After delayed votes and debate, officials in Pinellas County, Fla., voted to help finance a $1.3 billion stadium for Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays. But the team says the later-than-expected approval has pushed back the project’s schedule and added costs it “cannot absorb” on its own.
County commissioners passed two resolutions on a 5-2 vote Dec. 16 to authorize $335 million in bonds and realign funds. The Rays plan to build a 30,000-seat indoor stadium designed by Populous. The team has already selected contractor Mortenson for construction.
“It was no surprise to see the commissioners recognize how important the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium development agreement are to this community and its citizens,” Rays president Matt Silverman said in a statement after the vote.
The county and the city of St. Petersburg have agreed to contribute about $600 million to the stadium, where the Rays will play for 30 years. Their current deal to play at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg runs through 2027, although the stadium was damaged by Hurricane Milton in October and is not expected to be repaired by the start of the next baseball season.
The original goal was to open the new stadium in time for the 2028 baseball season. County commissioners adopted a resolution over the summer to support funding and construction of the stadium, and were initially scheduled to vote the good one in October. However, the commissioners delayed the vote until a November meeting, then December, as they dealt with hurricane recovery and disagreements over the project and where the Rays will play while Tropicana Field is repaired. Pinellas officials pushed for another field in the same county, while the Rays favor another site in neighboring Hillsborough County.
By delaying the funding vote, the Rays say county officials inadvertently delayed the ballpark’s completion until 2029. But under the terms of the deal, the Rays would be responsible for any cost overruns, county officials say city and county.
“As a result [of the later expected completion date]the cost of the project has increased significantly and we cannot absorb that increase alone,” Silverman said. “When the county and the city want to participate, we are ready to solve that funding gap together.”
While commissioners authorized the bond, they shared some reservations about the deal. County Commissioner Chris Latvala spoke favorably of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, but asked Rays owner Stuart Sternberg to sell the team “to someone who lives here, works here and really cares about our community, and that he won’t threaten to take his bats and balls or change the rules when the game he agreed to play doesn’t suit him.”
“I think Commissioner Manfred’s eyes are now wide open to the reality of our penny-pinching dual business ownership,” Latvala continued. “He’s seen one of his franchisees use two devastating disasters and a few days delay in the bond vote to try to get an advantage for themselves.”
The stadium is planned to be built in the gas plant district of St. Petersburg. Along with the stadium, Houston-based development firm Hines is planning a $6.5 billion project to build 8 million square feet of mixed-use buildings on 86 acres around the future site of the stadium
