{"id":295186,"date":"2026-06-04T00:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295186\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T00:29:28","slug":"christine-miller-takes-a-warning-shot-at-tampa-sports-authority-appointees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295186\/","title":{"rendered":"Christine Miller takes a warning shot at Tampa Sports Authority appointees"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cryptic request from Hillsborough County Commissioner Christine Miller<\/a> has sparked a guessing game over whether a county appointee to the Tampa Sports Authority may be in her political crosshairs.<\/p>\n

During a County Commission meeting, Miller posed the question to the County Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to direct the County Attorney\u2019s Office to review and advise the board on its legal authority and available mechanisms to remove a Hillsborough County appointed member of the Tampa Sports Authority mid-term, including any procedure requirements, voting thresholds, and legal considerations,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

Miller did not identify which member she was referring to, and initially declined comment when reached by phone by Florida Politics. Other Hillsborough County officials contacted for this story either said they did not know who Miller\u2019s questions could pertain to, or did not return calls seeking comment or insight.<\/p>\n

The list of possible names is short. The Tampa Sports Authority has 11 members, including four appointed by the Hillsborough County Commission. Those four are Tampa Sports Authority Chair Patrick Manteiga, C. Dennis Carlton Jr., Tony Muniz and Andy Scaglione<\/a>. The board also includes Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan as the county\u2019s elected representative on the body, along with other appointees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

Manteiga, who chairs the Sports Authority, told Florida Politics he has no clue who Miller may have been referring to during her Wednesday remarks. But he noted that the most recent public action regarding the Tampa Bay Rays and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers involving board members came one day earlier, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

He said the Sports Authority voted to send a written message to Hillsborough County, the city of Tampa and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor emphasizing that Raymond James Stadium should remain the top priority as local officials continue discussions over a potential ballpark for the Rays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only difference or change I know of yesterday\u2019s Sports Authority meeting \u2026 was that we had a motion and a vote to notify the County Commission and the City Council and the Mayor in writing that we believe that Raymond James Stadium is our No. 1 concern, the renovations to it, and that with tight budgets and limited money that we would like them to be aware of that as they continue to negotiate with other sports teams,\u201d Manteiga said.<\/p>\n

Miller later issued a statement reinforcing Manteiga\u2019s speculation, explaining that her request is a warning to Sports Authority members to not favor one sports team over another as negotiations with the Rays move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAppointees take an oath to the Tampa Sports Authority, not a sports team. I wanted to know the process for the day an appointee forgets the difference. Asking how a door works isn\u2019t the same as deciding to walk through it \u2014 but it\u2019s good to know before you need it,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

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

The motion for the Sports Authority letter, Manteiga said, was made by Muniz, one of the county\u2019s four appointees. Manteiga said the motion passed with only one dissenting vote that he could identify: Tampa City Council Member Alan Clendenin.<\/p>\n

Manteiga said the board\u2019s concern is not necessarily opposition to the Rays coming to Tampa. Rather, he said, members are trying to understand how a new baseball stadium would fit with obligations already tied to Raymond James Stadium and other authority responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole board would love to see the Rays here,\u201d Manteiga said. \u201cI think the board has concerns over how that works with current obligations we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s request did not accuse any specific Sports Authority member of wrongdoing, nor did it initiate a formal removal process.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy question was meant to remind everybody what the mission of the Authority should be,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cryptic request from Hillsborough County Commissioner Christine Miller has sparked a guessing game over whether a county…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28772,97898,124411,61590,276,5756,66713,124412,135,137,136,11187,124413],"class_list":["post-295186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-alan-clendenin","tag-andy-scaglione","tag-c-dennis-carlton-jr","tag-christine-miller","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jane-castor","tag-ken-hagan","tag-patrick-manteiga","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-sports-authority","tag-tony-muniz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295186","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=295186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}