Tampa Bay Rays stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\nDespite no formal agreement, the Rays and city staff told the Tampa City Council during a workshop Tuesday night that concerns over funding a new stadium will be taken care of.<\/p>\n
The pitch is for a ballpark that costs at least $2.3 billion across the street from Raymond James Stadium. The Rays say they need $250 million from the city and $750 million from Hillsborough County, secured by the summer to finish construction in time for the 2029 season.<\/p>\n
This was the first time the city council, city staff and the public formally heard the pitch from the Rays. But councilmembers at the workshop said they’re not just going to be a rubber stamp. With about $1 billion needed in public funds, some councilmembers balked at where that money would come from.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are our roads today?\u201d councilmember Charlie Miranda asked rhetorically. \u201cNowhere near anything but poor, and you’re asking me for money?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays have a vision to transform the Hillsborough College campus on Dale Mabry into a \u201ccity within a city,\u201d not only a stadium but a new college, shops and condos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get the opportunity to make a bold investment in this community that is so much more, and you get a Major League Baseball team to call Tampa home forever,\u201d Rays CEO Ken Babby told councilmembers. \u201cMoney will not, cannot and shall not be taken from any public safety program or priority for emergency management, police or fire for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public funds would only be used for the ballpark, not the mixed-use development next door that the Rays, and frankly, the MLB, require to make the project viable from their end.<\/p>\n
The Atlanta Braves residential, retail and entertainment hub, known as \u201cThe Battery,\u201d is considered the new gold standard for such a district.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s portion of funding is based on using bonds based on three tax sources. The half-cent Community Investment Tax (CIT) on top of the state sales tax already has a $783 million transportation and public safety project list, everything from paving roads, fixing sidewalks to replacing police and fire vehicles.<\/p>\n
A deal would need $80 to $100 million extra from the CIT. Other sources would be a portion of property taxes in the local Drew Park Community Redevelopment Area and tourist money from the hotel tax.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s a backlog of roads not being paved, sidewalks not being built, parks not being built,\u201d Councilmember Bill Carlson said. \u201cWe’ve got 20-year-old fire trucks. We have fire stations that are falling apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public safety leaders echoed concerns that funding a stadium could put their projects at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny memorandum of understanding must include firm guardrails that protects public safety resources,\u201d Tampa Police Benevolent Association president Brandon Barclay said. \u201cThose protections are not optional; they are essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city chief of staff, John Bennett, says the city is working with the Rays to draft a document that would guarantee current city projects will be funded, but that it’s not ready to present to the council right now.<\/p>\n
City Chief Financial Officer Dennis R. Rogero said a timeline for possible presentation of a memorandum of understanding is now likely for June or July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The team and city staff continue working on a yet-to-be revealed memorandum of understanding. TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-260435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260435","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=260435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}