Before the Tampa Bay Rays returned to Tropicana Field on April 6, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan shared details about the team\u2019s upcoming stadium votes.<\/p>\n
Hagan, who has advocated for a Rays\u2019 stadium in Tampa for nearly two decades, told a local radio station that Hillsborough County is looking to vote on May 6, followed by a Tampa City Council vote on May 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not finalized, but that is our goal,\u201d he said on WDAE, adding that he has told county staff \u201cthat every effort needs to be made to meet that timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTime is of the essence,\u201d Hagan said.<\/p>\n
The Rays\u2019 new ownership group has moved swiftly since their introductory news conference in October, saying they\u2019d like to have a ballpark at Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus ready by the spring of 2029. Some of Hagan\u2019s fellow commissioners, however, have said they will not allow the team\u2019s goals to affect their process.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Christine Miller has said she will \u201cnot be backed against a timeline,\u201d and Commissioner Harry Cohen has said the county\u2019s workshop, which is scheduled for April 16, will be followed by a public hearing on the topic. Commissioner Joshua Wostal has said he will motion to delay any vote he feels is scheduled without sufficient public scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The Rays, county and city staff must finalize a proposal for local officials to consider before any workshop, public hearing or vote can be held.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s really only two or three issues … that have not been resolved. Now, I will tell you, they are significant issues,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cWe have a little work to do, but progress has been made on reaching an agreement on a term sheet. Once that happens, then we will go to the public and sit down and have an honest debate on the benefits of this overall project.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the Rays\u2019 home opener on Monday, Tampa City Council chairperson Alan Clendenin, who serves on the Tampa Sports Authority with Hagan, shared a similar sentiment with the Tampa Bay Times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it is finished, it\u2019ll be released, and it will have full transparency,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody will see what\u2019s been happening behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clendenin said there is \u201csome wiggle room\u201d in the timeline, but \u201cit\u2019s not a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is,\u201d he said, \u201cwe have smart people working on it, and they can get it across the electeds\u2019 desks, and we can evaluate it in a meaningful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hagan and Clendenin joined Gov. Ron DeSantis, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and members of the team\u2019s new ownership group at a Tropicana Field suite on April 6, a sign of the political posturing taking place behind the scenes as a deal is negotiated.<\/p>\n
On WDAE, Hagan also spoke about the use of the Community Investment Tax, Hillsborough\u2019s half-cent sales tax, in the deal.<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s latest financing proposal is built around $467 million from the county\u2019s slice of the tax, despite most of the current commissioners saying it should be off-limits to new sports stadiums in 2024. Commissioners will receive an opinion from outside legal counsel on whether the tax can help pay for a county-owned stadium.<\/p>\n
Hagan reiterated his prior stance: The tax is an essential component.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think the deal gets done without utilizing the CIT,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before the Tampa Bay Rays returned to Tropicana Field on April 6, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan shared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[596,110,199,135,3815,137,136,8125],"class_list":["post-225390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-pinellas-county","tag-sports","tag-st-petersburg","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tropicana-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}