The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of funding $312.5 million worth of bonds Tuesday night time. What feels like a easy procedural transfer was removed from it. Over the previous six weeks, the $1.3 billion stadium deal for the Tampa Bay Rays — celebrated in July by all events as a watershed second for a franchise that had spent almost twenty years making an attempt to construct a brand new ballpark — has discovered itself in jeopardy. And it began Oct. 29.
Less than three weeks after Hurricane Milton tore by the roof of Tropicana Field and induced tens of billions of {dollars} extra in harm on Oct. 10, the Pinellas fee convened to approve the bonds wanted for the brand new stadium. What the Rays believed can be a rubber stamp was a large number when the fee postponed the vote. While commissioners stated the delay stemmed from desirous to know the place the Rays would play in 2025 (in mid-November they might identify George M. Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees‘ minor league stadium outdoors of Pinellas County in Tampa, as their new non permanent house), the staff felt betrayed.
Thus started a back-and-forth with each side casting blame on the opposite. The delay within the bonds, the Rays stated, would delay opening the stadium till 2029, as a substitute of 2028 as deliberate. The further development prices, the staff stated, can be extreme. One of the county commissioners, Chris Latvala, informed the Tampa Bay Times that the Rays put the price at $200 million. To full the undertaking, the Rays stated, they would wish further monetary help from their companions within the undertaking, Pinellas County and town of St. Petersburg, the place the brand new stadium would reside, on the identical website because the Trop however with a multibillion-dollar growth surrounding.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred traveled to Florida final week in an try and shore up the rising divide among the many events. Latvala, who beforehand had voted no on the deal, flipped to a sure on Tuesday night time, he informed the Times, due to Manfred’s pledge for the Rays to stay in Tampa Bay. Latvala went on to criticize Rays proprietor Stuart Sternberg, saying: “I hope our vote in the present day helps set the wheels in movement for a brand new proprietor and a brand new period of the Tampa Bay Rays.”
Another commissioner, Rene Flowers, framed the vote as a name for the Rays to point out their dedication as properly. The staff can terminate the settlement at any time. With the county’s cash pledged, in addition to $287.5 million from St. Petersburg in a 4-3 metropolis council vote, Flowers informed the Times: “All eyes will now be watching to guarantee that the Rays uphold their a part of this deal.”
Where does it go from right here? Here’s every part you must find out about the place the undertaking stands, what the way forward for Tropicana Field appears to be like like and whether or not the Rays may discover one other house.
What stands between the Rays and getting a brand new ballpark in St. Petersburg?
Besides politics and cash? Oh, not a lot.
Certainly the messy starting of the partnership doesn’t portend higher relations going ahead. But if the edges can discover settlement on plenty of points — specifically the “funding hole” the Rays say the fee brought on by the delay and the way the Trop matches into the longer term — a brand new stadium stays doable. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch stands firmly behind the undertaking, however Flowers stated Tuesday she was in opposition to the fee giving any extra money.
After Tuesday night time’s vote, Rays president Matt Silverman issued a press release saying: “It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how necessary the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium growth settlement are to this group and its residents. As we now have made clear, the County’s delay has induced the ballpark’s completion to slip into 2029. As a consequence, the price of the undertaking has elevated considerably, and we can not take in this enhance alone. When the County and City want to interact, we stay prepared to unravel this funding hole collectively.”
What is the timeline for deciding whether or not a brand new stadium will occur?
In order for the bonds to be bought, the Rays should meet plenty of circumstances. At the forefront is the staff displaying it has the cash to cowl its obligation on stadium prices. The staff has till March 31, 2025, to fulfill the circumstances. MLB is anticipated to offer the staff a $100 million mortgage, and the Rays have expressed confidence they’ve the financing for the rest of the cash.
What is the standing of Tropicana Field, and can the Rays ever play there once more?
Eighteen of the 24 fiberglass panels on the stadium’s roof ripped off throughout Hurricane Milton. The stadium, lengthy ridiculed for being outdated and much too empty for a franchise pretty much as good because the Rays, remodeled in a single day into the lasting picture of the harm the storm wrought.
