Florida county approves deal to build a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Rays have the government backing they need to build a long-sought-after ballpark after the Pinellas County Commissioners approved on Tuesday the west-central Florida county’s share of the funding for the 30,000-seat stadium.

The county voted 5-2 to approve spending about $312.5 million for its share of the ballpark costs from revenue generated by a bed tax that can only be spent on tourist-related and economic development expenses. The St. Petersburg City Council approved spending $417.5 million for the stadium earlier this month.

The $1.3 billion ballpark will guarantee the team stays put for at least 30 years. It’s part of a broader $6.5 billion redevelopment project that supporters say would transform an 86-acre (34-hectare) tract in the city’s downtown, with plans in the coming years for a Black history museum, affordable housing, a hotel, green space, entertainment venues, and office and retail space. There’s the promise of thousands of jobs as well.

“This is so much more than a baseball stadium. It is poised to become, if we do it right, a world-class tourist destination,” said Commissioner Janet Long. “It’s more than about the baseball stadium. It’s a transformational, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,”

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The linchpin of the project is the planned roofed stadium, scheduled to open for the 2028 season. It caps years of uncertainty about the Rays’ future, including possible moves across the bay to Tampa, or to Nashville, Tennessee, or even to split home games between St. Petersburg and Montreal, an idea MLB rejected.

The rest of the project would mainly be funded by a partnership between the Rays and the Houston-based Hines global development company. It will take decades to complete.

The site, where the Rays’ domed, tilted Tropicana Field and its expansive parking lots now sit, was once a thriving Black community displaced by construction of the ballpark and an interstate highway. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch says one of his priorities is to right some of those past wrongs in what is known as the Historic Gas Plant District.

The Rays typically draw among the lowest attendance in MLB, even though the team has made the playoffs five years in a row. This year, the Rays have a 54-52 record, placing them fourth in the American League East division.

The ballpark plan is part of a wave of construction or renovation projects at sports venues across the country, including the Milwaukee Brewers, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Oakland Athletics, who are planning to relocate to Las Vegas. Like the Rays proposal, all the projects come with millions of dollars in public funding that usually draws opposition.

A citizen group called No Home Run and other organizations opposed the deal, with the conservative/libertarian Americans for Prosperity contending the track record for other publicly financed sports stadiums is not encouraging.

County Commissioner Chris Latvala said he’s a huge baseball fan and recounted many fond memories of following the Rays, but he still voted against the project.

“I want professional baseball to stay here, I want the Rays to stay here, but at what price?” he said. “This will be a $1 billion publicly funded subsidy to a billionaire. I’m not willing to put my name on that.”