The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of funding $312.5 million value of bonds Tuesday evening. What seems 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 20 years making an attempt to construct a brand new ballpark — has discovered itself in jeopardy. And it began Oct. 29.
Lower than three weeks after Hurricane Milton tore via the roof of Tropicana Area and prompted 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 become a large number when the fee postponed the vote. Whereas commissioners mentioned the delay stemmed from eager to know the place the Rays would play in 2025 (in mid-November they might title George M. Steinbrenner Area, the New York Yankees’ minor league stadium outdoors of Pinellas County in Tampa, as their new short-term residence), 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 mentioned, would delay opening the stadium till 2029, as a substitute of 2028 as deliberate. The additional building prices, the staff mentioned, can be extreme. One of many county commissioners, Chris Latvala, informed the Tampa Bay Instances that the Rays put the fee at $200 million. To finish the mission, the Rays mentioned, they would wish extra monetary help from their companions within the mission, Pinellas County and the town of St. Petersburg, the place the brand new stadium would reside, on the identical web site because the Trop however with a multibillion-dollar improvement surrounding.
Main 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 evening, he informed the Instances, 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 right this moment helps set the wheels in movement for a brand new proprietor and a brand new period of the Tampa Bay Rays.”
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One other commissioner, Rene Flowers, framed the vote as a name for the Rays to point out their dedication as effectively. 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 Instances: “All eyes will now be watching to guarantee that the Rays uphold their a part of this deal.”
The place does it go from right here? Here is all the things it’s worthwhile to find out about the place the mission stands, what the way forward for Tropicana Area seems to be like and whether or not the Rays might discover one other residence.
What stands between the Rays and getting a brand new ballpark in St. Petersburg?
Apart from politics and cash? Oh, not a lot.
Definitely the messy starting of the partnership doesn’t portend higher relations going ahead. But when the edges can discover settlement on numerous points — particularly the “funding hole” the Rays say the fee brought on by the delay and the way the Trop suits into the long run — a brand new stadium stays doable. St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch stands firmly behind the mission, however Flowers mentioned Tuesday she was in opposition to the fee giving any extra money.
After Tuesday evening’s vote, Rays president Matt Silverman issued an announcement saying: “It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how vital the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium improvement settlement are to this neighborhood and its residents. As now we have made clear, the County’s delay has prompted the ballpark’s completion to slip into 2029. Because of this, the price of the mission has elevated considerably, and we can’t take up this improve alone. When the County and Metropolis want to interact, we stay prepared to unravel this funding hole collectively.”
What’s the timeline for deciding whether or not a brand new stadium will occur?
To ensure that the bonds to be bought, the Rays should meet numerous situations. On the forefront is the staff exhibiting it has the cash to cowl its obligation on stadium prices. The staff has till March 31, 2025, to fulfill the situations. MLB is predicted to present the staff a $100 million mortgage, and the Rays have expressed confidence they’ve the financing for the rest of the cash.
What’s the standing of Tropicana Area, 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 nearly as good because the Rays, remodeled in a single day into the lasting picture of the harm the storm wrought.
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St. Petersburg is obligated to restore the stadium. Town estimated it could achieve this in time for the 2026 season for $55.7 million. On Wednesday, the 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. A part of the calculus going ahead is whether or not the events proceed with rebuilding the Trop or think about 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, might the Rays simply play at Steinbrenner Area till then?
Extremely unlikely. The Rays are treating Steinbrenner as a stopover, not in contrast to how the Athletics are utilizing one other minor league stadium, Sutter Well being Park, to arrange store earlier than their deliberate transfer to Las Vegas in 2028.
It isn’t simply the climate considerations — the mix of utmost warmth and rain in the summertime that, accordingly, have the Rays on the street for 35 of 48 video games between July 4 and the tip of August. Deposing a minor league affiliate of a corporation in the identical division is solely one thing that is not prone to be agreed upon for an prolonged time frame.
The place would the Rays play, then?
Good query. Would MLB give them permission to moonlight in a possible enlargement metropolis? May they discover someplace to play in Pinellas County for 3 extra years? Is Omaha, which the Wall Road Journal reported might host the Rays, actually a chance? It is all unknown. Simply as vital as the subsequent few years is what comes after that. The aim is for the Rays to know the place they are going to be in 2028 and 2029 as early as 2026. Although because the A’s confirmed this yr, these kinds of timelines are usually extra fluid than the “deadlines” recommend.
To illustrate someplace alongside the way in which, the St. Petersburg stadium falls via. Would Tampa be a viable possibility?
Because it stands, no. The Rays have explored stadium choices in Hillsborough County previously, just for the efforts to fail.
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Hillsborough voters renewed a half-cent gross sales tax in November, however the expectation is that cash for the stadium might be earmarked for the NFL’s Buccaneers, whose lease at Raymond James Stadium runs out in 2028.
If, for some cause, Pinellas County is off the desk, maybe Hillsborough and the 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 just isn’t permitted to have interaction with different municipalities. It is a leverage level that theoretically pushes the Rays towards a deal, as a result of with out the flexibility to hunt choices outdoors of Pinellas, terminating the settlement would include extra danger.
In that case, would Sternberg search to relocate the staff?
He did inform the Instances in mid-November that relocation “just isn’t an unlikely conclusion.” Whether or not 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?
Perhaps. The Rays’ makes an attempt to construct a brand new stadium have lasted 17 years. An analogous failure to safe a stadium in Oakland led to MLB greenlighting the transfer of the A’s to Las Vegas. House owners view the Tampa Bay market favorably, so the choice is for an MLB staff to stay there — one thing strengthened by Manfred’s efforts.
A minimum of 23 of the league’s 30 house owners must vote in favor of a possible transfer.
What can be the probably locations if the Rays do transfer?
The standard suspects: Nashville, Tennessee; Salt Lake Metropolis; Charlotte, North Carolina; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Raleigh, North Carolina. Do not forget Montreal. In 2019, the Rays obtained permission from MLB to discover splitting its residence video games between the Tampa Bay space and Montreal. In January 2022, the MLB govt council killed the proposed plan.
How would the Rays shifting affect MLB’s future enlargement timeline?
They’re inextricably tied. Manfred’s dedication to retaining baseball within the Tampa Bay space would both entail retaining 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 mentioned that he desires the A’s and Rays’ stadium points taken care of earlier than the league strikes to develop. Contemplating how shortly what regarded just like the Rays’ triumph of a stadium deal turned imperiled, the need for readability seems to be increasingly more warranted.
