2-time NASCAR champion Kyle Busch dies after being hospitalized <\/a><\/p>\nThe decision comes one day after Hillsborough County commissioners also approved their portion of the memorandum of understanding.<\/p>\n
The plan includes nearly $976 million in public funding, including about $180 million from the city of Tampa.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s meeting drew passionate Rays fans and critics to Tampa City Hall, where council members debated whether the proposal would help keep baseball in Tampa or place too much public money on the line.<\/p>\n
Council member Guido Maniscalco questioned whether the agreement was truly nonbinding.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody says non-binding, we can walk away at any time if we approve this,\u201d Maniscalco said. \u201cIt\u2019s like giving somebody an engagement ring. When you give someone an engagement ring, you\u2019re committed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Supporters of the deal argued the vote was simply meant to continue negotiations rather than approve a final stadium agreement.<\/p>\n
Council member Bill Carlson called his yes vote reluctant, saying he wanted to preserve the possibility of state funding tied to the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to reluctantly vote yes only for that possibility,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cBut just as a warning, I am going to be voting no when it comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rays have said securing state funding is critical to making the project financially possible.<\/p>\n
The vote does not finalize the stadium agreement. Final binding agreements would still need approval from local leaders before the project can move forward.<\/p>\n
The city forced a extra inning when it comes to the land for the proposed stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t killed the deal by delaying the CRA vote,\u201d said Carlson.<\/p>\n
Drew Park, where the stadium would be located on Hillsborough College is in a Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). They have about $3.8 million in the CRA fund. It\u2019s not a lot to support this huge project.<\/p>\n
When the public weighed in on the CRA dollars, one woman compared it to the Channelside CRA, and a rise in property taxes as the area developed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no confidence that the increased money going into the drew park cra will actually benefit the residents of drew park because I have seen the Channelside CRA money used to subsidize the wealthy,\u201d said one woman.<\/p>\n
Ray\u2019s CEO Ken Babby cleared up what he could about the Drew Park CRA, acknowledging that there is more work to be done.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs it relates to the financial impact of the CRA, as contemplated, the Rays are taking 100% of the risk,\u201d said Babby.<\/p>\n
Council member Alan Clendenin said the MOU explains how the Rays are taking the revenue from a portion of HC, but the revenue only gets generated if they construct the stadium district.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing else is coming to Drew Park to lift their economic circumstance, nothing else like this ever will. I think most areas of the city would just I mean, they would do anything to be able to get this kind of economic catalyst and for it to drop in the middle of Drew Park, it could be transformational for the people,\u201d said Clendenin.<\/p>\n
Other council members worry Drew Parks money would be trapped in a deal, and in turn not help residents who could face an increase in property taxes.<\/p>\n
Council member Charlie Miranda said the Rays recommend the city fund the CRA through a bond, but he doesn\u2019t support it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy problem with that is that I\u2019m paying the interest and they\u2019re getting the money,\u201d said Miranda. \u201cYou got to have people that understand what\u2019s going on and not worry about getting reelected.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council will speak with the Rays individually and vote on the CRA June 11th .<\/p>\n
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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays cleared another hurdle Thursday in their push for a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[52111,2153,119313,11286,119710,135,3815,610,8893,137,136,48412],"class_list":["post-280869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-bill-carlson","tag-council-members","tag-drew-park","tag-hillsborough-community-college","tag-public-funding","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-city-council","tag-tampa-city-hall","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-the-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280869","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=280869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}