After two delays, the Pinellas County Commission is set to vote on Tuesday regarding its part of the funding for a new $1.3 billion ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays. Rays officials are optimistic that approval will happen this time.
The overall plan was approved earlier this year by the county commission and St. Petersburg city officials, but the votes on the funding had been delayed. Earlier in the month, the St. Petersburg City Council approved its share of the bonds needed to build the new 30,000-seat ballpark.
Now, the county must decide whether to issue the bonds, which would be funded by tourist taxes that cannot be used for other purposes like hurricane recovery.
Under the agreement, the city and county would cover about half the cost, while the Rays would pay the rest, including any additional costs.
“We’re upholding our part of the bargain,” said City Council Chair Deborah Figgs-Sanders. “We said we were going to do this. We’re doing it. Now what you got?”
This proposal ends years of uncertainty about the Rays’ future, which included talks about moving the team to Tampa, Nashville, Tennessee, or even splitting home games between St. Petersburg and Montreal, a plan Major League Baseball rejected.
According to the stadium deal, the Rays will stay in St. Petersburg for another 30 years. However, this season the team will play in Tampa at the New York Yankees’ spring training site, Steinbrenner Field, because of hurricane damage to Tropicana Field.
The proposed stadium is a key part of a $6.5 billion revitalization project called the Historic Gas Plant District, which is named after a mostly Black neighborhood that was displaced by the construction of Tropicana Field and a nearby highway.
Supporters of the project believe it would transform the 86-acre site in downtown St. Petersburg, with plans to build a Black history museum, affordable housing, entertainment venues, and office and retail spaces, creating thousands of jobs.
“This is much, much bigger than a stadium,” said Pinellas County Commission Chair Kathleen Peters. “It’s about the investment we can make and the return on that investment that can guarantee we can keep our taxes low.”
