TAMPA, Fla. – Tampa city officials are delaying the next steps in the Rays stadium deal. However, officials are saying the move shouldn’t stall actual construction.
The Community Redevelopment Agency has pushed back discussions on changes to several details of the ballpark agreement. The group’s legal team tasked with drafting the changes said it didn’t have enough information to do that yet.
Late last month, city and county officials approved their shares of funding for the team’s $2.3-billion stadium-entertainment district project, set for the Hillsborough College campus on Dale Mabry Highway.
According to Spectrum Bay News 9’s partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, the changes were in reference to changes to four of the redevelopment areas in the agreement: Drew Park, downtown Tampa, West Tampa and East Tampa.
Those changes are set to be discussed on Nov. 12.
The community benefits agreement between the city, county and the Rays will specify commitments the baseball team would include in the deal beyond the ballpark.
City leaders don’t expect this to change the stadium’s construction timeline.
Council chair Alan Clendenin said, “Everything else is just process,” telling the Times he “wouldn’t be surprised to start seeing some land work and some shovels out there within the next weeks.”