What to know about the Rays ballpark deal drama
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A rendering of the new Tampa Bay Rays stadium and redeveloped Historic Gas Plant District. Rendering: Courtesy of Hines/Tampa Bay Rays
Hurricanes and politics may have tanked plans for a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark on the site of Tropicana Field.
Why it matters: Whether baseball is "here to stay" is a lot murkier than it looked a few months ago.
Catch up quick: Both Pinellas County commissioners and St. Petersburg City Council members in July approved plans for a $1.3-billion ballpark and redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District, a historically Black neighborhood that was razed decades ago to build the Trop.
- Votes on bonds to finance the deal were delayed by the hurricanes, which also hit the Rays in a more tangible way: Category 3 Milton's powerful winds ripped the roof off the Trop.
- County commissioners were set to vote on the bonds again Oct. 29, but uncertainty over where the Rays would play next season, coupled with hurricane damage that forced reflection of the county's budget priorities, led commissioners to kick the vote down the road again.
What they're saying: That irked team owner Stuart Sternberg, who told the Tampa Bay Times the delay "upended our ballpark agreement" and "sent a clear message that we had lost the county as a partner."
- "The future of baseball in Tampa Bay became less certain after that vote," he told the paper.
Meanwhile, the Nov. 5 election changed the board's makeup. Voters ousted incumbent Charlie Justice, a proponent of the deal. Janet Long, another Rays supporter, retired, leaving her seat up for grabs.
- Taking over their spots on the commission are Chris Scherer and Vince Nowicki, who could join forces with deal skeptics Dave Eggers and Chris Latvala to tank the deal, the Times reported.
Finally, last week, the Rays announced that they would play next season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
- The decision to go with a site across the bay, rather than at stadiums in Clearwater or Dunedin, ruffled some Pinellas County feathers.
What's next: The bond vote goes before the county commission again today, but it will likely be delayed — again.
- "We need to push the vote back," commission chair Kathleen Peters told Axios on Friday. "There's too much information that we still need to look at."
Between the lines: Chief on the county's priority list is revitalizing Pinellas' battered coastline.
- Efforts to add more sand to the beaches through a process known as renourishment have stalled in a stalemate with the federal government, which normally splits the steep cost with the county.
- County officials are planning their own renourishment project, which would cost millions of dollars from the same pot of tourism bed tax dollars that the county's share of the ballpark funding would come from.