There\u2019s still no deal for a new Rays stadium as leaders question the cost to taxpayers and an economist challenges projected benefits.<\/p>\n
TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A proposed billion-dollar deal for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium remains unresolved, as county leaders say the team will have to make concessions and questions grow about the impact on taxpayers.<\/p>\n
As negotiations continue, the central issue is the long-term financial burden of a plan that relies on more than $1 billion in public funding.<\/p>\n
County leaders have already warned the request would be unprecedented.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver $1 billon and would exceed any comparable request from for professional sports facility by a local government that we are aware of,\u201d County Administrator Bonnie Wise said.<\/p>\n
Supporters point to an economic impact study projecting approximately $75 billion in economic output over 30 years. But even the consultants behind that analysis acknowledged limitations.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly if we were given more detail, there would be a greater level of accuracy in terms of what they\u2019re planning, but those details are currently missing,\u201d said Dillon Gilman of AECOM, which prepared the economic impact report.<\/p>\n
That uncertainty is fueling skepticism from some economists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not credible whatsoever,\u201d said J.C. Bradbury, an economist and vocal opponent of taxpayer-funded stadiums. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t match any research. Economists have been studying economic impacts of stadiums for 50 years, and they consistently find sports events don\u2019t generate large economic impact.”<\/p>\n
He also questioned who would ultimately benefit financially.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might say, ‘Well aren\u2019t we going to get a baseball stadium out of it?’ Well, yeah \u2014 but most of that money is going to be going to someone else and you\u2019re going to be a lot poorer for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Others are raising concerns about the structure of the deal itself, particularly the risk to public funds if revenue tied to the project declines.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if the debt revenue goes down such as we enter a depression and we\u2019re paying, we\u2019ve already bound that money, then the existing projects that we already agreed to would no longer be able to be completed,\u201d Hillsborough County Commissioner Joshua Wostal said.<\/p>\n
Wostal is proposing an alternative funding model that would pay the Rays over time rather than upfront, using tourist development tax dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI basically offered them 100% of what they said they need from me, so I think there\u2019s a path forward. We entered into an agreement with the Tampa Bay Lightning just a few weeks ago, and it\u2019s the exact same deal except instead of 15 years, it\u2019s 35 years and it\u2019s a 50\/50 handshake,\u201d Wostal said. \u201cIt would simply be you pay the bill, show us the receipt and we\u2019ll reimburse you for 50 percent.”<\/p>\n
However, county leaders say the Rays have already rejected that type of approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to note the Rays have indicated they need the local public funding upfront, and by upfront we mean the construction period, the first three years, opening in 2029,\u201d Deputy County Administrator Greg Horwedel said at Thursday’s county workshop.<\/p>\n
Wostal told 10 Tampa Bay News he would like to put the issue to voters.<\/p>\n
“In my opinion it needs to go to a vote. For the single-largest taxpayer funded initiative in the history of the county, the voters should just be able to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in November,” Wostal said.<\/p>\n
But the Rays have made it clear they are on a tight timeline, with a goal of opening the new stadium in 2029.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For now, negotiations are ongoing, with key decisions expected in early May.<\/p>\n
Tampa City Council is set to hold a public workshop May 6, with the city and county potentially voting on a deal that same week.<\/p>\n
10 Tampa Bay News reached out to the Rays for comment but they declined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s still no deal for a new Rays stadium as leaders question the cost to taxpayers and an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-677985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116422713265202323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}