On Tuesday evening, the Pinellas County Commission voted by a 5-2 margin to approve roughly $312.5MM in public funding for the proposed $1.3 billion project to construct a long-term stadium for the Rays. However, the tension between the organization and county officials is far from resolved. Colleen Wright of the Tampa Bay Times and Kate Payne/Curt Anderson of The Associated Press were among those who covered the news.
The Rays did not attend the meeting. Team president Matt Silverman released a statement after the vote that read:
“It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how important the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium development agreement are to this community and its citizens. As we have made clear, the County’s delay has caused the ballpark’s completion to slide into 2029. As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the County and City wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.”
The dispute stems from the county’s decision to delay previous votes on the stadium bonds, which were initially scheduled for October 29. At the time, the county was in the immediate aftermath of the consecutive hurricanes which devastated the area. The storms ripped the roof from Tropicana Field, necessitating significant repairs to the Rays’ current home. Between the storm damage and a changed council membership after November’s elections, the county decided to postpone the vote on multiple occasions.
Last month, the Rays released a statement criticizing the delays. According to the organization, the postponements made it unfeasible to have the park constructed for the 2028 season. The team wrote that constructing a stadium for ’29 “would result in significantly higher costs,” which the team does not want to fully absorb. The stadium deal had been agreed upon between the county and the Rays in July, with the bonds expected to be rubber stamped at October’s vote. The July deal left the responsibility for all cost overruns on the Rays.
While the team has not publicly stated how much more expensive it believes construction will be, one county official said (via Wright) that the team has privately put that number around $200MM. County officials have expressed skepticism about that sum, arguing that a delay of less than two months could not cause such significant expenditures.
In any case, the ball is back in the Rays’ court. The Tampa Bay Times writes that the Rays have the ability to withdraw from the deal via a termination letter. The organization must meet various benchmarks by March 31, 2025, or the deal will automatically become void. The Rays seem likely to push for more negotiations to try to unlock additional public funding in the coming months. County commissioners and St. Petersburg mayor Ken Welch have stated they’re not willing to commit more public money beyond what was approved on Tuesday, according to The Tampa Bay Times.
So the Rays were planning on spending a billion dollars to build a ballpark in a place where nobody goes to the games? It’s got to be much cheaper to buy the Yankees field in Tampa and expand that out to 25-30K.
Yankees would want a gazillion dollars for selling that land to a division rival
To be honest the rays would be better off leaving Tampa instead of building again right next to the trop in St. Petersburg no one goes to games there because of traffic and culture and other reasons
I hope they try to build in Tampa like closer to Raymond James stadium (maybe on the site of the old Tampa sombrero…?)
When you say culture, is that the polite way of saying, “the surrounding ghetto neighborhoods?”
Building a new stadium in St. Pete is foolish. The market is in downtown Tampa. It’s never been in St. Pete. I haven’t lived in the area in close to 20-years, however the decades of woeful attendance should be a wake up call to anyone wanting to build in that area. Unless a hurricane totally gentrifies the area near the Trop, there’s no reason to build a stadium in that area. St. Pete is all transplants anyways – move the stadium to Tampa where people actually care about the Rays like they do the Lightning.
Win – Decades of woeful attendance?
They drew 1.9M in 2009-2010 and 1.8M in 2008. The problem since then has been gross mismanagement, not the location of the stadium.
You think St Pete is all transplants but Tampa is not? More than half of all Florida is transplants or snowbirds, why do you think attendance for winter sports like football and hockey draw as much as they do. Nobody likes the tropical Florida weather during the summer.
How was the Lightning attendance in 1997-1998? 1998-1999? 1999-2000?
What you don’t realize, the latest trend around MLB is building entertainment districts around stadiums. People enjoy having a nice dinner, then a short walk to the game, then a short walk to bars/nightclubs after the game.
Look at the Braves for example. They moved from their downtown Atlanta stadium to the suburb of Cobb County, and that entertainment district called The Battery has been hugely successful.
The same will happen with the Rays, if they follow through on plans to build the new stadium and surrounding entertainment district.
If the Rays offered 200M and MLB gave them some incentives a deal could be worked out. The main reason why they wanted spring training in Tampa was so George could get there easily. That’s not a consideration.
