Lightning President Ron Campbell and Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Sean Henry are taking their message to the public.

Tampa Downtown Partnership members gathered for breakfast Tuesday at Channelside's Splitsville to hear the Lightning way of thinking.

Campbell hopes this will be the first of many neighborhood forays.

``We need a new partnership with the community,'' he told about 40 Partnership attendees after detailing the team's dismal early history when it bounced between two homes before settling into the St. Pete Times Forum.

``We didn't realize how badly the earth had been scorched,'' Campbell said, recalling the atmosphere when Palace Sports & Entertainment bought the team in 1999.

``We need to build a trust,'' Henry said.

A Stanley Cup championship this year obviously soothed the natives. And despite the lockout, Campbell said he is upbeat. ``There are 29 other funerals going on,'' he said. ``We're still celebrating.''

But problems remain, he said. Lightning owners want Hillsborough County to take ownership of the Forum to remove it from the property tax rolls.

The team, which leases the building, is assessed $2.4 million a year in taxes on the Forum. The team has paid about $4 million during the past five years, but is arguing with the county to have the assessment lowered.

The team hopes to have the issue resolved by the end of the year.

``Don't throw us into the same basket as public welfare,'' said Campbell, adding the Lightning has a local economic impact of $375 million a year.

Campbell and Henry said if they are left off the tax rolls, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tampa Bay Devil Rays are for their facilities, the Lightning management can proceed with development deals for two properties adjacent to the Forum.

Campbell said the 2.8-acre parcels are ripe for mixed-use plans to fit the growing Channel District, Harbour Island and downtown areas.

A deal was close for the land near the Tampa Marriott Waterside, where plans were made for a 200,000-square- foot entertainment, retail and restaurant complex called Treasure Pointe.

When potential co-developer Trammell Crow learned of the $3.5 million in annual taxes to be levied on the Forum in 2000, it backed out, leery of high taxes on Treasure Pointe as well. ``It stopped the whole process,'' Campbell said. ``It would have put a whole new corridor in downtown,'' he said.

Campbell said that without the tax relief, hockey ticket prices will go up or the team could leave.

The team also wants more money from the corporate community partly because game night parking isn't under their control the way it is for the Bucs and the Rays.

The team needs more corporate sponsors and season ticket holders - many of whom pulled away after years of the Lightning losing. Bill Wickett, spokesman for the Lightning, said individuals, not corporations, hold many of the best seats in Tampa. ``This is exactly the opposite in major cities such as Detroit,'' he said.

Steve Gardner, a lawyer involved in building two nearby residential projects, said he was glad the Lightning is appealing to the community.

``I've never really gotten an overview of their situation,'' he said. ``It clearly would be a benefit for all the teams to be on an equal footing.''

Dave Marshall of Batson- Cook Co., a construction office in downtown Tampa, said he misses walking to his season ticket seats at the Forum because of the strike.

``But this presentation was on the money. We as a community need to do more to support the Lightning or they will be gone,'' he said.

Ted Civil, who operates Central Parking System with a lot at Morgan and Whiting streets, called the session ``good FYI.''

``But in the end, we all just want hockey to come back,'' Civil said.

Reporter Janis D. Froelich can be reached at (813) 259-7143.