The Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commission have approved agreements clearing the way for a $2.36-billion Tampa Bay Rays ballpark, advancing the planned 30,000-seat stadium tset for a 21.5-acre site a the Hillsborough Community College Dale Mabry campus.
The council voted 4-3 on Aug. 27 to approve the agreements, and the Hillsborough County Commission followed the next day with a 5-2 approval. Meetings of both regulators drew hours of public comment ahead of the votes, with speakers split between support for promised jobs and investment and opposition to using public money for a private sports venue.
“I’m all for a stadium, but not at the expense of all of us,” one Tampa business owner told commissioners. “It doesn’t make sense.”
Other speakers argued that the county’s community investment tax was never intended for stadium financing, and pointed to the deal’s required demolition of eight Hillsborough College buildings on the college-owned stadium site. They also questioned the plan to close the county’s only youth detention center to make way for the district. Supporters countered that the project would bring construction jobs and long-term tourism revenue, with some speakers pressing for guarantees on minority-business participation modeled on the recent University of South Florida stadium contract.
Team CEO Ken Babby credited both governing bodies for finalizing a deal that was years in the making, framing the vote as a turning point for the franchise’s future in the region.
“The Tampa Bay Rays enthusiastically thank and applaud the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners for making history,” said Babby following the vote.
Public money covers up to $876 million of the project, split between an $80-million contribution from Tampa, paid out through 2029, and roughly $796 million from the county, funded through a mix of tourist development tax bonds, community investment tax revenue and federal disaster-recovery dollars set aside for stormwater work. StadCo, a subsidiary of Florida Baseball Partners LLC, is on the hook for the rest—an estimated $1.37 billion—along with any cost overruns.
The team plans to break ground next month on the project site, which will transfer to StadCo under a ground lease before eventually passing to county ownership. AECOM Hunt and Turner Construction have been selected as the construction team. The project is set for completion in March 2029, ahead of the team’s lease expiration at Tropicana Field in St, Petersburg following the 2028 season.
StadCo has three years to line up its funding and four years to lock in construction contracts and financing, or the agreement automatically ends.
Source: www.enr.com