Plenty of places the Yankees can build a new spring training facility for not too much money. The Rays having a good stadium would also allow them to eventually stop receiving revenue sharing which would also benefit the Yankees.
Rmull – New stadium didn’t exactly help the Marlins.
That could be difficult, Steinbrener Stadium is adjacent to Dale Mabry Blvd. and MLK Drive. Both major thoroughfares, there isn’t any room to build onto the current structure in that regard, you’d have to tear it down and build a new stadium.
But, that would be a sweet if the Rays played right there off Dale Mabry. The Bucs play across the street.
Maybe they implode the Bucs stadium and build a Bucs / Rays stadium – a stadium that could accommodate both teams, and keep Steinbrener for the AAA Tarpons and the Spring Training Yanks.
Expand the seating to go all the way down the first and third base lines. Put a second tier of seats and add bleachers in left and center field. Not cheap but very doable.
Miller – That was the trend 50 years ago, multipurpose stadiums.
Not anymore though.
It’s incredibly important to highlight that if the city or county pull out of the deal then the Rays get to keep the land is St. Pete.
If the Rays terminate the deal then the county/city gets the land.
After Oakland passed a term sheet for Howard Terminal the A’s also came out and said it wasn’t a deal they could agree to.
Same playbook, different team.
Wait are you actually Matthew Stairs? From Fredericton?
I’d be mildly surprised if we see the Rays play in St Pete again.
Childish nonsense from both sides. Apparently Manfred met with the commissioners/councilmen and ‘smoothed’ things over. The contempt that Latvala and Sternberg have for each other is transparent.
Maybe Manfred should give Sternberg a few more bucks to build a stadium in Tampa. The Rays refused to pay to build most of the stadium in Tampa. I don’t think they will find as much money as St Pete/Pinellas County is offering him in a different city. I also just don’t think Sternberg is a particularly nice guy to deal with. The best thing for the Rays would be to get a new owner willing to spend some personal money and commitment to the local area. Vinik committed to the Lightning and area. Sternberg never did, and never will care about the fans or local community. If Manfred convinces him to sell the team to a local owner/company, the Rays would likely become better and more supported by the community.
A new owner shouldn’t touch anything baseball related in the organization though. The Rays have all the right the people.
Give them some more money and a better venue to play and then you have something.
Florida baseball really should be a spring activity. But the real Rays fans are getting screwed here.
If there were ‘real’ Rays fan, then the stadium issue would be moot.
I liked listening to the Rays when I was in Tampa, listened to most of the games on the radio but never went to any of the games, hated going over to St. Petersburg. Stayed out Pinellas county all together for the most part.
Are you from a state that has 15 professional teams from one league? Please explain to me how you plan to flip the allegiances of fans that go back over 100 years to a team that was terrible and underfunded in ’98 and only started a winning tradition 10 years into its existence. The team is still only 26 years old and needs to continue to build firm roots in a building and area that feels welcoming and not bleak. I’d prefer Tampa, but if this vision comes to fruition, it would be a great beginning to a new chapter.
This is one big, long, endless, rolling shi*show.
Baseball fans complain more about the Yankees getting Bellinger than the Rays trying to shakedown tax payers for an extra $200 million. Crazy
Come on Portland you just want he Rays near you.
Yeah Cleaver, I can’t wait for my city to get the Sternberg shakedown.
That’s because the Yankees suck
The Rays will be playing in a minor league ballpark for the rest of the decade (either in or around Tampa or a different city altogether). What a disaster, mostly caused by the Rays and Sternberg.
Caused by a couple of Hurricanes, but… whatever.
stymeedone, city of St. Pete and Sternberg refused to update an outdated roof.
One of the teams is going to reboot the Coliseum in Oakland. The Oakland Rays? They have stingrays off the Pacific Coast. I once watched a guy reel one in off the pier in Morro Bay, CA. Don’t know if they swim around in the East Bay but would be an interesting development.
Just move the team. Plenty of cities would be more than willing to take them and hammer out a deal.
