Featured image credit: Tampa Bay Rays/Populous
Major League Baseball’s future in Tampa Bay is less certain after the Rays’ new stadium project was hit by a second funding setback within days.
The St Petersburg City Council has voted to postpone until January 2025 a decision on taking out debt to finance the $6.5bn stadium project. That move came days after the Rays suggested the team’s future in the region was now in doubt following Pinellas County Commission’s decision to delay a financing vote on the Historic Gas Plant District project until December. The postponement also meant that hopes for completing the project by 2028 have already been shelved.
St Petersburg councillors voted 5-2 to postpone their vote until no later than January 9, 2025. Tampa Bay Times reports that a delay into the new year means two newly elected council members who have been critical of the terms will get to vote.
The council vote will most likely be after the Pinellas County Commission meets again on December 17 to revisit its own set of bonds.
Mayor Ken Welch said after the St Petersburg City Council meeting that he thinks there is a way to keep plans for a new stadium and the wider project alive.
“We believe there remains a path forward,” he said in a written statement, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times. “My administration is prepared to bring a modified plan back to City Council for their consideration. However, I want to make it clear that this plan will not include additional funds from the City.”
The delays and disagreements come amid the further challenges created by major damage inflicted on the Rays’ Tropicana Field in October by Hurricane Milton. The Rays will play their 2025 MLB season at New York Yankees’ spring training home as remedial work is completed at Tropicana Field.
Ballpark funding plan
In July, the Rays had said they looked forward to building the “best neighbourhood ballpark in Major League Baseball” after clearing what appeared to be the final key hurdle for a stadium project that has been 17 years in the making.
The Pinellas County Commission approved an historic partnership with the City of St. Petersburg and the Rays to build a multi-purpose ballpark that will anchor the City’s transformative Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment project.
The Commission voted 5-2 to contribute $312.5m of bed tax revenues toward the stadium design and construction. This tourist development tax provides revenue which the County can legally spend on a limited range of projects meant to encourage tourism, including sports venues.
The County vote came after the Rays took a “huge step forward” towards ending their near two-decade search for a new ballpark earlier in the month after St. Petersburg City Council approved the Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment scheme.
This earlier announcement also included the news that construction and development firm, Skanska, had been approved to oversee the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant property and the design and construction of a new MLB stadium for the Rays.
The Rays’ anxiety over the current delays is tied to its side of the financing deal. Under the agreed-upon contract, the Rays are responsible for $700m for the stadium, plus significantly all cost overrunsincurred by any delay. Last week, Rays presidents Brian Auld and Matt Silverman said a delay from 2028 until 2029 would “result in significantly higher costs that we are not able to absorb alone”.
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