{"id":269773,"date":"2026-05-13T18:29:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269773\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T18:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T18:29:29","slug":"gov-desantis-says-orlando-would-plow-a-lot-of-money-into-a-rays-ballpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269773\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. DeSantis says Orlando ‘would plow a lot of money’ into a Rays ballpark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a> says the future of the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019<\/a> proposed stadium deal is for Tampa and Hillsborough County to decide, but warns that other cities would be ready to compete for the franchise if the local deal falls apart.<\/p>\n

DeSantis said he continues to support the Tampa site and believes Major League Baseball<\/a> wants the Rays to stay in Florida. But he stopped short of saying the state should help pay for the ballpark itself, maintaining a distinction between direct stadium funding and state support for transportation improvements or the college campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been agnostic to whether local government should or shouldn\u2019t. Under these circumstances it\u2019s up to them to decide,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cBut the one thing I will just say in terms of baseball stadiums around the country \u2026 I think the only one that hasn\u2019t been a public-private partnership is Oracle in San Francisco. I think every other stadium just has been, and so that\u2019s just kind of the playing field that you\u2019re on.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis also said the Tampa Bay area is not the only market in Florida, or beyond, that could be interested if the Rays fail to land a deal in Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Orlando wants it,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThey would plow a lot of money into this. There\u2019s no question Orange County would, and Charlotte would too, Nashville would. I mean, there\u2019s a lot of places around the country who would like to have an MLB franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Governor\u2019s comments come a day after Senate Appropriations Chair Ed Hooper<\/a> said the Legislature should be cautious<\/a> about putting state money into Hillsborough College and other infrastructure for the project while Tampa, Hillsborough County and the Rays negotiate.<\/p>\n

Hooper said there appeared to be \u201cheartburn\u201d at the local level and suggested the state should wait until those issues are resolved before getting involved. However, sources who also have knowledge of the situation told Florida Politics the funding is still in play through the Public Education Capital Outlay<\/a> process.<\/p>\n

The Senate backed the $50 million request made by Hillsborough College earlier this year, but the House did not include the money in its budget plan \u2014 leaving the matter as one of many efforts under consideration during ongoing budget talks during Special Session. Media reports citing team communications have noted the ask could reach as high as $150 million.<\/p>\n

DeSantis said the state has traditionally supported transportation work around major projects and would have a clear interest in helping reimagine the Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus, but believes the state should focus on infrastructure and forms of support that have other public use rather than direct ballpark funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not doing, at the state level, money for a stadium,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cWe\u2019ve not done that since I\u2019ve been Governor, I know they\u2019ve tried to do it in the past. We\u2019ve not.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He did say the Florida Department of Transportation<\/a> (FDOT) has already prepared plans for traffic management if the project comes to fruition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a whole FDOT plan for how you would do the ingress and egress. We\u2019ll put resources into that, but that\u2019s people where even if you have no interest in baseball you don\u2019t have to sit in traffic. You have to make that work if you\u2019re going to be accommodating tens of thousands of people for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the state is also interested in supporting Hillsborough College renovations that would be a part of the grander vision for the development.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, the question is, do we want to sink money into rehabbing old buildings and do all this deferred maintenance, or do we just want to reimagine the campus and do something that can be really special?\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that obviously supports the state\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, DeSantis said he would rather not get involved in direct Rays ballpark funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why, from the state level, I\u2019ve not wanted to get involved and say oh yeah, we\u2019ll pick this up for the stadium, is because I\u2019ve got a big state. If I do something for this and that, it would never work. So we haven\u2019t done that, that\u2019s more of a local question,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

Rays CEO Ken Babby<\/a> recently told Tampa city officials that the clock is ticking to meet the team\u2019s June timeline. He explained that expedience is necessary if the team is to open a new ballpark by the 2029 MLB season, after the team\u2019s lease at Tropicana Field<\/a> is set to expire.<\/p>\n

During a recent Tampa City Council workshop, Babby framed the proposal as a \u201cgenerational opportunity\u201d to build out a new stadium with a mixed-use entertainment district while renovating the college campus.<\/p>\n

Still, the proposal has given rise to questions among local officials about public cost and taxpayer exposure.<\/p>\n

The Rays have said their ownership group is prepared to contribute more than $1.1 billion toward the ballpark, cover cost overruns and take on the development cost and risk tied to the broader district. Still, the project could require more than $1 billion in public funding, with Tampa and Hillsborough County exploring bonds backed by future community investment tax revenue and other options such as tourist development tax revenue, other financing mechanisms and existing reserves.<\/p>\n

That uncertainty and pressure for funding is feeding skepticism among some local officials. Tampa City Council Member Charlie Miranda recently questioned whether the city should take on major stadium-related obligations while it still faces road, infrastructure and debt concerns. He also questioned the team\u2019s financial transparency and whether the surrounding entertainment district would be fully built out.<\/p>\n

Miranda is among several City Council members and County Commissioners who have expressed similar concerns.<\/p>\n

Still, DeSantis said Major League Baseball wants the team to stay in Florida and believes the Tampa site is the best option. He said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred previously told him the franchise was a \u201cdistressed asset\u201d under prior ownership, but that it would be \u201cbad for baseball\u201d if the Rays left Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey believe this Tampa site is the best to be able to do that,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis says the future of the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 proposed stadium deal is for Tampa and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28773,58362,629,22641,276,30124,1335,139,141,140,43458,412,135,3815],"class_list":["post-269773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-charlie-miranda","tag-ed-hooper","tag-hillsborough","tag-hillsborough-college","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-ken-babby","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-rob-manfred","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269773","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=269773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}