2010-2019 yes
2020-2024 no
I think it’s harder to find a willing city these days when communities are struggling. Heck, even a town flooding in money like Vegas took forever to finally agree to build a stadium. Baseball just isn’t as popular outside of the current markets and I find it hard to believe any of the most mentioned cities (Montreal/Raleigh/Charlotte/Nashville/Salt Lake City) would be willing to subsidize 70% or more just to get talks started with Sternberg
Move the team to Montreal.
Move the team
Why won’t the taxpayers help out this poor billionaire?
Ask the city of Oakland how much less revenue they pull in now that the NFL, MLB, and NBA have left.
A’s were paying $1m a year.
Ask NYC how much they get from parking tax alone.
That will be interesting, the area where the Warriors, Raiders and A’s played their games is a real slum. What kind of dilapidation is possible out there? I think they have plans to turn Oracle Stadium into some kind of dystopian roller derby arena. I also heard a rumor that the coliseum is to become the permanent home of Monster Jam.
Move them to Albuquerque.
For those dismissing construction costs increasing by $200M due to a few months delay, this is totally feasible on a project of this magnitude. I’m in the construction industry. Recently implemented tariffs/duties on TcPP by the US Department of Commerce caused one major industry to absorb a 15% increase literally in the last week. Contracts could have been locked in a month ago avoiding such an increase depending on contractual language that is negotiated between the contractor and the end user. Just saying…
According to the incoming President the tariffs would be paid directly by the importing country “directly to the U.S. Treasury. Obviously BS.
Aren’t we the importing country?
Florida is Spring Training Baseball. Move the Rays franchise to Nashville or Charlotte. Miami should be on short list later but maybe they stay. Tampa needs to sell, a/o relocate BUT NOT to Montreal.
This is an aspect of modern-day big sports big business negotiation: How much can the taxpayer funnel into private hands. The “it’s all your fault” language is ugly, but it comes out of a sense of entitlement.
Sounds like a big game of chicken where each side is looking for the other to blink.
Ah yes, I love when teams pay players $20 million+ per season to play in a stadium funded by Chuck and Denise, making $68k a year, who can barely afford tickets.
I would kill for 68K a year
The Rays are run by criminals. Bunch of ahole billionaires wanting to soak the government for even more money at a time when the area is focused on recovering from past hurricane and preparing for inevitable future ones. But don’t say anything bad about them or the right wing wacko in charge of Florida will have you arrested for terrorism.
I’m not advocating for locals to fund the project but I believe Pinellas County plan to fund this through the tourism/bed tax.
I seems like MLB will need to step in and help smooth things over to hopefully get a deal done in Tampa/Ybor. A new st. pete stadium would just be renewing vows in a bad marriage.
Montreal
Charlotte
Nashville
Has The Trop ever been sold out other than when BOS/NYY/PHI/ATL come to town? What was their attendance when they are in the playoffs not playing those clubs?
Time to move. Worse than AZ hockey situation.
Seems like a simple solution. The original cost should now have a % born by each entity. Just agree that any cost overruns will be split at the same percentage. Maybe the Rays don’t have it, but that at least seems equitable.
Rats owners look like bigger babies with every statement.
“Whaaa, the government assessed hurricane damage before giving me money, whaa, they had an election you, whaaa, my stadium is more important, whaaa”
Move the team and move on from this tedium.
Just move the team to Nashville, Montreal or a small place like Green Bay. Let the fans buy stocks like the Packers did
it will be successful and endeared. Move to some place that wants them. Tired of these owners.
Comments from the Ray’s leadership are selfish and un compassionate considering the devastation the area just went thru.
After that bs comment from the Rays I would hold an emergency vote and rescind the money. Go build your own stadium then. Go. Beat it. Stop holding municipalities hostage for putting their citizens first after TWO f××king hurricanes. Eat the rich.
Imagine taking over $300 million in public money and giving the taxpayers the middle finger while you accept the envelope. Just a disgusting comment from this entitled a–hole
They give you $300M you’re not entitled to (a private business, and a cheap one at that!) and you don’t show up & then issue a pissy statement? Get TF out, Rays. The owner should sell & the buyer should clean house of these entitled SOBs.
hi
Florida is simply not a viable market for baseball. The Rays and Marlins are regularly the lowest in attendance — doesn’t matter if they’re good or not; nobody goes to games there.
hu