in St. Pete now, Fuller said. They handle customer support and sales. Most of the new hires will be for similar jobs, although Fuller also expects some tech jobs here as well. Sergey Barysiuk, the chief technology officer, also has relocated to St. Pete.
A grand opening for the company is planned for Nov. 16.
Fuller said PandaDoc will play a pivotal role in helping grow the tech industry locally and foster more startups.
“If someone else starts a business and it fails, we don’t want them to have to move away. A tech ecosystem needs to have some established companies,” he said.
PandaDoc’s decision to locate in St. Pete sends a signal nationally that successful companies want to be here, Pressman said. Gianfilippo called it “a validator” for the market.
“It’s an important piece of PR for the region to have a company from Silicon Valley with a high standard of employment resources and quality of life say we want our sister location to be in St. Pete,” Gianfilippo said.
And, just as St. Pete tech leaders made their case to PandaDoc, Fuller now wants to pass on the message to others.
“I want to be an evangelist for other companies that are looking to scale and need the same resources as PandaDoc. That story needs to be told because it will help everyone,” Fuller said.
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