TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa City Council is set to hold a special meeting to vote on a Binding Community Benefits Agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays, a key requirement for the team\u2019s proposed stadium deal to move forward.<\/p>\n
The timing of the vote could be critical.<\/p>\n
City Councilman Luis Viera has supported the new Rays stadium, but he is leaving the council effective Nov. 2 to run for a Florida State House seat. Without his vote, the council could be deadlocked, with three members in favor and three opposed.<\/p>\n
The Binding Community Benefits and Legacy Plan would require the Rays to provide $60 million in funding to the city and county over the next 35 years.<\/p>\n
Of that total, $21 million would go to the City of Tampa, including $4.2 million in the first five years.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s share of the funding is expected to support several priorities, including:<\/p>\n
Affordable housing in the area surrounding the proposed stadium, including Drew Park and the area near the Yankees\u2019 spring training facility
\nWorkforce development opportunities
\nParticipation by minority- and women-owned businesses
\nInfrastructure upgrades, including roads and transportation
\nYouth and community programs focused on sports, education, veterans services and family ticket access<\/p>\n
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said this week she hopes some of the early funding is used for parks, sports programs and recreation facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the baseball history we have here in Tampa,\u201d Castor said. \u201cSo getting young people involved in sports and in athletics. So I’m personally interested about a lot of that funding that’s gonna be focused on parks and recreation and creating the future here in Tampa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hillsborough County would also receive funding through the agreement, totaling $39 million over the life of the deal. The county would receive $7.8 million in the first five years.<\/p>\n
City leaders say the first priority for the funding would be any additional money needed to finalize roads and infrastructure connected to the stadium, though most of those costs have already been included in the broader construction plan.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Tampa City Council would decide how the city\u2019s portion of the money is spent. An advisory panel would oversee the process and provide regular reports on where the money is being used and why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa City Council is set to hold a special meeting to vote on a Binding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[274,558,770,276,2635,2287,115,29208,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-441518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-community-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-jason-lanning","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-rays-stadium","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441518","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=441518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}