After more than a month of delays, the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners voted on Tuesday in favor of approving funding for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The vote was 5-2 in favor, with commissioners Dave Eggers and Chris Latvala voting yes, overcoming their previous skepticism. This vote followed two separate votes to delay in previous county meetings. The yes vote also comes after the St. Petersburg City Council voted to approve funding earlier this month.
A $1.3 billion deal was ratified in July to fund a new stadium for the Rays, though two hurricanes in October made the Rays’ Tropicana Field venue unplayable. As a result, it forced the Pinellas County commissioners to delay the vote on approving the bonds.
The question now becomes if the Rays still want to move forward with the deal, after stating last month that it was all but dead. The team has stated publicly that the delayed funding has added costs to the July stadium deal. And, in the process, created contention with local officials who feel that trust between the parties has been lost.
Latvala said his switch came from a conversation with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
“While I do not trust the owner of the Rays, I trust Mr. Manfred,” Latvala said. “He is the reason I am voting yes.”
He later encouraged owner Stu Sternberg to sell the team to a more local owner, who Latvala said would be more committed to the franchise’s success.
Commissioner Vince Nowicki voted against the deal, but said he hoped the Historic Gas Plant District development would include a sizable convention center, while acknowledging his position on the larger vote would lose.
The cost overruns would be the Rays’ responsibility, which is potentially at the heart of the issue as things move forward. The approved bonds do place more onus back on the Rays, who were not present at the meeting. It remains unclear if they’ll go through with the deal, or a new timeline on construction.
“It was unsurprising to see the Commissioners acknowledge how important the Tampa Bay Rays and our stadium development agreement are to this community and its citizens,” Rays president Matt Silverman said in a statement. “As we have made clear, the County’s delay has caused the ballpark’s completion to slide into 2029. As a result, the cost of the project has increased significantly, and we cannot absorb this increase alone. When the County and City wish to engage, we remain ready to solve this funding gap together.”
Stadium consultant David Abrams was in attendance to answer the commissioners’ questions and confirmed the validity of Latvala’s skepticism that a month of delays would create a cost increase of more than $100 million to the project, as has been alluded to.
“Thirty days would not create this gap that perhaps people have been talking about,” Abrams said. “Every transaction that’s happening across the United States in the sports space that is construction, has been experiencing increased costs. It’s generally because costs are going up.”
If the Rays pull out of the deal, their options would be to re-negotiate or repair Tropicana Field and renew the lease, which is set to expire after 2027. They could also look to move the team to a new city entirely, though they’d run into the same need: building a new stadium.
Said commissioner René Flowers shortly before the vote: “All eyes will now be watching if the Rays uphold their part of the deal.”
(Photo of Tropicana Field in 2008: Doug Benc / Getty Images)
