{"id":383387,"date":"2026-08-28T09:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383387\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T09:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T09:10:12","slug":"what-a-divided-city-council-had-to-say-on-rays-stadium-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383387\/","title":{"rendered":"What a divided city council had to say on Rays stadium deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa City Council voted 4-3 Thursday<\/a> to approve a development and funding agreement for a $2.3 billion ballpark that moves the Tampa Bay Rays one step closer to playing in Tampa.<\/p>\n

The agreement includes an $80 million city contribution toward construction of a new ballpark on Hillsborough College\u2019s Dale Mabry campus. Council members Charlie Miranda, Guido Maniscalco and Lynn Hurtak voted no.<\/p>\n

The vote followed hours of public comment and council discussion. Applause broke out in council chambers and overflow rooms at city hall after the measure passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time coming. This is going to elevate Tampa to new heights,\u201d Rays fan Brett Gross said.<\/p>\n

Council member Luis Viera said the city\u2019s contribution represents about 4% of the total project cost, with all project spending taking place within city limits.<\/p>\n

Chair Alan Clendenin said the agreement protects the city\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not agreeing to cover cost overruns. We\u2019re not assuming responsibility for construction defects. We\u2019re not committing to unlimited public funds without conditions, oversight, or accountability,\u201d Clendenin said.<\/p>\n

Hurtak said she believes the agreement is a bad deal for taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider that it is currently also a blank check to the Rays to maintain and repair the stadium, because that sentence isn\u2019t in there yet, that Tampenos are expected to put up all this money but won\u2019t own a share, or that we cede all control over the land development to the county even though it\u2019s literally in Tampa,\u201d Hurtak said.<\/p>\n

Council member Bill Carlson cast the deciding vote. Carlson had said in May, when council approved a memorandum of understanding, that he would vote no on the final project.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Carlson said changes made between the MOU and the final documents changed his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Well, number one \u2014 no CIT. Everybody I talked to said no CIT.\u2019 We took that off the table immediately. The second thing I said is, \u2018We\u2019re essentially giving $180 million. I don\u2019t want to give $180 million.\u2019 We took that off the table,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n

Rays CEO Ken Babby said the vote was an important step, but not the end of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat step today, important milestone. We\u2019re obviously really thrilled, but the real work continues tomorrow,\u201d Babby said.<\/p>\n

The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners has scheduled a special meeting for 9 a.m. Friday to vote on its own agreement with the Rays.<\/p>\n

Property tax reform was also a concern for some council members. Maniscalco said Amendment 3 could be catastrophic for Tampa if it passes, saying the city stands to lose $35 million in the first year of the homestead property tax exemption expansion.<\/p>\n

Maniscalco said he is not against the development, but believes the timing is bad. He voted against the agreement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa City Council voted 4-3 Thursday to approve a development and funding agreement for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1242,1238,276,115,29645,29208,2718,110,1237,135,3815,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-383387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-professional-baseball","tag-rays-stadium","tag-sarah-blazonis","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383387","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=383387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}