Yesterday evening the Ken Babby, Rays CEO, presented the Rays stadium\/entertainment district plans at a Tampa City Council workshop. Workshops, you may recall from earlier reporting on the Hillsborough County Commission, are not decision-making sessions; no votes are taken. They are opportunities for elected officials, who thanks to Sunshine Laws can only meet in public, to gather information on a complex topic.<\/p>\n
The Rays financial ask of the city is only much less than that from the county (approx. $750M to $250M), but the city has a smaller budget and fewer available revenue sources, so the significance of the the city\u2019s contribution is still significant. Of the revenue sources under discussion for the public contribution, both the Community Investment Tax (CIT) and the Drew Park Community Redevelopment Area funding (CRA) are partly or largely under the city\u2019s control.<\/p>\n
Yesterday the Council heard from Ken Babby, from City of Tampa staff, from other so-called \u201cstakeholders\u201d \u2014 groups that might have some involvement in planning and building the stadium area. These included the state transportation department (FDOT), the police and fire fighters\u2019 unions, and Hillsborough College, whose president spoke at length about the benefits (internships, partnerships, campus improvements) he anticipated as a partner in the Rays redevelopment plans.<\/p>\n