{"id":292085,"date":"2026-06-01T18:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292085\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T18:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:55:25","slug":"city-councils-lack-of-input-in-rays-stadium-talks-reflects-tampas-strong-mayor-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292085\/","title":{"rendered":"City council’s lack of input in Rays stadium talks reflects Tampa’s strong-mayor system"},"content":{"rendered":"

The nonbinding agreement for financing a Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> stadium highlights a familiar tension in a strong-mayor form of government: Tampa City Council members cast the votes but typically are not part of the discussions producing the terms.<\/p>\n

While officials in Mayor Jane Castor\u2019s administration participated directly in talks with the Rays, Hillsborough County and Tampa Sports Authority, several councilors have said they were not involved in crafting the memorandum of understanding that includes roughly $180 million in city-backed funding. <\/p>\n

The concerns surfaced during the tense May 21 council meeting in which the MOU was approved, 4-3. Before the vote, members Bill Carlson and Lynn Hurtak, both mayoral candidates, questioned whether alternative financing structures should have been considered during negotiations rather than after the framework was put up for passage.<\/p>\n

The $2.3 billion stadium would go on Drew Park land now used by Hillsborough College’s Dale Mabry campus. The MOU commits the city to $80 million from a half-cent Community Investment Tax (CIT) and $100 million from future property taxes through an existing Community Redevelopment Area.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Florida budget includes $50 million for Hillsborough College as part of Rays’ stadium deal<\/a><\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s negotiating team has been led by CFO Dennis Rogero, City Attorney Scott Steady and Chief of Staff John Bennett. All have been at council meetings to answer questions. Rays officials have also regularly updated councilors individually.<\/p>\n

Carlson has been among the most vocal critics of the process, arguing that council members were not involved in shaping the deal and has said the administration had no legal authority to negotiate on behalf of the CRA board.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll kind of options that could be discussed,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cUnfortunately, the administration did not include us. I did talk to the Rays about those ideas, but somebody told them no.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council agreed to hold a discussion the following week for \u201cinput on negotiations pertaining to the quadrilateral agreement for the Rays stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there are a lot of things that we could put in if we were involved in the negotiation,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cWe’re out on the front line listening to the community and can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Rays say they won’t renegotiate core stadium financing despite city council’s concerns<\/a><\/p>\n

A day later, Rays CEO Ken Babby told the Tampa Bay Times the team would not reopen negotiations on the financial framework. When the council reconvened on May 28, they removed the agenda item.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in good faith scheduled that discussion,\u201d Carlson said, who made the motion to remove the item. \u201cIf they come back and say they want to negotiate, then we should.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Tampa City Council hears public comment before voting 4-3 on the non-binding memorandum of understanding on the Tampa Bay Rays stadium proposal on May 21, 2026. <\/p>\n

Hagan understands the council\u2019s discord<\/p>\n

County commission Chair Ken Hagan, who has been Hillsborough\u2019s point person in Rays stadium discussions for 15 years, said that type of frustration is not unusual in a strong-mayor structure, which vests executive, administrative and budgetary power in the office of the mayor.<\/p>\n

Hagan said the tension is understandable because council members ultimately must approve the agreement.<\/p>\n

“You got to be sensitive to the fact that city council members are the ones that vote,” Hagan told J.P. Peterson\u2019s Fan Stream Sports<\/a> podcast. “They’re the ones that push the button both as a city of Tampa council member and also as a CRA board member.”<\/p>\n

Counties typically operate differently. Hillsborough, for example, uses a commission-administrator system in which elected commissioners set policy while a professional manager oversees day-to-day operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of those issues have just manifested themselves during this discussion, but they’re present in all the city of Tampa issues,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cSo, I think you see some of that that’s present now, and then you have the legitimate questions that need to be asked, and so sometimes it gets kind of cloudy.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Tampa City Council signs off on Rays stadium framework, moves deal to next stage<\/a><\/p>\n

Hagan said he has stressed the differences with Rays ownership and credited them for frequently briefing council members \u201cevery step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think at times there always seems to be a rub between the city council and the mayor, irrespective of who the council members are and who the mayor is,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cSo, it’s not saying this council member is right, this mayor’s right or wrong. It’s just an inherent rub because the structure is different.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county commission voted 5-2<\/a> to approve the MOU, which calls for $360 million from the CIT sales tax, $303 million from tourist taxes and reserves, $103 million from \u201cvarious sources\u201d and $30 million from federal disaster recovery funds.<\/p>\n

Does the city have enough \u2018yes\u2019 votes?<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s next? With the MOU approved by both local boards, a detailed negotiation phase<\/a> is underway to finalize key deal terms that were not resolved in the MOU. These include funding backstops for public contributions, capital maintenance and community benefits.<\/p>\n

Hagan anticipates final votes by the county and city on a binding deal in mid-July. But some votes may have to change to get it through the city council a second time.<\/p>\n

Carlson voted for the MOU at the May 21 meeting as a condition to secure state money to rebuild Hillsborough College. But he\u2019s on record as saying he\u2019s a \u201cno\u201d in the future because he doesn\u2019t approve of public dollars subsidizing private development.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: DeSantis says state will support Hillsborough College rebuild in Rays stadium deal<\/a><\/p>\n

The governance questions raised by the Rays negotiations could take on added significance beyond baseball. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers recently began discussions with the sports authority about a reported $1 billion renovation of Raymond James Stadium, a county-owned facility. The talks are tied to a potential lease extension and could require substantial public participation.<\/p>\n

“We’re just starting to have those conversations now,” Hagan said.<\/p>\n

Hagan said the county and city preserved roughly $500 million in CIT and tourist tax revenues ahead of the Bucs\u2019 proposal. He also said that with some financial creativity, there is sufficient public funding to address requests from multiple teams.<\/p>\n

“We’re not going to do a deal for one team to the detriment of another,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The nonbinding agreement for financing a Tampa Bay Rays stadium highlights a familiar tension in a strong-mayor form…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-292085","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\/292085","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=292085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}