What is the story about?
Tampa City Council voted four to three to approve a stadium development through which Tampa would commit $80 million toward building the infrastructure required for a new Rays stadium. The three no votes were Miranda, Hurtak and Maniscalco, who had also voted no in previous Council votes on the stadium.
There’s a lot in the new agreement, a lot that was discussed today, and perhaps even more that has not been addressed at all. I’m not going to try to provide a detailed, in the weeds analysis, but
rather pull out some of the key issues that were raised by Council members and in public comments.
- What does this agreement include? It is an agreement about building the stadium, and NOT about the larger redevelopment project. It sets up three actors — StatCo (the Rays entity responsible for building the stadium), the county and the city, and outlines their contributions. It also describes the creation of a Community Development District (CDD) that will be able to capture new tax dollars generated by the development, and proposes some changes to several existing Community Redevelopment Areas (CRAs). That’s a lot! And keep in mind: The Rays shared a version of this agreement on Sunday, and then an updated version on Wednesday. For city staff, Council members and the general public there was very little time to absorb the 139-page document.
- The clear city financial contribution is $80 million, payable in four installments between 2027 and 2029. Councilmember Hurtak contended that the city will need to borrow to pay their share, and accounting for borrowing costs the full financial hit to the city is closer to $120 million. (Note that Councilmember Carlson, who supports the deal, says that dividing the $80 million into four payments over three years means they might not need to borrow after all). The city would eventually get money back over several decades through the CDD.
- What is absent from this agreement? SO MUCH. It is ONLY about the stadium development. It doesn’t address the renovation/relocation of Hillsborough College or of the other government buildings on the site. It doesn’t address the management of the stadium, who covers maintenance costs, how various revenues (from parking, naming rights, non-baseball activities) will be allocated. It doesn’t address any rent payments from the team to the county (there is reporting that Rays have agreed to pay $4 million a year, but that’s not in the agreement.)
- What did the supporters say? The main line of argument for supporters seemed to be something like this: we have the opportunity to keep baseball in the community while catalyzing billions in a mixed use development along Dale Mabry. Over the long run, the benefits of developing 100 acres that currently generate no property taxes will far outweigh the costs. Morever, Rays baseball has become part of our community’s identity.
- What did opponents say?
- It’s all too rushed, we need more time to consider these details.
- How can we commit public funds with Amendment 3 pending? City and county decision makers are waiting to see the results of Amendment 3, the ballot measure that will significantly reduce residential property tax collections. This could be a good reason for both the Commission and the Council to wait until November to see whether they can afford this kind of investment.
- Even without Amendment 3 looming, the time frame for the city’s payments to the project and the time frame for the CDD generating revenue back to the city are vastly different. The city will need to provide its $80 million between now and 2029. Financial benefits from that larger CDD will start at best around 2032-2035.
- Aren’t there better things to do with this money? Its hard to commit $80 million when so many Tampa streets are subject to flooding and other programs go begging.
- Will there be broader community benefits? Well the largest benefits would come from the massive redevelopment planned near the stadium. (To give you an idea of the size: the entire site is 120 acres and 20 will be for the ballpark. That leaves 100 acres for some combination of Hillsborough College buidings and commercial/residential development. In comparison, the nearby Midtown development is about 25 acres; Water Street is 55 acres). But…this particular agreement doesn’t provide guarantees or project milestones for this larger development.
- The Rays also put out a community benefits “memo” but it’s just a vague, aspirational list of bullet points. Either someone wrote this in five minutes or they just prompted ChatGPT to come up with a list of nice things for the community. When the Rays signed the agreement with St. Pete, their Community Benefits Agreement — which certainly had critics — had a lot of specifics: a minimum number of affordable housing units; a certain amount of open space; investment in jobs training and cultural institutions. So as far as I am concerned, there is no CBA, just someone saying “we’ll be nice, we promise!”
- Why the rush? I understand that the Rays want to move this ahead quickly. They have two reasons to want to rush. The most obvious is the lead time needed to build a stadium as they look at their expiring Trop lease. To have a stadium ready for March 2029, construction needs to start ASAP. The second is upcoming elections; several members of the Commission are up for reelection in November; one member of the Council is running for state legislature and if he wins his election he’ll leave his seat. Then, in March of 2027 we’ll get a new Tampa mayor and several new Council members. I have no idea whether any newcomers will be more hostile to the stadium than current members, but if I’m the Rays I really don’t want to have to start all over courting new players.
You know that feeling when your team plays a 12 inning night game and then your realize there is a noon game the next day? Well, tomorrow the County Commission — which is providing nearly ten times the funding as the City of Tampa — will meet on this agreement at 9am. This is a special meeting called to discuss the agreement and not a regular Commission meeting, so it’s likely that they will start on this topic very soon after they convene. You can stream the hearing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nW47pVvIVA