St. Petersburg is obligated to restore the stadium. The metropolis estimated it might probably accomplish that in time for the 2026 season for $55.7 million. On Wednesday, town council pledged $1.4 million for rebuilding plans.
The Rays’ place is that the Trop wouldn’t be prepared till the final yr of their lease in 2027 — that the harm completed to the stadium, past the roof, is just too distinctive. Part of the calculus going ahead is whether or not the events proceed with rebuilding the Trop or take into account taking the cash pledged towards its restore and supply it to assist bridge the funding hole.
If the proposed stadium is not opening till 2029, may the Rays simply play at Steinbrenner Field till then?
Highly unlikely. The Rays are treating Steinbrenner as a stopover, not not like how the Athletics are utilizing one other minor league stadium, Sutter Health Park, to arrange store earlier than their deliberate transfer to Las Vegas in 2028.
It’s not simply the climate considerations — the mix of maximum warmth and rain in the summertime that, accordingly, have the Rays on the highway for 35 of 48 video games between July 4 and the top of August. Deposing a minor league affiliate of a corporation in the identical division is solely one thing that is not more likely to be agreed upon for an prolonged time frame.
Where would the Rays play, then?
Good query. Would MLB give them permission to moonlight in a possible enlargement metropolis? Could they discover someplace to play in Pinellas County for 3 extra years? Is Omaha, which the Wall Street Journal reported may host the Rays, actually a chance? It’s all unknown. Just as necessary as the subsequent few years is what comes after that. The objective is for the Rays to know the place they’ll be in 2028 and 2029 as early as 2026. Though because the A’s confirmed this yr, these kinds of timelines are usually extra fluid than the “deadlines” recommend.
Let’s say someplace alongside the way in which, the St. Petersburg stadium falls by. Would Tampa be a viable choice?
As it stands, no. The Rays have explored stadium choices in Hillsborough County prior to now, just for the efforts to fail.
Hillsborough voters renewed a half-cent gross sales tax in November, however the expectation is that cash for the stadium will probably be earmarked for the NFL’s Buccaneers, whose lease at Raymond James Stadium runs out in 2028.
If, for some motive, Pinellas County is off the desk, maybe Hillsborough and town of Tampa would take a unique tack with the Rays. For now, although, so long as the stadium deal stays in place, the staff shouldn’t be permitted to interact with different municipalities. It’s a leverage level that theoretically pushes the Rays towards a deal, as a result of with out the power to hunt choices outdoors of Pinellas, terminating the settlement would include further threat.
In that case, would Sternberg search to relocate the staff?
He did inform the Times in mid-November that relocation “shouldn’t be an unlikely conclusion.” Whether Sternberg would promote the Rays to somebody pledging to maintain the staff within the Tampa Bay space, proceed proudly owning the staff if it moved or promote it to a brand new proprietor who plans to relocate all stays unknown.
Would MLB house owners allow them to relocate?
Maybe. The Rays’ makes an attempt to construct a brand new stadium have lasted 17 years. The same failure to safe a stadium in Oakland led to MLB greenlighting the transfer of the A’s to Las Vegas. Owners view the Tampa Bay market favorably, so the choice is for an MLB staff to stay there — one thing bolstered by Manfred’s efforts.
At least 23 of the league’s 30 house owners have to vote in favor of a possible transfer.
What can be the almost certainly locations if the Rays do transfer?
The usual suspects: Nashville, Tennessee; Salt Lake City; Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Raleigh, North Carolina. Don’t neglect Montreal. In 2019, the Rays acquired permission from MLB to discover splitting its house video games between the Tampa Bay space and Montreal. In January 2022, the MLB government council killed the proposed plan.
How would the Rays transferring affect MLB’s future enlargement timeline?
They’re inextricably tied. Manfred’s dedication to maintaining baseball within the Tampa Bay space would both entail maintaining the Rays on the town now or approving their transfer to a brand new metropolis and providing an enlargement franchise when baseball decides to go from 30 to 32 groups.
The league has not taken any formal steps to develop. Manfred has lengthy stated that he needs the A’s and Rays’ stadium points taken care of earlier than the league strikes to develop. Considering how rapidly what seemed just like the Rays’ triumph of a stadium deal turned imperiled, the will for readability appears to be like increasingly warranted.
