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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – After a nearly two-month delay, the Pinellas County Commission voted Tuesday to approve its share of funding for a new $1.3 billion Tampa Bay Rays baseball stadium, part of a plan to keep the team in another one St. Petersburg to keep 30 years.
The master plan, with the slogan “Here To Stay,” was approved by the county commission and St. Petersburg city officials this summer, but votes on financing the deal proved more contentious and were delayed.
Earlier this month, the St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve its share of the bonds needed to build the new 30,000-seat baseball stadium. Tuesday’s county vote was 5-2 in favor of bonds that would be funded by tourist or “bed” taxes that couldn’t be spent on things like hurricane recovery.
Under the agreement, the city and county would cover about half the cost, while the Rays would cover the rest, including any cost overruns.
“We are holding up our end of the bargain,” City Council President Deborah Figgs-Sanders said at a meeting earlier this month. “We said we would do this. We do it. What do you have now?”
The county’s share of the bond funding approved Tuesday is about $312.5 million. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred recently met with several skeptical commissioners to emphasize the importance of the project and the league’s desire to keep a team in the Tampa Bay area.
“He is committed to this market. Rob Manfred is the reason I’m voting yes here today,” said Pinellas County Commissioner Chris Latvala.
The proposal expresses years of uncertainty about the Rays’ future, including possible moves across the Bay to Tampa or to Nashville, Tennessee, or even splitting home games between St. Petersburg and Montreal, an idea that Major League Baseball has rejected .
As part of the stadium deal, the Rays commit to staying in St. Petersburg for another 30 years. But the Rays will play in Tampa this season at the New York Yankees’ spring training site, Steinbrenner Field, because Tropicana Field was damaged by a hurricane.
The Rays say the cost of the new ballpark will inevitably rise because the planned opening will be delayed by at least a year, from 2028 to 2029. It’s not clear what those additional costs will be, but cost overruns are the Rays’ responsibility under the agreement.
Rays co-president Matt Silverman said in a statement after the county vote that the team “cannot handle this increase alone” and that further negotiations are likely.
“If the county and city want to get involved, we remain prepared to work together to close this funding gap,” Silverman said.
The proposed stadium is a key element of a broader $6.5 billion revitalization project known as the Historic Gas Plant District, targeting a predominantly black neighborhood displaced by the construction of the Trop and a freeway spur.
Proponents say the development would transform an 86-acre (34-hectare) area of downtown, with plans for a Black history museum, affordable housing, entertainment options, and office and retail space – and the prospect of thousands of jobs.
“This is much, much larger than a stadium,” Pinellas County Commission Chairwoman Kathleen Peters said at a November meeting. “It’s about the investment we can make and the return on that investment that can guarantee we keep our taxes low.”
