ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In any given season, the Tampa Bay Rowdies play about two dozen games at Al Lang Stadium.

So that leaves a lot of days and a lot of time for somebody to do something with the field

All those days and all that time has the Tampa Bay Rays, who now own the Rowdies, looking to the public for ideas.

"I hope that we can get some great ideas to really just activate the space," said Bill Walsh, the Rays vice president of strategy and development.

"It's such an important part of downtown on the waterfront, and hopefully we can make it a more active part of the fabric of downtown St. Petersburg," Walsh said.

To sweeten the challenge, the Rays are offering $3,500 to the person who submits the best idea. That has some people we talked with already have some ideas on how to use the space.

"I would say like a family movie night or adult kickball games," said resident Rebecca Rementer.

Christopher Thompkins had a different suggestion.

"Let the high schools take advantage of that facility, because a lot of the high schools are lacking in facilities that we have down the street, and that would be a good place for their soccer teams," Thompkins said.

Of course there are rumblings that a possible use for Al Lang Stadium would be to repurpose it as a new baseball stadium for the Rays.

Mayor Rick Kriseman said he's open to any and all ideas.

"Whether it's at Al Lang or it's at the Trop site, we'd love to see baseball here. I'm open to conversations and we'll see where they go," Kriseman said.